We've had the first announcement of the year of a new British sports car company and it's not even the end of January. We like the sound of this one. Speaking to PistonHeads, David Brown (no relation to the one-time Aston Martin saviour of the same name) described the luxury sports car he'll produce as styled to "echo the classic sexiness of the 60s" but with "modern usability, drivability and reliability". He's achieving that by basing it on an existing car currently on sale, but reskinning the exterior and replacing the interior with something more luxurious and exclusive.
Now the question is: what is that donor car? He won't tell us before it's revealed at the end of March, so let's a play a game of guess the motor. He told us this much: it's a British, rear-wheel-drive coupe (with a convertible planned for later) powered by a V8. Over to you.
His inspiration partly came from his ownership of an Aston DB5, which he loves but "got fed up with things going wrong on it".
Details are scarce but expect a retro look
The customer who buys one of the 50-200 cars he plans to build will be in the same position. "They love the idea of classic cars, but don't want something that drips oil on the drive." If you're leaning toward Aston being a donor car, then your case builds on the homepage at www.davidbrownautomotive.com. It might just be us, but that chap checking aluminium panels on the styling buck looks a lot like James Bond actor Roger Moore.
Brown's is a similar business model to the one employed by millionaire-chasing British SUV maker Eterniti which based its creation around a Porsche Cayenne. The two are connected in that former Land Rover designer Alan Mobberley (creator of the original Discovery) was involved in styling both of them.
This is Brown's first dabble in automotive but he's by all accounts a pretty deft businessmen with engineering in his blood. He sold one of his companies, making articulated dump trucks, to Caterpillar 15 years ago, for example.
He says the donor car will be unrecognisable. With all the panels swapped out for bepoke aluminium versions, it'll resemble a "homage" to 60s classics from Ferrari, Aston, Maserati among others. Only those with an eye for ID'ing cars from chassis measurements will twig, he says (our guess is the Jaguar XK, by the way).
The interior is removed to make way for an British sourced mix of veneers, saddle leather and bespoke stainless steel switchgear. The latter have tiny holes to emit light to let you know what they control and whether they're on or off. He says the effect is classy, and far from bling. He tells us this by way of avoiding the question 'how much?', which is also under wraps.
The company doing all the initial preparation is Coventry-based design and engineering firm Envisage Group, which has done work for Jaguar on the F-type. Brown hopes they will produce the car too, although that hasn't been finalised.
The V8 will be tweaked and the aerodynamics sorted to ensure the new paneling hasn't created any buttock-clenching lift issues, but otherwise the donor car dynamics will remain.
The first cars he reckons will be delivered by autumn. We wish him all the luck, as we do to anyone prepared to put in the effort and risk a large amount of cash to improve the richness of Britain's automotive landscape.