Aston Martin Rust Oration

It would appear that Daniel Craig hasn’t made a great impact with the Bond fans. The latest thing he’s being criticised for is not being able to drive his Aston Martin DB5. He can only drive automatics.

I might point out that Michael Caine couldn’t drive at all when he made The Italian Job - they had to get a look alike to drive the pretty Aston Martin DB4 convertible. Give the poor lad a chance!

On the film front.. I bought The Mail on Sunday for the first time ever today. They were giving away a DVD of Zulu Dawn - The film in which i made my movie debut! Along with several other students from Natal University.

So does alcohol if you’re driving.

It is equally important to stay alert in the workshop…

After working a 12 hour day on Saturday packing up the crate to go to Canada, I got up nice and early on Sunday to get to work on ROJ. We are still cutting off body panels and large pieces of chassis that need repairing. It was fiddly, I was grumpy, and the clock was ticking for me to catch my train home.

Working in a confined space with the angle grinder I made a mistake and cut through the wrong piece of panel. It is by no means a disaster, it just brought home the importance of concentration and taking the time to get things right.

On a happier note - I took the opportunity of getting under the OI before Malcolm re-installs the rear suspension and taking lots of photos for reference - I thought this was quite amusing

I don’t think CSI would have any problems identifying the culprit!!!

I just love latin american music.. especially while doing boring mundane tasks like wire brushing drive shafts, so was really chuffed to find some free vibes on the internet to work to…

Batanga Radio

Not quite the same quality as listening to a decent CD through the old B&O, but not bad.

People looking for replacement brake caliper pistons for a V8 might consider Davron who supply stainless steel pistons for slightly less than the price of standard parts from Aston Martin.

Stainless pistons should hopefully last a little longer than the normal chrome plated steel parts which have a tendency to pit after 20 years.

The prices of bits and pieces on these cars adds up. The total cost of new discs, pads, and pistons on all four corners would be about £1,500 (and probably the same again in labour), but then nobody said these cars were cheap.

Now what would THAT look like…

I was on the Isle of Wight last week, being shown round by a couple of charming ladies - one all of 4 foot 12″. When we got to Military Road along the south side of the Island she leant across and said “this is where I usually crack a ton on my trike.”

After picking myself up off the floor of the bus my imagination started running away. What if i used my spare AM V8 engine….

Just a quickie…

Malcolm has had a couple of emails asking for parts and technical advice. Please, if anyone wants bits of my Astons that I no longer need email me at: astonbits@hotmail.co.uk

Anyone wanting technical advice - there is plenty of this at the AMOC Forum along with a load of irrelevant chit-chat and nonsense that will keep you amused for hours!

Never one to shy away from spurious connections, I had a nail-biting dash across country on Saturday to beat a large commercial jetliner flying from North Africa. The objective - to get back to Dulwich from Southampton to meet the chap who bought my Borg-Warner gearbox.

Normally a jouney that would take two hours at most - but I was on…. A Train!! (said with Clarksonesque emphasis)

Four Hours…. Now that is motivation enough to get ROJ back on the road.

Anyway. They say that Aston owners are a barmy lot. Well their wives are even barmier. The chap’s poor charming wife drove from Heathrow to Dulwich, through all the tortuous twists and turns to arrive half an hour after I did. Only then to drive off to Devon with the back of the car weighted down with a large lump of Aston Martin.

I was thrilled to see the gearbox go to a proper home. It was designed especially for the DBS Tadek Marek 6 cylinder engine and therrefore no good for my V8. The car it will be going into is one of only 70 made,
the AM Vantage of 1972-73.

A rare and beautiful machine indeed.

Now, it is just Aby’s chassis to get off to France, and the crate of bits off to Canada, and I can put all my mind to working on ROJ.