Barnato Bentley? No. Ellway Aston…
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.