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Writer's pictureStory Cars

1964-1965 Aston Martin DB5 Shooting Brake

As the legend goes, the man Aston Martin named the "DB" series of cars after—David Brown—became frustrated with his company-issued DB5. As an avid hunter and polo player, Brown often found himself aggravated at the lack of space in the roadster. His polo mallets didn't fit perfectly, and his seats showed the signature mark of his hunting dog's teeth.


Brown one day entered a board meeting with his hunting dog, Candy, by his side. He summoned the dog onto the table and turned to his engineers to mutter the words that ushered the creation of the DB5 shooting brake. "Build me something for him to sit in," Brown allegedly said.


Aston Martin, which was busy with the demand of the road-going DB5, ultimately outsourced the creation to Harold Radford, a man who had opened his bespoke coachbuilding firm to build and customize luxury cars. Radford made a total of just 12 examples of the shooting brake conversion, a process that was seemingly limited due to it costing nearly twice as much as a typical English house.




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