Aston Martin follows Jaguar with the Aston Martin DB4 GT Continuation

The Aston Martin DB4 GT (pictured) is to spawn 25 Lightweight Continuation models

The Aston Martin DB4 GT will live again as Aston Martin builds 25 new Lightweight continuation cars at Aston Martin works in Newport Pagnell.

The Aston Martin DB4 GT is going back in to production in Newport Pagnell almost 60 years on from the original cars, with 25 new DB4 Gt Lightweights being built by Aston Martin Works – each costing £1.5 million.

It’s the same plan Jaguar has rolled out to cash-in on its heritage, and just like the XKSS Jaguar is currently building the DB4 GT won’t be road legal as it can’t conform to current legislation.

Some might call it a bit cynical to build so many continuation cars, especially as even though Aston produced 75 original DB4 GTs in period, just eight were lightweights. So there will be three times as many continuation cars as originals.

With chassis numbers following on from the original GT4 GT run – chassis 0202R was the last GT – Aston are calling the continuation cars ‘An unbroken blood line’.

Each car will be faithful to the original, although they will get a better engine, better brakes and be a bit safer too, although Aston reckon that won’t spoil the feel.

The engine will be the same Tadek Marek 3.7 litre straight six, but here it will deliver around 340bhp – about 10 per cent up on the original – sent to the back wheels through a four-speed manual gearbox and limited slip diff.

Paul Spires, Aston’s Commercial Director, said:

Built in our recently refurbished, state-of-the-art facilities in Newport Pagnell, the DB4 G.T. Continuation is hand built in the same location as its illustrious forebears, and marks the return of production to the historic home of Aston Martin for the first time since the last Vanquish S was completed in 2007.
Combining the authenticity of a hand-crafted David Brown era car with sympathetic application of modern engineering advancements and performance enhancements, the DB4 G.T. Continuation is a fusion of classic design and contemporary methods.

Of course, this isn’t the first DB4 GT Continuation car.

The Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato – perhaps the most desirable (and expensive) Aston Martin there has been – has spawned ‘Continuation’ cars twice since it was built (in 1989 and 2000), with the original factory sanctioned DB4 GT Zagato Sanction II cars now worth millions (and the Sanction III somewhat less).

The difference is that just four Sanction II cars were built (and just two Sanction III cars built on existing DB4 chassis), and if you could find an owner willing to sell it probably wouldn’t cost you a lot more than one of Aston’s 25 ‘new’ cars. And it’d be a Zagato too.

Still, if you have £1.5 million to spare, and a new DB4 GT Lightweight floats your boat, it’s time to give Aston a call.

The first customer deliveries will be in Q3 2017.