Aston DB5 bought for £900 by 19-year-old
Aston Martin Works in Newport Pagnell has just completed the full restoration of a 1965 Aston Martin DB5 that was bought for less than £1000 in the Seventies.
Its owner, John Williams – a welder and garage owner by trade – was just 18 when, in 1972, he set himself the target of buying his dream DB5. Saving hard for more than a year as well as working overtime whenever he could, John gathered the £900 cash – the equivalent of around £15,000 in today’s money – and, in September 1973 aged just 19, set off by train from his home in North Wales to London.
John drove the car up until 1977 at which point it was mothballed when he left the UK for work, ‘Then life happened. I’d had offers to buy her, and times when I could have done with the money, but I resisted and, as my wife Sue said, I’d never get another.’
Work to restore the Aston began in 2022. Aston Martin Works president Paul Spires said, ‘This really is a lovely story. We’re delighted that Mr and Mrs Williams brought the car back to the place where it was built for us to restore it properly.’
John adds, ‘It’s 50 years since I’ve driven it; the experience is unbelievable.’