Aston Martin DB4 GT: driving the £1.5m recreation of a classic

All have been sold, despite a price tag of £1.5 million before taxes and options.

Buyers are getting what is pretty much a clone of the original Lightweight GT, built using the same materials and techniques as the original, but with some subtle improvements as well. Aston Martin’s Works division scanned several original DB4 GTs and used hundreds of blueprints to create plans for the new one. Some original suppliers were contracted to produce parts again, including Italian company Borrani for the wire wheels.

This research also uncovered flaws, with Paul Spires, Works’ commercial director, admitting that the original DB4 GT chassis were all made with a slight kink that has been corrected. Tolerances are tighter, and the prototype’s immaculate paint finish looks far crisper than the finish I suspect the original cars would have left the factory with. Spires reckons that Works has put about 4500 hours of effort into each car. That figure excludes the chassis and engine, which are built by suppliers.

This isn’t an attempt at a made-better restomod. The only changes that have been made are safety related, and are effectively the same as those you would find in an original DB4 GT used for historic racing.

There’s a full roll-cage, modern bucket seats with six-point harnesses and both a fire extinguisher and battery cut-off. There’s also an FIA-spec fuel bag inside the tank to reduce the risk of leakage. It’s obvious within half a lap that the combination of Silverstone’s slick surface and skinny period-spec rubber means there’s little grip, but the fundamentals are all good. The Continuation has been given a brawnier 4.2-litre straight six in place of the original 3.7-litre, with the rear axle struggling to find sufficient traction to deploy anything like its peak of 331bhp, even on the straights.

In corners the limits feel very low, the DB4 GT slithering into ungainly understeer at what feels instinctively like a very modest pace in Becketts. But it’s my technique that’s at fault, rather than the car. The DB4 GTis a sensitive beast and needs to be gently shepherded towards an apex, with power then fed in sensitively. It’s fastest at the edge of power oversteer, although the slippery conditions make judging the balance a challenge. Small wonder so many pictures of the originals racing show four-wheel drifts.