EIGHT into FIVE

This unique DB5 was created by Aston Martin's Experimental department as a test-bed for its new V8 engine. Peter Tomalin takes the wheel

- Peter Tomalin

This car shouldn't exist. When it reached the end of its working life as a test mule for Aston Martin's nascent V8 engine, it was recorded as being scrapped. Or, as the final hand-written entry in its logbook rather charmingly has it, 'scraped. But somehow it escaped the breaker's yard and, after years spent flying under the radar with a straight-six engine, its significance was recognised and it was restored with a thumping Aston V8 under the bonnet.

That was 20 years ago. NPP 7D has spent most of the time since living a quiet life in Jersey, but it's now back on the UK mainland, where Aston specialist Nicholas Mee & Co has placed it with a new owner who plans to show it at top UK events. And just before it went to its new home it was reunited with one of the men who helped build it and who clocked up thousands of test miles behind its wheel. Bill Bannard was that man, and the stories he can tell about NPP 7D confirm its near-mythical place in Aston history.

Chassis number 001/D/P was the first prototype to be built at Newport Pagnell after Aston Martin shifted such operations from its old base at Feltham. It was 1966 and the Tadek Marek-designed V8 engine had been in development for a couple of years, though it was plagued with reliability issues. Installing it in a road car and clocking up serious mileage would be a key part of the solution. At the same time, the mule would be used to test a de Dion rear suspension set-up, which Aston intended to replace the live axle that had served since the '50s. And Bill Bannard, with his colleagues in Experimental, was responsible for developing and building it.