Crumbling DB4 'once in a lifetime opportunity'

A young Formula 1 engineer is painstakingly bringing a 1960 Aston Martin back to life after it spent 40 years crumbling away in a collapsed garage.

The DB4, which suffered water damage, rotten components and missing pedals, is now being restored by 23-year-old Edward Crossley, from Kineton.

His father bought the vehicle for £145,000 at a Bangers & Cash auction, but the car could be worth more than £450,000 after restoration.

Crossley, who is a Mechanical Design Engineer with the Williams F1 team, is working with a team of young engineers and students from the University of Birmingham on the project.

People can see their progress at the Practical Classics Car Show at the NEC this weekend, where it will be on display.

"We stumbled across this car and thought it's a once in a lifetime opportunity to come across a car this rare and unique, and especially in this condition," Crossley said.

With his father's sponsorship, he also founded Crossley Motorsport, providing opportunities for young engineers, who are working on the Aston Martin.

Crossley said: "We're all about inspiring the younger generation to pick up a spanner, get involved with classic cars and restoration.

"We want to use this Aston Martin restoration as a means of doing that - we're documenting it all on YouTube and hopefully younger guys and girls will watch this, pick up a spanner and start tinkering."

Sam Wilson was studying with Crossley at the University of Birmingham last year when Crossley sent him a photo of the Aston Martin, realising it was their next project.

Wilson is head of mechanics for the project.

"The first look in person was - it's even worse in person," Wilson said.

"Missing a prop shaft, a pedal box, it's missing the footwell. It's still got the old owner's trousers in the back.

"But it just felt very raw, very real - people don't think we're actually going to be able to restore this so that's where the love for it comes for us."

Crossley added: "It is bad. The front of the car is definitely far worse than the rear, because that's where the roof of the garage had collapsed on to it - there were trees growing through it when they recovered it.

"The front quarter of the chassis is completely rotted, there's nothing left really. The suspension mounts, they're all rotted through.

"When we started taking the suspension components off the car some of them did just fall off in our hands."

The project is expected to take two years, with the team mostly working at weekends.

But while the car is estimated to be worth £450,000 once it is restored, Crossley does not intend to sell it.

"We're not going to sell the car. We're going to use the car, drive it, take it out at the weekend, have fun in it," he said.

"So for us it's invaluable in a way because the amount of memories and stories we're going to build recreating this car and hopefully the people we're going to inspire, it's going to be worth so much for us, no amount of money could come close."

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