Final countdown

IF THERE are two nuggets of wisdom I’ve picked up over many years writing about old cars, they are these: the dream and the reality don’t always coincide where classic cars and British weather are concerned, and no matter how many man hours or thousands of pounds have been spent on a lavish ‘nut-and-bolt’ restoration, there’s nothing quite like an original, unrestored car.

Both of these were borne out in a very practical way with our photoshoot of Jaguar Heritage’s famous XK 120, OOF 748. The day started badly, when instead of the shiny new company-issue Toyota hybrid, I chose to use a recently acquired Aston Martin for the journey to Jaguar Heritage’s Warwickshire base. Naturally, since the Aston in question was a DB7, I’d chosen it on the basis of its), you’ll see that this was quite possibly the cheapest Aston Martin of any kind in the country.