Ringbrothers Perfects the Restomod With Their Aston-Martin-Based Octavia

For most of my childhood, I wanted to be a car designer. I’ve always loved cars, and would flick through magazines, read all eight volumes of “Car Design Yearbook,” and watch “Top Gear” on repeat, but the moment that hit me, where I understood why cars could be so special, was a review that Jeremy Clarkson did for his “Telegraph” column about the 1990s Aston Martin V8 Vantage. The car resembles a muscle car, but it’s made in Britain, with British style, elegance, and a price tag to match. He described it as an “iron fist in a leather glove,” and that one expression has sat with me for almost two decades now. It captured that car so perfectly, and what made it special.Although Aston Martin is most commonly associated with James Bond today, and a certain suave, swoopy elegance established with the DB7, this Mustang-adjacent look originated decades earlier, in the 1970s, with earlier versions of the Vantage and the DBS. They have the long hoods, wide flat grilles, and they look meaner and more muscular than any of the 2000s Astons. They are among my favorite British cars, ever.Ringbrothers Octavia. Courtesy of RingbrothersRingbrothers Octavia Courtesy of RingbrothersSo, Ringbrothers have made the perfect car for me, in their new Octavia. Although Ringbrothers has typically worked on muscle cars and American supercars, such as the Ford GT40 and the DeTomaso Pantera, they have now taken on an Aston Martin. It’s based on a 1971 Aston Martin DBS, features a modern 5-liter supercharged Ford V8 engine with 805 horsepower, and it looks perfect. It doesn’t look as though it was made today, but rather like a Hot Wheels dream of the original car, with a stretched-out wheelbase, flared fenders, and a wide, deep splitter, yet still retaining the original shape of the car. The interior features a beautiful, simple brown leather look with green accents, and all the power is sent to the rear wheels through a 6-speed manual transmission.Ringbrothers Octavia. Courtesy of RingbrothersThere are no power or weight figures, but that’s completely irrelevant. This car is not about beating speed records or about lapping the Nürburgring. It’s for cruising in utter style, with great power and sophistication that can turn aggressive when the moment comes for it. It is the embodiment of the British muscle car ethos, “iron fist in a leather glove.” And if I win the lottery, I know exactly which car I’ll be buying.Ringbrothers Octavia. Courtesy of Ringbrothers

Ringbrothers Perfects the Restomod With Their Aston-Martin-Based Octavia

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