old-days-better posted this shot of a victimized Aston-Martin DB5, along with this brief but succinct comment:
Vauxhall Astra crosses a junction on a red signal and hits DB5.
The only good thing I can think of to add is that it appears that the driver of the DB-5 was mostly spared.
If this were a more pedestrian vehicle, the joking “that will buff right out” comment would be applied. I hope this one can be repaired, because it does HURT to see this!!
The driver was shaken, not stirred.
HA!
Astons Aren’t Forever?
it appears that the driver of the DB-5 was mostly spared.
Good thing Q installed that ejector seat.
HA!
(*5 minutes earlier from ‘Q’) “Now don’t mess this one up, 007….”
I can’t unsee this. 🙁
It was a right hand drive, so the driver should be OK if he was using seat belts. The damage is far worse than it was on my CTS. I doubt that the car will ever be the same.
A good argument to show ’em, don’t drive ’em. What a crime.
“Bondo, James Bondo”
“Do you expect me to talk?”
“No, Mr. Bondo, I expect you to dry! Then be buffed out to a nice smooth finish and repainted. I think you’ll look pretty good when we’re all done.”
Agent Double-Oh Seven, “Licensed to fill.”
HA!
You’ll shoot your eye out kid.
You’d like to take the driver of the Vauxhall and send him for six months of drover training whether or not he wishes. What a shame! It is good that the driver was not hurt much. As for the car never being the same, GREED unfortunately.
I know it’s just a typo, but it’s sounds like the guy in the Astra is probably better suited to being a drover. He certainly wasn’t much of a driver.
Ouch. The good news is that this car is sufficiently valuable that it will certainly be rebuilt to as new or better. 1451/R sold for over $500k a couple of years ago in similarly trashed condition *and* in need of a full restoration -> http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/21900/lot/216/.
Since this car is already in the UK, it’s probably easiest to send it to the Newport Pagnell factory “Heritage Centre” where they can create new panels on the original bucks. Unless the car was a perfectly preserved original (unlikely), what the owner gets back will probably be better than what he started with.
I agree, as painful as that looks, the rarity and value of the car means it will most likely be back on the road again.
It’s a lot more painful when I see this happen to a cool old car where I know it’s almost certainly the end of the line for it.
I think you’re right; this car will be restored for sure. As you say, though, if this was a pristine Fairmont, early Seville, or RX-7 it’d be junked, regardless of rarity. Depressing thought.
Exactly. These are money is no object cars to very wealthy owners or prospective owners, it’ll be fine. As mentioned, the cars that are painful to see in compromising conditions such as this are the ones that we most often talk about on this site. Very trivial damage tends to total out cars valued under five digits.
It could even more hurting if wrecked Citroen SM opera Fourdoor. Just 9 units were made And I have the same Glory of Aston Martin
Pfft. That’ll buff right out.
I can see it has shoulder belts installed and from the looks of the windshield they were in use, thankfully.
You Only Live Twice.
Oh my! That poor thing is hurt real bad. As others here have pointed out, because of the value of the car, it’s very likely that it will be repaired and restored, but it sure as hell won’t be any easy job. When comes to expert restorations, there’s nothing that time and money can’t accomplish, but this project is going to require a lot of both.
Don’t go too light on the driver’s state of health; he could still have broken a leg, have suffered whiplash of one sort or another, etc — though I certainly hope not.
Otherwise, I’m sick. How could it be that the cost of “repairs” wouldn’t exceed the auction value of another identical DB5 ? Not that that should discourage a restoration, but . . . I’d still want the undamaged one !
Agree and I don’t think that car would ever be the same irrespective of the quality of any rebuild.
As for the driver of the Astra, well I have never supported the death penalty but this makes a case for it!
And that’s assuming it was properly insured (likely, but for the owner’s sake I sure hope so).
As long as the repairs are done by specialized professionals this car wouldn’t bother me one bit. It won’t be the work of a Skeeter’s auto body or some other lowest bidder place selected by the insurance company, where they throw on some Taiwanese fenders and put the car on a frame machine. The involvement of properly restoring cars(which this DB5 may well have had at some point), especially the very common practice of eliminating terminal rust, is every bit as involved as a proper crash repair, more so actually. Done right the car will be better than ever.
The Astra, if it wasn’t totaled out, is the one that will probably never be the same again if it gets repaired.
Whaddaya got against Skeeter’s Auto Body? Them guys is artists with Bondo!
Not pretty, but not terminal by any means. The Superleggera construction definitely makes these a soft shell creature so throw away the crinkly bits, straighten the innards, find new trim parts and panels. Add paint. Job done!
The insurance premiums of mere mortals will rise incrementally to cover the company’s loss and it’s ready for the next round. Specialist insurers are good about these things if my experience is anything to go by. Always claim on your own insurer, leave them to recover from the other party. Never deal with a third party recovery agent. Another difficult lesson learned.
The rocker panels are strait, no roof buckle, no broken glass, cowl under the windshield strait, as said, it will take time and lots of money, but it should live again. Back in the early 70’s a close friend bought a Ferrari 365 GT 2+2. We went up to Reno through the Feather River Canyon (hwy 70) he drove going. We spent many hours at the Harrah auto collection and had dinner after. He asked if I would like to drive on the way back. Yes! This highway is near deserted late night to the next morning. With the high beams and Hellas on I was driving 80-100 mph through the glorious twisties. I inherited a bit of ESP from Mom’s side of the family, and learned to listen and act on it years before. coming up to a sharp blind curve to the right (towering mountain on right 100 foot drop into the Feather River to the left) I felt something was blocking my lane around the corner. I got hard on the brakes and was swerving toward the other lane as we entered the curve, seeing the 11 ton boulder completely blocking the lane I’d been in, but The Ferrari was still not far enough over, the right front fender hit the edge of the boulder ahead of the right front tire a glancing blow, going into a spin, if not corrected would put us in the river below. I yanked the e brake and the spin became a tight 180 which slid us past the boulder, but the drivers side rear fender came to rest against the mountainside with a pronounced dent. We examined the car and found the suspension and steering ok, the lights on the passenger side were out, but for what it could have been, it wasn’t bad. I asked if he wanted to drive the rest of the way home. He said “I would have been driving like you, without that weird ass ESP thing you got, we just died. I can fix the car, didn’t like the red anyway. You drive.” The body was soon perfect and a deep midnight blue. Huge boulders on the roadway kill three to fifteen people every year in the Canyon, Three weeks after our “event” a Dodge van doing 65mph hit a boulder the size we grazed, the three passengers were killed. The picture is “before”
Now THAT is a brush with death. You go over the edge and might never even be found.
The driver hadn’t died, he’ll Die Another Day
The car will be fine; hope the driver is OK.
Actually, that grille looks like it will now fit on my Fusion.
As my old neighbor who loved Model Ts said, if it’s made out of metal it can be fixed.
Looking for possible news of this crash — you never know — I instead found this bit of silliness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvHxqYDWe6M
Watch it and weep. Soundtrack dispensable . . .
Compared w/the damage that Ronan Atkinson sustained in his McLaren, this is just a nick. An expensive nick though. Hope everyone was OK.
Yikes! If I was the owner, I may have suggested to take me first, instead of my car. 🙂
Shaken, not stirred.
As mentioned elsewhere, the Superleggera construction actually makes repairs easier.
These cars were pretty much hand-built to begin with. Everything is fabricated, so can be fabricated again. I’m even willing to bet Aston Martin still has the original bucks from which the body parts were formed. I do know they have a very active restoration department. The owner can have the work done at the factory.
OW .
-Nate