Customer stories pt. 3: An Aston Martin for the ages

For Nick, however, things took a turn for the worse, and he ended up in hospital with jaundice and pancreatitis shortly afterwards. ‘It was gall stones,’ he tells us. ‘I was in the hospital for 10 days overall, and made friends with a few of the chaps in there. I woke up one morning, and the man in the bed next to mine had sadly passed away. He was only in his thirties. I thought ‘life’s too short’, so I rang this bloke up and told him I’d take the car.’

However, Nick was adamant that he wouldn’t pay the asking price. ‘As soon as I got out of hospital, I went down to see him,’ he explains. ‘I knew that it needed some work on the engine, so I negotiated the price down and he accepted. I underestimated how much work it actually needed though – again, it was my heart ruling my head because I’ve always wanted an Aston Martin!’

The colour of Nick’s Aston Martin is certainly one of the most eye-catching things about it. ‘It’s an original shade, and it’s a very rare colour,’ Nick explains. ‘It’s called Kent Metallic Green. I’ve only ever seen one other Aston Martin in the same colour in all the years that I’ve owned it.’ Nick explains to us that the Aston Martin colours are named after counties. ‘There are shades called things like Cornish Gold and Buckingham Green, although I think they changed it to Prince of Wales Green after Prince Charles bought one. When we had ours re-sprayed the colour match was so good that we actually left part of the internal door un-sprayed. Only someone with a very keen eye would be able to tell the difference!’

A classic keeper

‘I’ve cherished the car ever since I bought it,’ Nick tells us. ‘I’ve entered many concours d’elegance through the Aston Martin Owners’ Club, where it’s won three times and been placed 2^nd or 3^rd about eleven times. It’s won many other trophies, too. At the end of the day, it’s just a beautiful car.

‘Alongside the joy of owning that one, I’ve also had other classic cars such as a 1963 MG Roadster, which was one of the first ones to be produced. It was a one-owner car from new and had only done around 425,000 miles. I had a great friendship with the gentleman who owned it, which was great. He’d used it every day from 1963 up to 2007 and it was still absolutely mint because he’d rebuilt the engine twice. That car is in a private museum in Germany now. I also bought a 1974 Spitfire for my wife; she had one when we got married so I thought it would be a nice idea to buy her a yellow one as an anniversary present, but after a couple of years neither of us were agile enough to get in or out of it!’