David Brown Automotive Speedback sports classic looks, modern performance

A new 510-hp, V8-powered British sports car has broken cover in London, boasting classically inspired styling, a hand-built aluminum body, crafted interior trim and a $400,000 price tag,

Created by a new company, David Brown Automotive, the Speedback is a prototype built on a Jaguar XKR platform with the aim of delivering a “vision of a classic-looking sports car without compromising modern convenience and features.”

Drive comes from the XKR's supercharged 5.0-liter V8, unmodified and boasting 510 hp and 461 lb-ft, mated to a six-speed ZF automatic transmission. The 3,968 lb. curb weight is very similar to that of the donor car, so performance and economy figures are also similar: 0-60 mph in 4.6 seconds and a top speed limited to 155 mph.

The Speedback rolls on unmodified XKR suspension and tires, so the prediction from DBA is that ride and handling will be very similar to the Big Cat.

Although the company shares the same name as the famous owner of

Aston Martin in the 1960s (and DBA's first product looks more than a little like a classic Aston Martin DB), the two are unrelated. The modern David Brown is the scion of a Northern England industrial family, which once sold an earthmoving business to Caterpillar.

Today, Brown's interests include a microbrewery and a stone-finishing company that supplies high-end building renovations in London's West End.

Brown initially created the Speedback to satisfy his own demand for a sports car with classic styling yet modern features and was then persuaded to market the idea to fellow enthusiasts and lovers of bespoke cars.

“That's what I want in a car, a mix of classic and modern, but it's not something anyone really offers,” he said.

David Brown Automotive
Cars as sculpture: David Brown's business interests include a high-end stone-finishing company, which explains why the Speedback has been rendered here in marble.

The handmade aluminum-panel body has been designed by Alan Mobberley, a Briton who worked at

Jaguar Land Rover for 19 years. Mobberly gave it sweeping curves, a bold chrome grille and a raked-back,

Rolls-Royce Wraithr-style fastback. The fastback conceals one of the Speedback's cleverest features: a two-piece opening with a liftback that hinges conventionally upward and a rear valence that drops to a horizontal position, like a Range Rover.

“Owners can use the tailgate as a seat to picnic off when they are out and about,” the company said.

DBA has plans for a very limited run of cars, which is unlikely to reach 20 cars a year in the most optimistic of forecasts.

David Brown Automotive
The interior of the David Brown Speedback is designed to showcase the best of British craft.

No factory exists yet, but it's in the pipeline, provided enough orders come in to justify it. In the meantime, cars will be assembled at the Coventry workshop of the Envisage Group, design engineers that count Aston Martin, Bentley, Honda and Jaguar as clients.

Jaguar will supply the alloy platform-rolling chassis, complete with powertrain but without a body, from its factory in West Bromwich. DBA says the Speedback comes with full approval of the factory, which has endorsed its engineering and safety systems. The airbags, for example, will remain functional, even though a new body clothes the Jag underpinning.

Legally, the Speedback will be classified in Europe under “low volume-type approval,” the system that allows Morgan, Caterham and others to sell small runs of cars without facing crippling engineering costs.

A major part of the sales drive by DBA will be bespoke trim and paint finishes, with a focus on high-quality, hand-finished British leather, wood and trim materials. “The Speedback is entirely British. That is one of our important offerings, the best of British hand finishing and materials,” says the company.

DBA hasn't announced delivery or lead times yet. These details should firm up in the summer after Brown markets the Speedback to potential customers, starting at the Top Marques show in Monaco in May. He expects customers from all over the globe, particularly the U.S., Russia and China. DBA has no plans for distributors or sales agents overseas.

By Julian Rendell