Get up close and personal with the David Brown Automotive Speedback

The David Brown Automotive Speedback is certainly one of the more intriguing coachbuilt cars we've seen recently -- all the more so because it's a product of Britain, not the carrozzeria hub of Italy.

We just got our first glimpse of the Speedback yesterday, and thanks to this XCar video, we can dive a bit deeper into the car's origins and its many design details (unfortunately, there's no on-road footage yet).

The Speedback, in the words of DBA founder David Brown, seeks to combine the “classic simplicity of the '60s underpinned by a modern platform with all of the functionality you'd expect from a modern car.”

And it does so successfully, from what we can tell so far. Unabashedly retro, it's not exactly a new car from the ground up. Under the Aston Martin DB-esque bodywork lurks a set of more or less unmodified Jaguar XKR underpinnings. This means a supercharged 510-hp V8 and modern niceties like antilock braking. But it disguises its capable origins--and the attractive lines of its donor-car foundation--very well.

We especially like the attention to detail, from the metal switchgear (typically limited-run automakers reach into the parts bin here rather than designing their own) to the foldout rear-picnic seat. The interior is designed to showcase traditional construction methods and materials, but it doesn't do away with modern infotainment trappings to achieve its classic look.

There's no telling how the Speedback will go over with the sort of crowd who can pony up $400,000 or so to have one built, but we like what we've seen so far.

By Graham Kozak