2020 was the year of many things. A certain global pandemic springs to mind, but we'd prefer to remember it for the host of restomods and continuation models that came along, brightening up an otherwise drab year.
During the past 12 months, more than a few marques developed or revealed reborn old classics, from BRM’s Type 15 to the Eagle Lightweight GT. They impressed Autocar’s testers, filled order books, or simply just intrigued, blending the best of the old and the new. As the year comes to a close, it seemed a good time to pick some of our favourite continuation cars and restomods that were developed or driven over the last 12 months.
Aston Martin DB5 Goldfinger - continuation
No Time To Die may have been delayed (twice), but luckily there was no such hold up with the creation of 25 DB5 continuation models to celebrate the film. Q branch - AKA Aston Martin Works - equipped the models with famous Bond gadgets, including an oil spray, a smoke-screen device, fake machine guns and a bulletproof shield. Don’t go thinking that the cars are a gimmick, though. Although the guns are replicas, the DB5s are powered by a very-much real 4.0-litre six-cylinder engine that generates 290bhp and while you can't drive the car on the road, you'll have no issues intimidating villains on track days.
Volvo P1800 Cyan - restomod
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The BRM is sublimely beautiful, along with Mercedes's 300SLR Ulenhaut coupe, for me the most successful interpretations of the long-bonnet look. Quite why everybody raves about the E type styling I have no idea.
They're all gorgeous - Bentley excepted - and amazing feats of craftsmanship, but just gimme the BRM.