Collector of the Week: Beat Walti

Beat Walti sent in an email to share the story of his Aston Martin DB5:

“I owned an Aston Martin DB5 (Chassis 2011R) from 1985 until 1998. In 1985, the DB5 had not reached the cult status it has today- it was basically just a nice old used car. I bought the DB5, which I had repainted old English white with the original black interior, at an auction in Bristol. I even commuted to work with it for a year.

Then, a friend of mine talked me into historic racing and I did the AMOC championship (Class A, street legal, only very limited modifications allowed) for about six years with the car. I raced it all over the U.K. and had lots of fun with the car. It was moderately successful, especially in the wet, where the weight of the car was to my advantage, since all the lightweights couldn’t get the power down.

In dry conditions, the DB5 was really just too heavy to be competitive, with mostly terminal understeer. The best memory remains a first class win in Brands Hatch.

I took the car, which had been fully restored by Goldsmith & Young in England, on countless trips across Europe. Except for a tendency to overheat at the sight of a red light, the DB5 was very reliable and never let me down. It had the exhaust system of an early DB4, so the car made the most glorious noise imaginable. On triple Webers, the power was sprightly but never in the league of a 275 GTB or something similar (the weight issue again!).

While living in Kenya, I sold the car and just recently found out that it is now living with a gentleman in Germany and going through yet another concours restoration.”