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Sir David Brown built a dozen DB5 estate cars for himself and his landed-gentry mates to use when pursuing country sports on their private estates. The story goes that in September 1965, DB called a board meeting and brought his Labrador dog. He plonked him on the boardroom table and said, 'Build me something he can sit in.' The cars were converted by coachbuilder Harold Radford of Hammersmith, West London, whose men simply took tin-snips to the Aston's alloy roof and blended in a new panel that extended backwards to a one-piece rear door, hinged across the roof. The suspension was firmed up at the back, but otherwise the cars were mechanically standard, non-Vantage DB5s, running triple SU carburettors.
Vantage or not, these were the fastest load-carriers in the world in their day, not that a DB5 shooting brake ever carried 'loads' as such: a pair of cocked Purdeys, some dead game and an old copy of Country Life were the heaviest items these cars would ever have to haul. Curiously, the last DB5 Shooting Brakes were not delivered until May 1967, by which time the DB6 had been in production for almost two years.
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