28 Feb 07
Robinson's rare DB4 is undergoing a £40,000 rebuild
We meet at his large, remote farmhouse in Herefordshire, where he lives with his wife and children and makes a handsome living as a movie screenwriter and author. After a long break from directing, during which he collaborated on his biography, Smoking in Bed (Bloomsbury), he's currently collaborating with Johnny Depp on a film version of Hunter Thompson's novel The Rum Diary. But more about that later.
'It's a shame my car's not here,' he says as we climb into the family Land Cruiser. 'I've got a really rare DB4 Convertible. There's only about four of them left on the planet now apparently.'
The Aston Martin is 'in hospital' undergoing a £40,000-plus rebuild which sometimes wakes Robinson in a cold sweat at 3am. He bought it nearly 30 years ago as a basket case, for the bargain price of £8,000.
'It had been on blocks for 18 years, completely falling to bits. Getting it on the street cost about £15 grand,' he says.
It's probably overdue an overhaul. For the last decade, Robinson's DB4 has lived a hard life, garaged in an old barn, driven around 'like a van', caked in duck shit and up to its axles in mud.
'I have no desire to cruise about in a status symbol,' he says. 'I just like the shape and design of it. But it moves you into an arena you don't want to be in; you know, flash gits. And it's worrying to have. It's probably worth a million quid but you drive to a restaurant and leave it outside in the street. Perhaps I should ask the waiter to serve me in the car.
'When I was a kid, at school, I thought if ever I can get any car I fancied, it would be a convertible Aston Martin DB4. And I finally got one and for years and years I never really bothered with anything else, really.'
