1965 Aston Martin DB5 Saloon - A Long Romance – and an Even Longer Restoration
Paul Carrubba, now 60, remembers
seeing the fiesta red Aston Martin in San Francisco back when he was a teenager
and helping out in his dad’s auto repair garage.
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The 1965 DB5 is one among a
panorama of Aston Martins displayed as the featured marque in this Sunday’s
(July 21) 57th Hillsborough Concours d’Elegance on the greens of
Crystal Springs Golf Course. Hours are 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Admission is $30 adults
(kids 13 and under are free). There is a special $75 patron’s ticket, which
includes close-in parking, access to the event’s VIP tent, food and beverages.
“My dad knew the owner of the
car,” Carrubba says. “Of course, as a kid, you would have dreams about owning a
car like this. It went into storage for almost 20 years and I found out in 1983
that they were putting the car up for sale.
“I bought it with the idea that
this would be a ten year project and we would restore it as if she were new --
but ten years became 19 years.”
This DB5, only one of 866 DB5s
built in ’65, has already taken a best in class at the 2005 Hillsborough event.
The sleek “saloon” (by virtue of two small rear seats) is powered by the firm’s
“standard” six-cylinder, four-liter 282 hp engine
Carrubba, himself in the auto
retail business in Silicon Valley, attributes much of the final restoration to
the works of Kevin Kay in Redding, CA, who is one of the
country’s leading Aston Martin
restorers. Since final touches were completed, Carrubba has driven the car
about 5000 miles.
He is a resident of Aptos in Santa Cruz County and is also a long
time Italian car enthusiast who owns a
1973 Fiat Spyder 124.
His DB5 rounds out an Aston
Martin field at Hillsborough honoring the 100-year-old British motor car
company. Other Aston Martin vehicles include a silver 1965 DB5 identical to
that driven by James Bond in “Goldfinger,” a racing 1949 prototype DB2 from the
collection of Marin’s Tom Price (he’s also showing a rare 1961 Zagato-bodied
racing version) , a 1958 DB Mark III DHC, entered by Larry and Jane Solomon,
Woodside, and a rare 1966 DB6 Vantage from Dave and Susan Buchanan of Menlo
Park.
Beneficiaries of the Hillsborough
Concours d’Elegance are Autism Speaks, the 49ers Foundation and the
Hillsborough Schools Foundation.
For information, www.hillsboroughconcours.org
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