Meet the £744k David Brown Speedback Silverstone Edition

Remember the David Brown Automotive Speedback GT? If you need a recap, it’s a highly bespoke and specialised refitting of an old Jaguar XKR, the end result looking not unlike an old Aston Martin DB5. It’s yours, brand new, for over £600,000. Gulp.

If that sounds a little too close to the mainstream for your specialised tastes, though, allow us to introduce you to the Speedback Silverstone Edition. It takes the ‘standard’ Speedback GT and adds some of everything: power, torque, aggression and – of course – cash.

We’ll come to the latter. First, though, performance. While still based on an old XKR, it has a lot more power, its 5.0-litre supercharged V8 being wound up by nearly 100bhp, to 601bhp. Torque is also up around 100lb ft, to 565lb ft.

That its 0-62mph time still registers in the fours, at 4.2secs, tells you how big and plush the Speedback is, while its 155mph top speed isn’t exactly punchy in a world of 200mph-plus supercars. Still, you’re deliberately avoiding the supercar norm by plumping for one of these. Meaning you ought not to be offended by its old-school automatic gearbox with a mere six speeds, either.

The Silverstone Edition also brings a more assertive bodykit and some punchy ‘Afterburner’ 20in wheels, which are about five decades more modern-looking than the wire-spoke rims on a GT. The aerospace theme continues inside, with ‘jet-inspired’ air vents. Wondering what that’s all got to do with Silverstone? Over to David Brown himself…

“Ever since David Brown Automotive relocated to Silverstone, we have wanted to mark the significance of the circuit’s aeronautical and motorsport heritage,” says the company’s CEO. “We have developed Speedback Silverstone Edition to appeal to a new customer; the driver who wants the very best in performance at all times.”

So it’s a special edition to celebrate David Brown Automotive’s new home. There are even circuit maps stitched into the seats, in case you get lost mid lap on a trackday. Just ten Silvertone Editions will be built and, yes, it’s time to address the price. It’s up £100,000, which brings it to £620,000 before tax. Which equates to £744,000.

To list what you could have had for the money – not least a McLaren Senna – would be rather missing the point. If you’re buying a Speedback, you might already have the rest of the supercar elite tucked up at home, too. Still, we welcome your thoughts in the little box below…