The ‘Octavia’ is a supercharged, 805bhp Aston Martin DBS with a six-speed manual

“We’ve combined the ferocity of American muscle with the stiff upper lip of English sophistication and motoring,” said Ringbrothers co-owner Mike Ring. “Octavia is beyond anything we’ve built before.”

Welcome one and all, to the wildest incarnation of Aston Martin’s Seventies superhero. And very much not a medium-sized Skoda. It is an old DBS subjected to Theseus's Paradox. A 1971 classic stripped, stretched, beefed up and filled with five litres of pure American firepower.

Choking on your Earl Grey? Over 12,000 hours of hard graft have gone into filling this DBS with Ford Performance’s 5.0-litre supercharged V8, matched to a 2.65-litre supercharger, both tuned for the road and working together to provide 805 American horses. Crikey.

Photography: Huckleberry Mountain

There’s yet more Americana lurking within. It’s hooked up to a six-speed manual gearbox driving the rear wheels, and the entire drivetrain is packaged inside a custom chassis from Roadster Shop. The wheelbase has been stretched by three inches over the original DBS, and the two brothers have fitted an integrated structural roll cage into the body.

There’s independent rear suspension, C7 ‘Vette sway bars, Fox Racing dampers, Brembo brakes, and a bespoke, full carbon fibre body draped over it. It was designed by a chap called Gary Ragle, with “echoes” of William Townsend’s original buried in there somewhere. Ringbrothers said the aim was for “Coke-bottle curvature” via a wider front and rear end.

Naturally the brothers Ring gave the interior just as much attention, lavishing it with carbon fibre and stainless-steel and leather and even a few cheeky nods to That Famous Spy that likes Astons: numerous cameras “to rival even the finest developments from Q-branch”, a dipstick handle shaped like a martini glass, and custom valve covers that read ‘Aston Martini’.

“We asked ourselves, ‘what would an MI6 agent drive on holiday?’,” asked co-owner Jim Ring. “This was the result.”