There is a wonderful and slightly awkward secret at the heart of the modern Aston Martin. For years, the company has cultivated an image of bespoke, blue-blooded, British excellence. The soul of that image has been its magnificent V12 engine. The problem is, this quintessentially British heart isn't entirely British at all. If you scratch beneath the surface, you'll find that its DNA is about as exotic as a Ford Mondeo. //

Aston Martin, now safely under Ford ownership, needed a world-class engine for its next generation of cars. Ford's accountants had a much cleverer and cheaper idea than a clean-sheet design. They looked at their excellent 3.0-liter Duratec V6 engine, found in countless sensible family saloons, and had a thought: what would happen if we just glued two of them together?