McCartney recorded 'Hey Jude' in this Aston Martin
One day in 1968, Paul McCartney was driving his Aston Martin DB6 to visit John Lennon's son, Julian, when a song came into his head. There was a reel-to-reel tape recorder installed in the car's dashboard for moments just like this, so he turned it on and started recording.
This would have been the very first recording of the song that became "Hey, Jude." That Aston Martin is still around, and the carmaker let me take it out for a drive.
Indeed, this nearly 50-year-old "Goodwood Green" sedan was in very fine shape. The smooth wooden steering wheel felt good in my hands. The shifter slipped easily from gear. Fortunately, I'd been in England a few days by that time and had finally gotten used to driving on the "wrong" side of the road and shifting gears left-handed.
The car had a 282 horsepower 4.0-liter 6-cylinder engine and a five-speed transmission. Aston Martin Works, the automaker's own restoration shop, modified the engine so that it's now 4.2-liters and runs on unleaded fuel. It rumbled strongly as I steered into the English countryside. It coughed a bit as I went to higher gears too early, but I soon got into the rhythm.
By: Peter Valdes-Dapena
Source: CNN Money
