Harold Beach, the key engineer behind the pivotal Aston DB4, has died. After joining Aston Martin Lagonda in 1950 to develop the DB2/4, he was promoted to chief engineer on the DB4 in '56 and instigated a new platform chassis to take Touring's gorgeous Superleggera GT body.
Beach also worked with Tadek Marek and Ted Cutting on the firm's dual-overhead-cam straight-six. He stayed up until the V8 Volante.
In his early years he designed the lightweight bodywork for Eddie Hall's '36 Bentley 4 1/4-litre sports-racer while working for JR Engineering.