Test your knowledge: Ian Callum designed the Aston Martin DB9, but which other designer is often credited?

LET’S GET this straight: Ian Callum was the man behind the design of the Aston Martin DB9. It was the successor to another of his designs, the DB7, and his influence on both cars is clear to the trained eye.

Search for and buy your next car on driving.co.uk

When asked how much influence he had over the project, Callum told Car and Driver: “I’d say pretty much 100%, including the interior. Maybe not colour and trim and wood finishes, but certainly the surfaces of the car.”

Despite this, Callum is often not the man attributed to the design of the DB9, most likely because it was completed under the watch of another head of design, after Callum left to join Jaguar in 1999.

Who was the other designer? Scroll down for the answer…

Keep going…

Henrik Fisker, who later went on to create his own car company and produce the Fisker Karma extended-range electric vehicle, is commonly credited with the design of the DB9. However, in truth he inherited the project after the design had been finalised by Ian Callum.

In Fisker’s words (again courtesy of Car and Driver):

“It’s something that happens in many companies—you go in and take over a project from someone else. That’s exactly what happened with both the DB9 and the V-8 Vantage. Ian Callum started the DB9, and I finished it. You can argue about the exact cutoff date and who did what, but I would say the V-8 Vantage is definitely a car that I sat down and had to sketch myself because there was no vehicle at that point other than a mid-engined concept. There wasn’t a clear starting and ending date on the DB9, but there definitely was on the V-8 Vantage.”