MENTION FORD’S Duratec engine – the original V6, not the later confusingly renamed Mazda-derived four-pot – and you’re likely to hear two urban rumours. The first is that apenny-pinching Ford Motor Company created the Aston Martin V12 simply by welding two Duratec blocks together and the second is that the engine was acast-off design picked up by Ford as ashort-cut to creating a new V6 engine.
Neither is entirely true of course. An initial cutaway engine developed as a motor show concept display for the Aston V12 was indeed two Ford V6s hand-welded together, but the
