In 1999, in the midst of working on this project, Callum was taken on full time by Ford to head up design of both Jaguar and Aston. But when Dr Ulrich Bez arrived as chief executive at Aston in July 2000 one of the first things he did was to bin the idea of a mid-engined car, saying it didn't fit his future vision for Aston. He then asked Callum to look at turning the well-liked, mid-engined concept into a front-engined car instead.

This was an easier task than it sounds and happened quite quickly. The initial redesign met with approval at Aston but was immediately shelved as priorities shifted to creating a DB7 replacement that was to become the DB9. This was close to completion when Callum was moved again, to become solely responsible for Jaguar design, and Henrik Fisker was appointed as Aston design chief.

One of Fisker's first tasks was the unfinished DB9 for which he completely redesigned the interior, as well as a few other details, including the rear lights (which were round at the time Callum left Aston).

Once the DB9 was signed off, the small car project was resurrected by Fisker who set about reskinning it, adding a lot of the design language that had been developed for the DB9. This is the car we now know as the baby Aston, the sublime new V8 Vantage.