Harold Beach, who has died aged 96, was the engineer with overall responsibility for the design of Aston Martin's most important and charismatic postwar cars. The DB4, DB5 and DB6 helped the firm prosper throughout the 1960s and epitomised everything an Aston Martin should be.

These cars put the firm on the map as the builder of Britain's finest and most glamorous GT cars, helped in no small measure by the familiar silver DB5 which, with lethal additions, appeared as James Bond's car in the films Goldfinger (1964) and Thunderball (1965). Subsequent V8-engined Astons - also conceived by Beach - were larger and, to some, less appealing, although they accommodated changing expectations in luxury and performance. His final task, before retiring in 1978, was to engineer a power-operated soft-top for the V8 Volante model.