Yes, howver the later engine owed much to W O's design.
Both the twin cam Aston and Jag engines also owed much to the early racing Delage and Sunbeams, too.
For me, both the Jags (I have owned many!) and the Astons were simply classic cars of that era.
Trying to recreate the past is OK, but all too often it's simply the case that the "Skin" as you state, is a sort of lookalike which moves significantly away from the original ethos. And, as again you state, the dimensions tend to be predicated by modern running gear from the clone.
As an example, if you drive an original XK120, in fact, both the suspension/steering and in particular brakes were awful!
The early 3.8 E Type's brakes were equally disastrous!
As were all the E type range in terms of roadholding, in practical terms.
But what a lovely car to drive! I had two: a 4.2 FHC and a series 1 1/2 4.2 drophead.
Which really demonstrates how fantastically able were the guys who raced Jags so successfully.
For me, the original breed of Astons were a sort of combination of brutish growley power, combined with a truck gearchange: but such awesome style.
A few years ago, various small car designers made ugly glass-bodied recreations of a sort of MG 30s/40s style (TA/TC/TD/TF) with a range of pretty horrible engines going from Triumph Herald to BMC rustbucket!
Buyers would have been far better served, IMHO to save up a few more pennies and find a half decent Morgan needing some TLC!
It is possible to recreate an earlier car: as did my old acquaintance, Nigel Webb, the Jag freak, when he built an absolutley slavishly accurate replica of Hawthorn's MK I saloon.
http://www.mike-hawthorn.org.uk/881vdu.php
However, Nigel always was pendantic and worked very, very hard at sourcing all the correct bits for all of his restorations, even 39 years ago, when I first knew him.