Few sports car manufacturers can claim as much heritage as Aston Martin. It's a brand associated closely with the world's most famous spy but there's a lot more to the story.
From its origins before the outbreak of the First World War, through multiple changes of ownership to providing cars to Mr Bond and Prince Charles, join us for a fun and, we hope, informative, tour through their history.
The company was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford and the first car they produced was named an Aston Martin after one of the founders and a hill climb course near Aston Clinton in Buckinghamshire where they regularly completed.
Production was temporarily halted due to the outbreak of the First World War and the founders both joined the military. Car building resumed in the early 1920's, Bamford having left the company.
Financial difficulty followed and by 1925 the company had changed hands with new owners including one A.C. Bertelli, an Italian born engineer well known and respected throughout the British motor industry and involved with projects including the Austin 7 and racing cars for Woolf Barnato – one of the original Bentley Boys, both racing the cars and owning the company.
Bertelli partnered with Bill Renwick, an ambitious and talented automotive engineer and they set about developing the early Astons, powered by a 1500cc engine. Various touring and sports cars were produced with bodies made by E.Bertelli Ltd, brother of the owner of Aston and renowned for his craftsmanship and good-looking coachwork. His workshops were adjacent to the Aston works in Feltham.
The late 20's saw another change in ownership. Renwick had left to work for MG and the new investment saw Aston produce racing cars which achieved success and drew attention to the company positively during the 1930's. Racing became a staple part of the company's activities and Team Cars of this period remain highly sought after by collectors.
1932 saw yet another change in ownership with investment from the Sutherland family and a renewed focus on marketing and selling the cars to customers. This effort improved the financial position of the company after many years of uncertainty and changes in ownership.
As the decade unfolded, the Sutherland family's investment and influence increased and this led to Bertelli resigning from the company in 1937. They were able to survive primarily due to a talented engineer named Claude Hill who had been with the company for many years. He oversaw development of the cars including further competition cars which were raced at both Le Mans and the Mille Miglia.
The cars produced during this era used a greater volume of bought-in components; their predecessors were notable for extensive use of more bespoke (and expensive) parts made in-house. Commercially, this made Aston Martin more profitable even if for some the quality of the cars was considered to have suffered as a result.
The outbreak of war saw Aston Martin, in common with many manufacturers, join the war effort – in their case, with the production of aircraft components. At the same time, E. Bertelli were repurposed to build fire engine bodies.
Despite forecasts that the post-war years would generate high demand for their cars, it became apparent that the Sutherlands did not have the funds necessary for this investment and the company changed hands again. It was bought in 1946 by a gentleman by the name of David Brown for £20,500 and a new chapter in Aston Martin's history was about to be written.
David Brown Ltd was a Yorkshire based engineering company and Aston was placed within its tractor manufacturing arm. This coincided with a move to Newport Pagnell and the start of its DB-badged series of cars.
This began with the DB2 in the early 50's, followed by the DB2/4 series with motor racing continuing to play a major part in the company's success, starting with the DB3 and culminating with the DBR1, which famously won Aston's only victory at Le Mans.
1958 saw the introduction of the DB4. This was an entirely new design and gave rise to both the GT variant for motorsport, the beautiful Zagato bodied models and led to the DB5 and DB6 which took production through to the end of the 1960's.
This of course included Commander Bond's famous DB5 in silver birch, complete with the requisite gadgets, all put to good use in the 1964 movie Goldfinger. The DB5 made numerous later appearances with 007 at the wheel and trailers for the latest movie also feature this famous cars (amongst other Astons – more of this later).
However, Bond's Aston was originally penned by his creator Ian Fleming as a DB Mk.III from a decade earlier, which replaced his beloved Bentley. Whatever the artistic licencing, it marked the start of a decades-long association between the world's most famous spy and Aston Martin – although we can forgive a brief flirtation with Lotus during the 1970's!
This tale would not be complete without a further change of ownership and 1972 saw the company sold and facing further financial struggles, resulting in the firm being placed into receivership and further sale in 1975.
These struggles aside, this also saw the launch of the “Oscar India” generation of cars. Developed from the DBS of 1967 (intended to replace the DB6 but produced next to this model for 3 years), this saw the introduction of the 5300cc V8 engine. Increasingly stringent emission regulation saw Aston withdraw from its lucrative USA market in the mid 70's but it continued to develop the V8, launching the Vantage in 1977, Volante in 1978 and the William Towns designed Lagonda – with styling that remains ahead of its time even today.
The Bulldog was also a Towns design – a one-off prototype, adding twin turbochargers to the V8 and remaining Aston's only mid-engined car until the Valkyrie, almost 30 years later. This car is currently with Classic Motor Cars undergoing a complete restoration.
If you've read this far, then you'll know that it will be time for another change in ownership and we're happy not to disappoint. 1981 saw Victor Gauntlett take control and this motor racing enthusiast and avid car collector set about rescuing the company once again.
The 80's saw continued development of the V8 models, Mr Bond returning as a customer in 1986 (Timothy Dalton, a pair of V8's in saloon and Volante specification, rocket booster, skies and missiles all part of the options fitted to his car).
Collaborations with Zagato followed, with the oh-so 1980's V8 Vantage Zagato in coupe and Volante form, this car epitomised the automotive world of the era and Aston even returned to Le Mans, with its AMR1 racing at Le Mans in the fearsome Group C category towards the end of the decade.
1988 saw the launch of Aston's first all-new car in over 20 years, with the Virage. This continued with the established theme, being a big, V8 engined Grand Touring coupe and naturally a Volante model followed, plus a brutally powerful and fast Vantage model, which culminated in the V600 model boasting over 600hp and with a top speed nudging 200mph.
The 90's saw the launch of one of Aston's most important cars – the DB7. Billed as an entry level model sitting below the Virage/Vantage, it was designed to introduce the brand to a new type of customer and it also heralded the return of the six cylinder engine – albeit with a supercharger added.
The DB7 marked Aston's first move towards mass production of a car using manufacturing methods and processes similar to many other larger car producers.
We should mention that, by this point, Aston had been acquired by Ford and was part of their Premier Automotive Brand that also included Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover and Lincoln.
The 90's saw the DB7 follow the by-now accepted route of Volante and then the V12 powered Vantage.
The DB7 was produced for 10 years at Aston's new Bloxham factory in Oxfordshire and arguably helped to rescue the company at another difficult time in their history. The Virage continued to be hand-made at the historic Newport Pagnell site.
2001 saw the launch of the Vanquish, Aston's first car to use composite materials within its construction. This model continued in production in various guises until 2007. It was the latest halo model and used a V12 engine for its entire lifespan.
The DB9 came in 2004 and was the first car made at Aston's new (and current) plant at Gaydon in Warwickshire. The design evolved from the DB7 and once again a rather beautiful Volante model followed, together with various special editions including a model to celebrate Aston's GT1 win at the 2007 Le Mans – motorsport remaining an integral part of the company.
Aston launched a new entry-level car in 2005 and revived the V8 title with the smaller and yet still very distinctively styled coupe. Need we say that this car lost its roof and gained a Roadster badge, was given a bigger V12 engine to create a high powered variant – although all coupe models were sold as Vantage models.
The DBS arrived in 2007, essentially a V12 powered DB9 with exterior enhancements giving a much more aggressive appearance and once again provided transport for 007 – this time, Daniel Craig and anyone remotely excited by this prospect was equally underwhelmed by the relatively short chase sequence in the 2006 movie Casino Royale – and winced at the spectacular demise of the car (filmed at Millbrook in Bedfordshire on part of their Alpine handling section – the writer has actually visited this amazing facility and seen the gouges in the tarmac where the DBS flipped over).
Of course, a Volante model followed in 2009 and production ran until 2012.
2008 saw Aston produce the stunning One-77, a run of 77 cars costing around £1.5m each. This amazing 2-seater car made entirely from carbonfibre and using a 7.3 litre V12 engine producing over 750hp was Aston's answer to cars such as the McLaren Mercedes SLR.
2010 also saw the Rapide – the Aston for the family. This is a 5 door lengthened DB11 and continues in production today.
The Virage of 2011 was a development of the DB9; available in coupe and, surprisingly (or not..) Volante variants.
We should probably mention that, by this point, Ford had sold Aston to a private consortium led by David Richards of Prodrive, famed for its motorsport and road car development business and including business interests from several continents.
This coincided with the closure of the Newport Pagnell factory and its transformation to the Works Service facility, offering servicing and restoration to all eras of models and retaining Aston's links to its historic past.
The DBS/DB9 platform saw its final incarnation in the 2012 revival of the Vanquish badge and it represented the pinnacle of this model. Using the V12 engine derived from the DBS and use of carbonfibre it remained in production until 2018 when the current DB11 and DBS models replaced it.
In the interim, Aston once again gave a famous spy a rather special car – this time it was Spectre's DB10; never a production car but inspired the styling of future cars, notably the Vantage series and seen power sliding through St. Mark's Square with, we're told, official permission from The Vatican!
Daimler acquired a stake in 2013 and this led to the provision of engines and electronics by AMG – if anyone was to provide Astons with their soundtrack, we can think of few others who can make a V8 sounds quote like the engineers from Mercedes' high performance arm.
So that brings us to the current models – we have the Vantage, launched in 2018, the DB11 (2016), DBS Superleggera (2018), Rapide and newly released DBX – Aston's first premium SUV and reflecting the way the premium sports and supercar market has evolved in recent years.
They've also continued to surprise us with frankly slightly bonkers one-off runs of cars – the Vulcan of 2015 was a lightweight, track-use only V12 hypercar with over 800hp from its 7000cc V12 engine.
Aston has also announced the Valkyrie – a mid-engined track only hybrid powered hypercar designed in conjunction with Red Bull's Adrian Newey; a mouth-watering prospect and with deliveries expected during 2020 we genuinely can't wait to see this on the track!
The Valhalla will follow and be very similar in ethos to the Valkyrie but road legal.
Aston's future seems assured with the recent acquisition of shares by a consortium led by Lawrence Stroll combined with Racing Point Formula 1 being renamed as Aston Martin for the 2021 championship.
Lockton has been involved with Aston Martin via the Owners Club since 2006; we are proud to be a small part of this company's rich, exciting and at times turbulent history and we take huge pleasure from meetings the owners of these fabulous motor cars.
We hope you enjoyed our feature – we've certainly learned things about the marque that we didn't know before – and if you own an Aston and you'd like to find out more about Lockton and how we can help protect your car, then talk to us today.