Aston Martin

Aston Martin is a legendary British company specializing in the production of ultra-expensive sports supercars. It is a division of the Ford Motor Company. The headquarters is located in Newport Panell.
The founders of the Aston Martin brand are called Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford, who in 1914 in the London area of Kensington built a light sports car with a 1.4-liter Coventry-Simples engine on the chassis of the Italian Isotta Fraschini passenger car. The year before, in a Singer 10, Martin won a local race at Aston Clinton Hill, and in memory of this event, the new car was named the Aston Martin.

At the end of 1919, the second Aston Martin model appeared, and its production began only in January 1920 in a new workshop on London’s Abington Road.

Aston Martin’s cars were constantly involved in racing, thanks to which the company gained sports and technical experience. In 1924, Count Louis Zborowski, who provided the company with huge financial assistance, crashed in a race at Monza, and the engineer W.S. Renwick bought the company, which was on the verge of bankruptcy, for 6 thousand pounds. The basis for all subsequent Aston Martin cars until 1936 was the new 1.5-liter engine with an overhead camshaft, which was developed by Renwick and his Italian companion Augusto Cesare Bertelli (Bertelli).

The start of production of the Aston Martin 11.9 HP takes place in 1926.

In the race “24 hours of Le Mans” 1934-1936. success accompanies the model Aston-Martin Ulster.

In 1936, the Speed model appears.

In 1939, the company’s chief engineer, Claude Hill, created the Atom car, which began the history of the DB series cars (the abbreviation contained the initials of David Brown). In 1940, at the motor show in London, Atom made a splash. But the war made its own adjustments.

In 1947, Aston Martin was bought out by David Brown, the owner of a large industrial company manufacturing tractors and agricultural machinery, and in 1948, the first DB was produced based on the Atom. Lagonda also fell into the ownership of David Brown, so their motor went to Aston Martin. A total of 15 Aston Martin-Lagonda DB1s were produced.

In 1950, the DB-2 debuted with a 2.6-liter engine with 105 hp, which successfully participated in many competitions for cars in the 3-liter class.

Particularly noteworthy is the racing modification “DB-3S” with an engine power of over 200 hp, produced from 1953 to 1956. He was one of Aston’s most (if not the most) successful riders. The main sporting successes fell to the share of a special sports and racing series “DBR”. One of the DBR-3s won the 1959 Le Mans and won the Constructors’ Championship. In the same years, several Formula 1 racing cars were built, but they were not as successful as sports cars.

In 1959, Aston Martin introduced the DB4 with an aluminum 6-cylinder engine with a displacement of 3.7 liters with two overhead camshafts with a capacity of 240 hp, developed by designer Tadek Marek. The updated lightweight coupe body had a more elegant and attractive shape. It was the most successful car in the Gran Turismo category among British cars. The imposing four-seater DBS model could reach speeds of 257 km/h, which put the car on a par with supercars.

In 1959, the DBR3 won the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

One of the variants of the DB4 was the sports racing Aston Martin DB-4GT with a streamlined Zagato body, which was released in 1960. A total of 19 cars of this version were produced; all of them have survived to our time.

In 1963, the release of the new DB5 was announced, which differed from its predecessor only in an engine capacity of 282 hp increased to 4 liters. By the way, the most famous of all Bond cars – Aston Martin DB5 can be seen in the films ‘Goldfinger’ and ‘Thunderball’.

Following the Aston Martin DB5 in 1965, the 325-horsepower DB6 was similar in appearance to all its two-seat predecessors, but seated 4 people. He belonged to the upper class and was able to compete with other prestigious models. In the late 60s, more powerful DBS and DBS Vantage models with a 6-cylinder engine were born on its basis, which were later supplemented by cars with an aluminum V-8 engine of 5340 cc, which developed power from 340 to 450 hp.

In 1972, there was a new turn in the history of Aston Martin: David Brown sold it to Company Development Ltd., which put an end to the usual designation of DB models. During this period, the company struggled to assemble small series of sports cars, designated Vantage for coupes and Volante for convertibles. All of them were offered in the most expensive versions with the same 5.3-liter V8 engine with 340 and 390 hp. The first direct injection systems and American automatic transmissions appeared on them.

Since 1976, one of the most extravagant top-class cars in the world, Aston Martin Lagonda, was produced in small series with an elongated wedge-shaped hood, under which the already famous “eight” of 390 hp was hidden. along with a Chrysler automatic transmission. This car was too expensive for a simple man in the street, but in the Middle East Lagonda was very popular. For example, one of its owners was the Prince and Princess of Saudi Arabia.

With the advent of the 80s, the financial situation of Aston Martin worsened even more. Within 7 years, it was bought several times by British and American industrial and financial groups, but this did not lead to significant changes in the company’s affairs. Relative stabilization came only in 1987, when the next owner of Aston Martin was the American concern Ford Motor Company, which bought a 75% stake in the company.

In 1988, the new Virage coupe was added to the core range of Vantage and Volante models, combining the spirit of past models such as the DB4 with ultra-modern styling and a stunning new chassis. Virage offered motorists higher dynamic performance.

In the 90s, under the tutelage of Ford, the economic situation of Aston Martin improved. In 1993, the new sports DB7 was introduced to the public. This model is one of the best machines of the company. In the 90s, the Virage, Volante and Vantage models are still relevant with a significantly redesigned V8 engine with 4 valves per cylinder and positive displacement superchargers, which made it possible to increase its power to 557 hp.

Aston Martin’s successful project at the 1998 Detroit Auto Show was the new DB7. Designer Ian Callum contributed to the creation of the car of the next millennium, which was called “Dream Choice”. The DB7 is produced in two versions, which have already become the standard for Astons – Coupe and Volante.

In 1999, at the Geneva Motor Show, a new brainchild of English designers, the Vantage Aston Martin DB7, was first shown. This is another dream car from the DB7 model series. The new DB7 Vantage was also designed by Ian Callum.