Origins & History
Aston Martin was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. The two had joined forces as Bamford & Martin the previous year to sell cars made by Singer from premises in Callow Street, London where they also serviced GWK and Calthorpe vehicles. Martin raced specials at Aston Hill near Aston Clinton, and the pair decided to make their own vehicles. The first car to be named Aston Martin was created by Martin by fitting a four-cylinder Coventry-Simplex engine to the chassis of a 1908 Isotta-Fraschini.
They acquired premises at Henniker Place in Kensington and produced their first car in March 1915. Production could not start because of the outbreak of World War I, and Martin joined the Admiralty and Bamford the Royal Army Service Corps. All machinery was sold to the Sopwith Aviation Company.
Inter war years
After the war the company was refounded at Abingdon Road, Kensington and a new car designed to carry the Aston-Martin name. Bamford left in 1920 and the company was revitalised with funding from Count Louis Zborowski. In 1922, Bamford & Martin produced cars to compete in the French Grand Prix, and the cars set world speed and endurance records at Brooklands. Three works Team Cars with 16 valve twin cam engines were built for racing and record breaking: chassis number 1914, later developed as the Green Pea; chassis number 1915, the Razor Blade record car; and chassis number 1916, later developed as the Halford Special. Approximately 55 cars were built for sale in two configurations, long chassis and short chassis. The company went bankrupt in 1924 and was bought by Lady Charnwood, who put her son John Benson on the board. The company failed again in 1925 and the factory closed in 1926, with Lionel Martin leaving.
Later that year, Bill Renwick, Augustus (Bert) Bertelli and a number of rich investors, including Lady Charnwood, took control of the company and renamed it Aston Martin Motors, and moved it to the former Whitehead Aircraft Limited works in Feltham. Renwick and Bertelli had been in partnership some years and had developed an overhead cam 4 cylinder engine, using Renwick's patented combustion chamber design, and had tested it in an Enfield Allday chassis. It was the only 'Renwick and Bertelli' motor car made. It was known as 'Buzzbox' and survives to this day.
They had planned to sell this engine to motor manufacturers, but having heard that the Aston Martin car was no longer in production they realised that they could capitalise on the reputation of the Aston Martin name (what we would now call the brand) to give themselves a head start in the production of a completely new car.
Between the years 1926 and 1937 Bertelli was the technical director of Aston Martin, and the designer of all subsequent Aston Martin cars during this period, these being known as the 'Bertelli cars'. They included the 1½ litre 'T-type', the 'International, the 'Le Mans, the 'MKII' its racing derivative the 'Ulster, and the 2 litre 15/98 and its racing derivative the 'Speed Model'.
Mostly open two seater sports cars and mostly bodied by Bert Bertelli's brother Enrico (Harry)a small number of long chassis four seater tourers, dropheads and saloons were also produced.
Bertelli was very keen to race his cars and he was a very competent driver. One of the very few motor manufacturers to actually sit in and race the cars he designed and built, the competition no doubt 'improved the breed' and the 'LM' team cars were very successful in national and international motor racing including at Le Mans and the Mille Miglia.
Financial problems reappeared in 1932 and the company was rescued by L. Prideaux Brune who funded the company for the following year before passing the company on to Sir Arthur Sutherland. In 1936, the company decided to concentrate on road cars. Car production had always been on a small scale and until the advent of World War II halted work only about 700 had been made. During the war years aircraft components were produced.
The David Brown era
1958 Aston Martin DB Mark III
In 1947, David Brown Limited bought the company under the leadership of managing director Sir David Brown—its "post-war saviour". David Brown also acquired Lagonda that year, and both companies shared resources and workshops. In 1955, David Brown bought the Tickford coachbuilding company and its site at Tickford Street in Newport Pagnell, and that was the beginning of the classic series of cars bearing the initials "DB". In 1950, the company announced the DB2, followed by the DB2/4 in 1953, the DB2/4 MkII in 1955, the DB Mark III in 1957 and the Italian-styled 3.7 L DB4 in 1958. All the cars established a good racing pedigree for the firm, but the DB4 was the key to establishing the company's reputation, which was cemented by the famous DB5 in 1963. The company continued developing the "grand touring" style with the DB6 (1965–70), and the DBS (1967–1972).
2007—A new era begins
On 12 March 2007 a consortium led by Prodrive chairman David Richards purchased Aston Martin for £475m/$848m. Prodrive had no financial involvement in the deal.[19] Ford will keep a stake in the company (valued at £ 40 million / US$ 70 million). The consortium also consisted of John Sinders, an Aston Martin collector; and two Kuwaiti investment companies, Investment Dar and Adeem Investment Co.
Main article: Asian Highway Network#First Car Crossing
Between June and August 2007, the first east-west crossing of the full new Asian Highway was achieved by Britons Richard Meredith and Phil Colley driving a V8 Vantage. Following the AH1 and the AH5 from Tokyo (the highway’s eastern terminus) to Istanbul at the western end, they drove a total of 12089 km (7512 miles) (at about 250 kilometres per day) before joining the European motorway network for another 3259 km (2025 miles) to London. The objective of the event was to demonstrate the durability of the V8 Vantage across hazardous terrain—and also to publicise the car in China. The exercise was so successful that the company had opened dealerships in Shanghai and Beijing within three months.
On 19 July 2007, the Newport Pagnell plant rolled out its last car, a Vanquish S. Nearly 13,000 cars had been made there since 1955. The Tickford Street factory remains in Aston Martin ownership as the restoration and service department. U.K. production is subsequently concentrated at Gaydon on the former RAF V-bomber airfield. On 4 March 2008, in announcing a partnership with Magna Steyr to outsource manufacture of 2000+ cars annually at Graz, Austria, the company stated
The continuing growth and success of the company is based upon Gaydon as the focal point and heart of the business, with the design and engineering of all Aston Martin products continuing to be carried out there.
Aston Martin has also boosted its worldwide appeal by opening more dealers in Europe, as well as branches in China for the first time in its 93 year history in Beijing and Shanghai. This has brought their dealership programme to 120 dealers in 28 countries.
On 1 September 2008, Aston Martin announced the revival of the Lagonda marque. A concept will be shown in 2009, coinciding with the brand's 100th anniversary. The first production cars should come in 2012.
In December 2008, Aston Martin announced that it would cut its 1850 workforce by 600.
2009—Return to Le Mans
Main article: Aston Martin Racing
In January 2009, it was announced that the company was entering the 2009 Le Mans 24 Hours race as a factory team in the prestigious LMP1 division. After competing throughout the 2008 season with a Lola B08/60 LMP1 Coupe under the Charouz Racing banner, Aston Martin used a slightly modified Lola LMP1 design for their programme, the Lola-Aston Martin B09/60. Three Lola-Aston Martins were entered in the 2009 and 2010 Le Mans 24 Hours by Aston Martin Racing. Aston Martin also competed in the complete Le Mans series with the Lola-Aston Martin LMP cars, starting the season at Barcelona in early April. The 2009 programme got off to an unfortunate start at the pre season Paul Ricard test on March 8 when Tomas Enge destroyed the 007 car in an accident. Aston Martin Racing subsequently took delivery of a new Lola to replace the written off chassis.
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