Aston Martin

The original V12 Vantage concept was unveiled to guests at the opening of the Aston Martin Design Studio in December 2007. Continuing the marque’s impressive record of bringing concepts through to production, Aston Martin engineers have brought the V12 Vantage to market in an incredible 12 months. Designed for the focused driver, every component of … Read more

In 1956 new rules for the World Sports Car Championship and Le Mans prompted Aston Martin to build a sports racing prototype rather than a production-based car. Designed by Ted Cutting, the DBR1 had a multi-tube chassis, torsion bar suspension and an all-aluminium six-cylinder racing engine, originally of 2.5 litres (to the early rules) and … Read more

The DB3S, introduced in 1953, established Aston Martin as a serious Le Mans contender, racing for outright wins. Frank Feeley’s alloy DB3S body looked much better than the boxy DB3 and was more aerodynamically efficient, if not always very stable at Mulsanne speeds. The DB3S was also lighter, its revised 3-litre straight-six was more powerful … Read more

The next Aston Martin Vantage however – indeed the original Aston Martin V8 Vantage – was cut from very different engineering and performance cloth. It was hailed at its 1977 introduction as “Britain’s first supercar”. It could outrun a Ferrari Daytona in the 0-60 mph sprint, and if pushed to the limit it could record … Read more

Aston Martin started work on the DB4 in 1956, at the same time as the DB Mark III. The key people involved in the development of the DB4 were General Manager John Wyer, Chassis Designer Harold Beach, and Engine Designer Tadek Marek. Every major component in the DB4 was new. The four-seater body was designed … Read more

The Aston Martin DB6 was the first Aston Martin to carry the name Volante – which means “flying” in Italian. It was in fact the last thirty-seven Aston Martin DB5 chassis that were used to build the short-chassis Volantes and were completed between October 1965 and October 1966. Although clearly derived from the Aston Martin DB4 through the DB5, the new model was … Read more

Reaction to the Aston Martin V8 Vantage was predictably enthusiastic, and it certainly generated the right sort of publicity for Aston Martin, though it was the Aston Martin V8 Vantage Volante version which was the mainstay of production at Newport Pagnell. Aston Martin V8 Vantage, launched at the Birmingham Motor Show in 1992, was the second model … Read more