The History of Aston Martin Cars

Aston Martin cars have been around for nearly a century. The company has a long legacy of building top quality cars that have found their way into our way of life. Mention the brand name that is Aston Martin and it evokes images of a car that we all want.

Aston Martin was formed in 1913 by Robert Bamford and Lionel Martin.

The two made vehicles for racing events and were inspired to make their own cars through Martin's interest in racing around Buckinghamshire's Aston Clinton hills in England. Over the rest of the decade the two worked on their cars and in 1921 the Aston Martin company entered a competitive race for the first time.

Prior to World War II Aston Martin did not make many cars for public use. The company was devoted primarily to racing. The group entered various racing cars for endurance races like the Le Mans 24 Hours race.

In 1947 the company was bought by David Brown. While the company continued to make cars for racing purposes Brown introduced new cars that would be available to the public in the DB line. The line wouldn't truly get into popularity until 1963 when the DB5 was introduced. This line of cars is still in production to this day and is in its ninth edition.

In the 1960s Aston Martin's popularity took off thanks to Ian Fleming's James Bond films. Fleming gave his secret agent character an Aston Martin car in many of his books. Over time as the books were made into films, Aston Martin has showcased many new cars in the Bond franchise.

Aston Martin was majority owned by the Ford motor car company for a period of time in 1987. The Virage line of cars was introduced around this time. The company would also return to racing in 2005 under the Aston Martin Racing line.

Today Aston Martin cars are available to the public through dealers all over the world. Since 2007 David Richards of the Prodrive engineering group has been the owner of the Aston Martin company. Today the company continues to make Aston Martin cars in new state of the art facilities. A manufacturing plant where workers continue to build new cars by hand and a new car design centre are both located at the company's headquarters in Gaydon, Warwickshire, England.

The history of Aston Martin is one that has been going along for nine decades. This company has made a number of cars over the years and has evolved into a household name. The Aston Martin company is still making quality cars to this day. I for one am looking forward to the day when I can drive one away.