: James Taylor
: Aston Martin DB9 and Vanquish The Complete Story
: The Crowood Press
: 9780719843174
: 1
: CHF 30.60
:
: Autosport, Motorradsport, Radsport, Flugsport
: English
: 176
: Wasserzeichen
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB
Aston Martin broke new ground with the Vanquish at the start of the 21st century, having previewed the model with a fully driveable prototype called Project Vantage at the Detroit Show in 1998. The Vanquish became the company's new flagship model, with a sleek and readily recognisable shape penned by Ian Callum that would later be further developed for the slightly less expensive (but no less exotic) DB9. The importance of these two models to Aston Martin went far beyond publicity and the company image. For the Vanquish, a completely new and highly advanced body structure had been created, and this was further developed for the DB9 as the VH platform. Deliberately designed to provide flexibility and underpin further new models, this went on to become the basis of every new Aston Martin in the early years of the century. This book tells the complete story of the DB9 and Vanquish, the models that established a new and successful era for the company that made them.

James Taylor has been writing professionally about cars since the late 1970s, and his interests embrace a wide range of older cars of all makes and nationalities, as well as classic buses, lorries and military vehicles. James has written more than 150 books in all, and among them have been several definitive one-make or one-model titles, including a large number for Crowood. He has also written for enthusiast magazines in several countries, has translated books from foreign languages and delivers effective writing training in both the public and private sectors.

CHAPTER 1

ASTON MARTIN, THE COMPANY

When the wealthy and successful British tractor manufacturer David Brown bought Aston Martin for £20,500 in 1947, he was both indulging a whim and getting a bargain. The Aston Martin company had reached a low point in its existence – so low, in fact, that it had offered itself for sale through a classified advertisement inThe Times newspaper as a ‘high-class motor business’.

David Brown, clearly in acquisitive mood, bought the ailing Lagonda company later the same year for a further £52,500. He merged the two companies into one, renaming it Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd, and setting it up in new premises at Hanworth Park in Feltham, Middlesex, not far from its earlier factory. Here, he had his engineers draw up the first of the new company’s cars. They would bear his initials to distinguish them from those that had gone before, and would become the first of the legendary DB-series Aston Martins.

In Aston Martin, what David Brown was buying was indeed a ‘high-class motor business’, even though it was a small one. The company had developed a formidable reputation as a maker of high-performance sporting machinery, but it had never really made much money, and the disruption of the 1939–1945 war, when the Aston Martin works had been commandeered by the Air Ministry for the manufacture of aircraft parts, had certainly not helped.

The highly recognisable winged Aston Martin emblem is seen here on the nose of a DB2/4 dating from the 1950s.

The original Aston Martin company had been founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin, a wealthy car enthusiast, and Robert Bamford, an engineer. Since 1912, the two had been in business as Bamford& Martin, with premises in London’s Callow Street from which they sold Singer cars and serviced other makes, including GWK and Calthorpe. Lionel Martin had a Singer-based ‘special’ that he raced enthusiastically at Aston Hill, near Aston Clinton in Buckinghamshire, and when the partners decided to try making their own car, the combination of the Aston and Martin names was a natural choice.

The first Aston Martin was another ‘special’, this time with a Coventry-Simplex engine in a 1908 Isotta-Fraschini voiturette racing chassis. By March 1915, Bamford and Martin had their own design ready, and they also had new premises at Henniker Mews in Kensington – but the Great War had broken out a year earlier. Both men were called to serve their country, and all the original Aston Martin equipment and machinery was sold to the Sopwith Aviation Company.

Undeterred, the two got together again after the war, and by 1920 they were in business at Abingdon Road in Kensington. From 1921 the company had its Aston Martin Special Sports in low-volume production, but Robert Bamford had already left. Despite an injection of funds from the wealthy amateur racing driver Count Louis Zborowski, and in spite of some notable successes in major race events, Aston Martin went bankrupt in 1924. It was bought by Lady Charnwood, and staggered on for another year before failing again. In 1926 the factory closed and Lionel Martin left the busine