Driven by charismatic leadership and inspired by sporting elegance, Aston Martin has long been associated with top performance cars built for racing and road use. With fierce competition from larger companies fortified by greater resources, Aston Martin delivered on their promise of performance and elegance with a unique blend of style mixed with a dash of bravado. When entrepreneur David Brown took the helm, Aston immediately benefited from the purchase of Lagonda, particularly for the sophisticated 2.6-liter, twin-cam, inline six-cylinder engine designed by none other than W.O. Bentley.
Photo: RM Sothebys
As success surrounded Aston Martin, they smartly retained the services of the finest Italian coachbuilders to design and build both production and show cars. The resultant improvements in their cars were immediately evident through the seminal DB series cars, culminating in the stunning DB4; the first truly modern Aston Martin. Licensing the patented Touring Superleggera (Super Light Weight) construction, hand formed aluminum bodies were constructed at Touring and mounted over steel sub-structure. The stunning coachwork was not only brilliantly conceived, it was light, offered beautiful interior appointments, and landmark performance, delivered by the new Tadek Marek designed 3.7-Liter, twin overhead cam engine. Glowing reviews from contemporary motoring press would have been more than enough to secure the future of the DB4, but it would be Aston Martin’s good fortune, just a few years later,, when the DB5 was selected as the mount for fictional secret agent 007, James Bond, the dashing British spy in Goldfinger.
