# The History of Aston Martin | Otto Explains | AutoTronix **Section:** Otto Explains **Canonical:** https://autotronix.om/otto/aston-martin-history **Language:** English **Arabic version:** https://autotronix.om/ar/otto/aston-martin-history --- ## Short Answer Aston Martin began in London in 1913, when Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford decided to build their own cars. After several owners, the industrialist David Brown bought it in 1947, added Lagonda and gave the DB models their name. It changed hands again in 1972 and 1975, Ford took control in 1987, and a consortium of investors bought it in 2007. Listed on the London Stock Exchange since 2018, it is led today by executive chairman Lawrence Stroll and builds its cars at Gaydon and St Athan. --- ## How did Aston Martin begin? With two partners who wanted to build their own car. On 15 January 1913 Robert Bamford and Lionel Martin set up shop in London, in premises that had belonged to Hesse & Savory, where they sold and serviced other makers’ cars, and they traded as Bamford & Martin. Their first car, nicknamed the ‘Coal Scuttle’, followed in 1914: a prototype with a redesigned Coventry Simplex engine on a chassis of their own design. The First World War held it back, and it did not race until 1919. Aston Martin still dates its founding to 1913 and names Martin and Bamford as its founders. --- ## How did the company survive between the wars? Through a series of rescues and owners. Bamford left in 1920, money from Dorothea, Lady Charnwood saved the company in 1924, and after it failed again in 1925 Lionel Martin left in 1926. After about ten years and 60 cars the business passed to new owners, Bill Renwick and Augustus ‘Bert’ Bertelli, and carried on under the Aston Martin name. Racing stayed at the centre: Aston Martin made its motorsport debut at the French Grand Prix of 1922, the ‘International’ model arrived in 1929, and the Ulster of 1934 was shaped after a works racing car. After a short revival under Lance Prideaux-Brune in 1932, Sir Arthur Sutherland bought the company in 1933, and Bertelli left in 1937. --- ## What did Aston Martin do during the Second World War? It stopped building cars. The company made aircraft parts for Vickers-Armstrong and employed around 130 people at its wartime peak. In the background, Gordon Sutherland’s ‘Atom’ prototype, patented in March 1939 and completed early in 1940, tried out a new construction of rectangular steel tubes for the cars that would follow the war. By late 1946 Aston Martin was for sale. --- ## How did David Brown change Aston Martin? He brought money, a factory and a proven engine. The industrialist David Brown bought Aston Martin in February 1947 for £20,500, and in September 1947 he also bought Lagonda, for £52,500, largely for its twin-cam six-cylinder engine designed by a team led by W.O. Bentley. The first car of his era, launched at the 1948 Motor Show as the Two Litre Sports, was renamed DB1 from 1950: DB stands for David Brown. The DB2, first raced at Le Mans in 1949, set the character of the post-war cars. In 1954 Brown bought the coachbuilder Tickford of Newport Pagnell, which became the home of DB production. How individual cars changed the company is left to Otto’s article on the legendary cars that defined Aston Martin. --- ## What were David Brown’s greatest years? The fifteen years before he sold it. The DB4 of 1958 was the first new production Aston Martin built at Newport Pagnell, and in 1959 the DBR1 took the top two places at the 24 Hours of Le Mans for Aston Martin’s overall victory. The DB5 followed in 1963, the year it appeared in the James Bond film Goldfinger, and the DBS of 1967 led to the DBS V8 of 1969, the first car with a [V8 engine](https://autotronix.om/otto/engine-designs-explained) that stayed in production into the 21st century. Sir David Brown, knighted in 1968, sold Aston Martin in 1972. --- ## What happened after David Brown sold the company? A decade of changing owners. From 1972 Aston Martin belonged to Company Developments, headed by William Willson, until receivers were called in at the end of 1974. In 1975 a consortium of Peter Sprague, George Minden and Alan Curtis rescued it, and it launched the wedge-shaped Lagonda saloon in 1976 and the V8 Vantage in 1977. Early in the following decade control passed to Victor Gauntlett’s Pace Petroleum and CH Industries; from 1983 Peter Livanos’s Automotive Investments Incorporated took Pace’s share, and by 1984 it owned three quarters of the company, with Gauntlett holding the rest. --- ## What did Ford’s ownership bring? Investment and far higher volumes. Victor Gauntlett arranged the sale to Ford, which bought 75 per cent of the company in 1987 and the rest in 1994, and in 1999 Ford placed Aston Martin in its Premier Automotive Group. Under Ford came the DB7, built at Bloxham from 1994, the V12 Vanquish of 2001, a new headquarters at Gaydon in 2003, Aston Martin’s first purpose-built factory, and the DB9, the first car built there. Sales grew from fewer than 200 cars a year before 1987 to about 6,800 a year from 2006 to 2008, with a peak of over 7,000 in 2007. --- ## Who bought Aston Martin from Ford? A consortium of investors. On 12 March 2007 Ford agreed to sell Aston Martin to David Richards, John Sinders, Investment Dar and Adeem Investment Co., in a deal that valued the company at £479 million; Ford kept a £40 million investment. In 2013, the centenary year, investment companies of Investindustrial acquired 37.5 per cent, and a partnership with Daimler began to supply Mercedes-AMG V8 engines and electrical architecture, with Daimler holding 4.9 per cent between 2013 and 2014. The Second Century Plan followed in 2015, and the DB11 arrived in 2016. --- ## When did Aston Martin join the stock market? In October 2018. Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings plc began trading on the London Stock Exchange on 3 October 2018 at £19.00 a share, valuing the company at about £4.3 billion. A year later Aston Martin opened its second factory, at St Athan in South Wales, to build the DBX, its first SUV. --- ## Who owns and runs Aston Martin today? A group of shareholders led by the Yew Tree Consortium of executive chairman Lawrence Stroll. Stroll became executive chairman in 2020, alongside significant new investment, and in 2021 Aston Martin returned to Formula 1 as a works team. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund became the second-largest shareholder in 2022, and Geely took about 17 per cent in 2023. Adrian Hallmark, formerly head of Bentley Motors, was appointed chief executive in 2024. On 31 March 2025 the Yew Tree Consortium held 27.67 per cent and planned to raise it to about 33 per cent. Aston Martin builds its sports cars at Gaydon and its DBX range at St Athan, sells in more than 50 countries, and its wholesale volume in 2025 was 5,448 cars. Its range now includes the Valhalla, a [plug-in hybrid](https://autotronix.om/otto/hybrid-vs-plug-in-hybrid-vs-electric) hypercar. --- ## Where does Lagonda fit in? Lagonda is the second marque in the company’s official name, Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings plc. It was founded in Staines by the American Wilbur Gunn, won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1935 with the M45R Rapide, and later employed W.O. Bentley, whose V12 appeared in 1937. David Brown bought it in 1947. The name returned on the four-door Lagonda Rapide of 1961, on William Towns’ wedge-shaped Lagonda of 1976 and on the Lagonda Taraf of 2014. --- ## Common Questions **Where does the name Aston Martin come from?** From Lionel Martin and a hill. The name is generally traced to Martin’s runs at Aston Hill, a hill-climb venue near Aston Clinton in Buckinghamshire, where he competed at two meetings in 1914. **What does DB stand for on an Aston Martin?** David Brown, the industrialist who owned Aston Martin from 1947 to 1972. His initials disappeared after he sold the company and returned, with his blessing, on the DB7. **Is Aston Martin owned by Mercedes-Benz?** No. Mercedes-Benz, then Daimler, has been a technology partner since 2013, supplying V8 engines and electrical architecture, and became a minority shareholder; in 2022 it held about 9.7 per cent. In 2023 the three largest shareholders were the Yew Tree Consortium, the Public Investment Fund and Geely. **Where are Aston Martins built today?** The sports cars at Gaydon, Aston Martin’s headquarters since 2003, and the DBX range at St Athan in Wales. Newport Pagnell, the historic home, is now Aston Martin Works, which restores and services Aston Martins old and new. --- ## Related Otto Explanations - What Is a Vehicle Health Report?: https://autotronix.om/otto/vehicle-health-report --- ## Related Services - AutoTronix PERFORMANCE: https://autotronix.om/performance - Performance Vehicle Health Report: https://autotronix.om/performance/vehicle-health-report - Performance Car Pre-Purchase Inspection: https://autotronix.om/performance/performance-pre-purchase --- ## Book a Service WhatsApp: +968 9966 8600 https://api.whatsapp.com/send/?phone=96899668600&type=phone_number&app_absent=0 Location: Mabellah Industrial, Street 7, Muscat — Saturday to Thursday, 9 AM to 9 PM