44 Fun Facts About Aston Martin

Which American giant bought 75% of Aston Martin in 1987 and sold the company to a consortium twenty years later?

Ford sold Aston Martin to help tackle its own heavy losses and restructuring, yet held on to a small stake.

Which model, the first car built at Aston Martin's St Athan plant, was the marque's first SUV?

The DBX was aimed at well-off women, widening a customer base dominated by men.

Aston Martin's headquarters and main factory since 2003 sit on a former RAF V-bomber base in which Warwickshire village?

Gaydon was the first purpose-built factory in Aston Martin's history, a 55-acre site next door to Jaguar Land Rover's own centre on the old airbase.

Which Buckinghamshire town housed Aston Martin's hand-built works for decades?

Newport Pagnell became Aston Martin's home after its owner bought a coachbuilder based in the town and moved car production into its works.

Which Aston Martin racer won Le Mans outright in 1959 and sold in 2017 for a British-car record $22.5 million?

In that race Stirling Moss's fast DBR1 retired with engine trouble, yet a steadier team-mate took the win as the Ferraris faltered.

Which Texan shared the winning Aston Martin at Le Mans in 1959 with Roy Salvadori?

Carroll Shelby's heart disease soon forced him to quit racing, so he switched to building cars and created the Cobra.

Aston Martin, bankrupt seven times in its first century, was bought in 1947 by which industrialist?

David Brown bought Aston Martin after spotting a newspaper advert offering a high-class motor business for sale.

Which Canadian billionaire led the consortium that bought into Aston Martin in 2020 and became its executive chairman?

Lawrence Stroll made his billions helping grow Tommy Hilfiger and Michael Kors, and he lifted his Aston Martin stake to 25% within two months.

Which marque, founded by an American-born engineer, was bought in 1947 and still shares Aston Martin's company name?

Lagonda was bought mainly for its new 2.6-litre engine designed by W. O. Bentley, which went on to power the DB2.

Aston Martin's 2021 Formula One return was a rebrand of which team, whose lineage began as Jordan Grand Prix in 1991?

Racing Point swapped its BWT pink for British racing green because its owner had just bought a stake in Aston Martin.

Which world champion scored Aston Martin's first Formula One podium, finishing second at Baku in 2021?

Sebastian Vettel finished second again in Hungary weeks later, only to be disqualified over a fuel-sample issue.

Which world champion finished fourth in the 2023 drivers' standings, his first season with Aston Martin?

Fernando Alonso's early podiums lifted Aston Martin to second among constructors, but the car faded and the team finished fifth.

Which manufacturer became Aston Martin's works Formula One engine partner in 2026 after five seasons as a customer team?

Honda had formally left Formula One at the end of 2021, then came back as Aston Martin's works partner for the new 2026 engine rules.

Under a technology deal signed in 2013, which German performance brand supplies Aston Martin's V8 engines?

In exchange for supplying its V8s and electronics, Mercedes-AMG's parent took a stake of up to 5% in Aston Martin.

Which track-only Aston Martin hypercar was limited to just 24 cars?

The Vulcan came with a driver-training programme to teach owners to handle it, yet one owner still had theirs made road-legal.

Which million-pound Aston Martin flagship of 2009 had a 7.3-litre V12 and a 220 mph top speed?

The One-77 was capped at 77 cars, so a 2012 crash in Hong Kong that wrecked one left just 76 still running at the time.

Which 2011 Aston Martin city car was a rebadged Toyota iQ selling for over £30,000?

Aston Martin forecast about 4,000 Cygnets a year, but sales fell so far short that production ended in 2013.

Which one-off Aston Martin concept finally reached its promised 200 mph in 2023, decades after it was built?

The Bulldog was shelved after one car because new chairman Victor Gauntlett judged it too costly, and in 2023 it hit 205.4 mph at Campbeltown.

Which designer's wedge-shaped 1976 four-door Aston Martin saloon made Time's list of the 50 worst cars ever?

William Towns's saloon was crammed with cutting-edge electronics, which Time said would have been very impressive if any of them ever worked.

Aston Martin's DB7 was built on a platform evolved from which Jaguar model?

The XJS-based DB7 began as a Jaguar sports car, but when Jaguar cancelled it, TWR took the design to Aston Martin.

Which designer, later Jaguar's design director, styled the Aston Martin DB7 while working at TWR?

Ian Callum had never designed a whole car before the DB7, and he says he later drew almost all of the DB9, though it was credited to Henrik Fisker.

Aston Martin skipped the name DB8 for the DB7's 2004 successor because the badge might wrongly suggest what?

V8 power was the worry, because the new car carried a 5.9-litre V12, and the firm also felt a one-step jump would undersell an entirely new design.

Which engineer designed the straight-six engine for the Aston Martin DB4?

Tadek Marek had worked on the engine of the Centurion tank before joining Aston Martin, where he designed the DB4's straight-six.

Which 1940 Aston Martin prototype reportedly convinced a tractor magnate to buy the company?

The Atom's space-frame chassis became the basis for Aston Martin's post-war cars into the late 1950s.

What nickname is given to the very first car built by Aston Martin's founders?

The Coal Scuttle was Aston Martin's first car, but the First World War halted the founders' work, and more cars came only after the war.

Which racer invested in Aston Martin in the early 1920s, backing two cars for the 1922 French Grand Prix?

Louis Zborowski's Chitty Bang Bang cars so inspired a young Ian Fleming that he later wrote Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Before its 1950s move to Buckinghamshire, Aston Martin built its cars in which Middlesex town?

During the Second World War the Feltham works switched to war production, and staff kept working through bombing raids.

In the early 1970s, Aston Martin's longtime owner stepped down and sold the business to which buyer?

Company Developments did not keep Aston Martin for long: by the spring of 1975 the firm had passed to yet another set of owners.

The four-door Rapide was built from 2010 by contract manufacturer Magna Steyr in which Austrian city?

Graz lost the Rapide six years earlier than planned, and a £1.6 million UK government grant helped bring its production to Warwickshire.

Aston Martin's second factory, opened at St Athan in 2019 to build its SUV, is in which UK nation?

Wales beat rival sites as far afield as the Americas and the Middle East, helped by millions of pounds in Welsh Government grants.

Which Chinese carmaker bought a 7.6% stake in Aston Martin in 2022?

Geely's stake came as Aston Martin raised about £650 million from investors to pay down its large debts.

Which official Formula One role did the Aston Martin Vantage begin filling in 2021?

In 2024 a Vantage safety car spun and crashed heavily at Monza before the Italian Grand Prix, though both people aboard were fine.

Which bespoke Aston Martin was built specially for the 2015 Bond film Spectre?

The DB10 previewed the styling of Aston Martin's next V8 Vantage, so the Bond car doubled as a sneak peek at a future model.

Which straight-six Aston Martin, launched in 1967, did George Lazenby's Bond drive in On Her Majesty's Secret Service?

The DBS was meant to carry a new V8 that was not ready in time, so it launched with the DB6's straight-six, and the DBS V8 followed.

In Ian Fleming's novel Goldfinger, which Aston Martin does MI6 issue to James Bond?

The DB Mark III carries Bond in the book, but the 1964 film gave him a gadget-laden DB5 instead.

Which Aston Martin chief executive, appointed in 2014, took the company public in London in 2018?

Andy Palmer's 2018 stock market float went badly, as Aston Martin's shares slid heavily in the year after listing.

Which coachbuilder, bought by Aston Martin's owner in the 1950s, later lent its name to a turbocharged Capri?

Tickford rebuilt each turbocharged Capri largely by hand, so it cost twice as much as the standard car.

Who co-founded the business that became Aston Martin with Lionel Martin in 1913?

Robert Bamford and Lionel Martin began by selling and servicing Singer cars, then decided to build a car of their own.

In which American city did Aston Martin lend its name to a condominium tower of the 2020s?

Miami's Aston Martin tower brings the carmaker's design into architecture, with a sail-like shape meant to echo the lines of its cars.

King Charles III's Aston Martin DB6 has been converted to run on which fuel?

E85 ethanol powers the royal DB6, a model whose cut-off Kamm tail was added after wind-tunnel tests showed the fastback DB5 shape generating lift at speed.

Which manual-gearbox V12 Aston Martin of 2023 was limited to 110 cars for the company's 110th anniversary?

The Valour's six-speed manual V12 later spawned a harder track-focused version, first commissioned personally by the firm's own F1 driver.

Which 2023 Aston Martin did the company bill as the world's first 'Super Tourer', dropping the V12 option?

The DB12 makes 671 bhp from its V8, more than even the V12 of the DB11 AMR it replaced managed.

Which mid-engined plug-in hybrid Aston Martin, codenamed AM-RB 003, appears in the Bond film No Time to Die?

The Valhalla was first announced as a V6 hybrid limited to 500 cars, but the production car switched to a twin-turbo V8.

Aston Martin's first Formula One car, which failed to score a point in 1959, carried which model designation?

The DBR4 was built and tested in 1957 but its debut was delayed two years while the firm chased sports-car glory, by which time it was outdated.