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Aston Martin Car Clubs
It was in 1913 that Martin teamed up with Robert Bamford and formed a company selling Singer cars. The two partners, like many motorsport fanatics of their time, were both interested in entering hill climbing events which were hugely popular in the early days of motoring. Martin and Bamford began adapting their own Singer cars in order to take part in these tough, challenging events. By 1914 the two partners decided they wanted to build their own cars for such competitions and the Aston Martin company was formed using the name of their favourite hill climbing course at Aston Clinton in Buckinghamshire. The company purchased its first premises in Chelsea and began work on the first Aston Martin racing car which was registered in 1915 and became known as ‘The coal scuttle’. By 1920 the company had moved to South Kensington and sought financial backing from an early racing driver and skilled automobile engineer named Count Louis Zborowski who helped them design and build two racing cars which were entered in the French Grand Prix and began Aston Martins racing career by breaking multiple speed records at the famous Brooklands race track in 1922. In 1925 Lionel Martin left the company which was to be run by its major shareholder Lord Charnwood who just a year later teamed up with Augustus Cesare Bertelli and William Somerville Renwick to form Aston Martin Motors. The company moved premises again at this time to Feltham in Middlesex and continued to race in the Grand Prix calendar as well as the famous Le Mans 24 hour race. Several years later, in 1932 the company changed hands again being bought by Sir Arthur Sutherland who then sold Aston Martin Motors for the princely sum of £20,000 to a man named David Brown who would not only own the company but also lend his name to the most prestigious models, the ‘DB’ series. Racing was still a major part of the company’s hard work and led to wins at Le Mans with the ‘DB2’ taking 1st 2nd and 3rd place in the 3 litre class during the 1951 event and the later ‘DRB1’ model winning the World Sportscar Championship in 1959. By 1963 Aston Martin reluctantly withdrew from Racing blaming rising costs and a need to concentrate on production models. This decision was followed by a stroke of genius on Browns part who gave the makers of the 1964 James Bond film ‘Goldfinger’ a shiny new ‘DB5’ fresh off the production line and into the hearts of countless film fans ever since. Over the next 20 years or so the ownership of Aston Martin changed hands repeatedly until Ford bought a 75% stake in 1987 and later bought the remaining share in 1993. Finally in 2007 Ford sold Aston Martin to Dave Richards of Prodrive making fans of this most British of marques happy to see it once again under British ownership. Many of these fans of Aston Martin cars are members of the Aston Martin Owners Club car club which is listed within this directory. |
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