Aston Martin is a British car manufacturer founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. Martin had previously raced at Aston hill and decided to produce his own cars.
Their first car was produced in 1915, but production relapsed due to World War I and the assets were sold. After the war, Bamford soon left the company, and the company started producing race cars with twin cam engines. These cars competed in the French Grand Prix, and were setting records. The company went bankrupt in 1924, and an outside investor tried to help pull the company together. The factory closed 2 years after, and Lionel Martins dream was crushed. Later that year, a group of wealthy investors came together took over the company naming it Aston Martin motors. During the war years, the company produced mainly 2 seater sports cars and changed ownership numerous times until Ford's Premier Automotive Group Division took control in 1994.
Although Aston Martin has recently been purchased by a Kuwait investment company, ford remains the second largest shareholder in the company. In its recent years, Aston Martin has released some great cars including the V8 Vantage, the DB9, and the DB12.
The V8 vantage series started in 2005 which features a 4.3 Liter V-8 engine producing 380 horsepower. The DB9 is slightly faster but instead has a 6.0 Liter V12 engine pumping out 450 horsepower. It was released in 2003 and is still in production.
The DBS V12 is the famous car from the movie James Bond Casino Royale. This car also features a 6.0 Liter V12 engine but puts out a whopping 510 horsepower accelerating from 0-60 mph in only 4.3 seconds and reaching a top speed of 191 mph.
The Aston Martin has been surrounded by appeal and has appeared in other movies such as Gorgeous driven by Jackie Chan, Jonny English which was the actor Rowan AtkinsonA?€???s car, and in the HBO series Entourage. Aston Martin plans on introducing a few new cars over the next few years. The new Rapide is a 4 seater which will be introduced later in 2009.
Aston Martin may also plan on introducing a new DBX model in the near future.
