Aston Martin was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. The two had joined forces as Bamford & Martin selling cars made by Singer but the pair decided to make their own vehicles using the name Aston Martin, Aston being derived from Aston Hill & Aston Clinton where Martin raced cars. The company was never far from financial problems and over the years had a variety of ownners until the arrival of David Brown in 1947 who was seen as the saviour of the company an started the classic “DB” range of cars. In 1955, David Brown bought the Tickford coachbuilding company and its site at Tickford Street in Newport Pagnell. Further financial difficulties ensued during the 1970’s until the arrival of Victor Gaunlett in 1980.

Gaunlett steered the company through the 1980’s and at a chance meeting with Walter Hayes, vice president of Ford Europe in May 1987 saw Ford take a shareholding in September of that year with chairmanship being formally handed over in 1991. Up until 1994 Aston Martins had been produced at the famous Newport Pagnell site but in that year a site at Bloxam was also opened to produce the DB7. 2003 saw the opening of the Gaydon site to build the DB9 and the later V8 Vantage with the Vanquish still being produced at Newport Pagnell, this being the last car to be produced there. In March 2007 a consortium lead by Dave Richards of Pro-Drive purchased Aston Martin from Ford.

The all new V8 Vantage was first seen at the Geneva Motor Show in 2005. The two seater, two door coupé powered by a 4.3 litre quad-camshaft, 32 valve V8 which produces 380bhp at 7,000rpm and 302lb/ft at 5,000rpm, the front/mid-mounted engine, though based loosely on Jaguar's AJ-V8 engine, is unique to Aston Martin and features race-style dry-sump lubrication, enabling it to be mounted low in the chassis for an improved centre of gravity. The cylinder block and heads, crankshaft, connecting rods, pistons, camshafts, inlet and exhaust manifolds, lubrication system, and engine management system are all unique to Aston Martin.

So equipped, the V8 Vantage can accelerate from rest to 60 mph in 4.9 seconds and reach a 175mph top speed. As a testament to the car's performance, handling, and endurance, an almost-stock Vantage entered and completed the 2006 Nurburgring 24 Hours race finishing in 24th overall position, despite being amongst a field of largely motor sport-homologated cars. The only modifications to the car were a roll-over cage, racing fuel system, fire extinguisher system, racing seat, and hydraulic jacks. Otherwise the car was completely standard, including a regular production engine, transmission, suspension, and bodywork.

The Vantage is a truly hi-tech English sports car featuring a bonded Aluminium structure for strength and lightness onto which are fitted Magnesium mounting components with a mixture of Steel and Composite body panels complete with a Carbon Fibre prop shaft. And yet there is only one operation that is automated in the whole Vantage build process, the bonding of the front windscreen to its surround and the location of it into the pre-formed moulding. All other operations in the build process are all carried out by hand, even the paint finish is laboriously hand finished to a high intensity demanding 40 hours per car.

Of all Aston's recent models it's the one most transparently dedicated to the provision of pure driving pleasure. It looks gorgeous, sounds shattering in full cry, is very quick and handles beautifully. Autocar road test 2005