About Aston Martin

Aston Martin was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford The two had joined forces as Bamford & Martin the previous year to sell cars made by Singer from premises in Callow Street, London where they also serviced GWK and Calthorpe vehicles. Martin raced specials at Aston Hill near Aston Clinton, and the pair decided to make their own vehicles. The first car to be named Aston Martin was created by Martin by fitting a four-cylinder Coventry-Simplex engine to the chassis of a 1908 Isotta Fraschini. After the war they moved to Abingdon Road, Kensington and designed a new car. Bamford left in 1920 and Bamford & Martin was revitalized with funding from Count Louis Zborowski. In 1922, Bamford & Martin produced cars to compete in the French Grand Prix, which went on to set world speed and endurance records at Brooklands. Three works Team Cars with 16-valve twin cam engines were built for racing and record-breaking: chassis number 1914, later developed as the Green Pea; chassis number 1915, the Razor Blade record car; and chassis number 1916, later developed as the Halford Special. In 1925 Bill Renwick, Augustus (Bert) Bertelli and investors including Lady Charnwood took control of the business. They renamed it Aston Martin Motors and moved it to the former Whitehead Aircraft Limited Hanworth works in Feltham. Renwick and Bertelli had been in partnership some years and had developed an overhead-cam four-cylinder engine using Renwick's patented combustion chamber design, which they had tested in an Enfield-Allday chassis. The only "Renwick and Bertelli" motor car made, it was known as "Buzzbox" and still survives.     In 1947 David Brown Limited bought Aston Martin, putting it under control of its tractor group. David Brown saved Aston Martin. He also bought Lagonda and moved their operations to Newport Pagnell and shared engines, resources and workshops whilst Aston began to build the legendary DB series. In April 1950, they announced planned production of their Le Mans prototype to be called the DB2, followed by the DB2/4 in 1953, the DB2/4 MkII in 1955, the DB Mark III in 1957 and the Italian-styled 3.7 L DB4 in 1958. While these models helped Aston Martin establish a good racing pedigree, the DB4 and the beautiful DB4 Zagato (built between 1960 and 1963, effectively a DB4 GT, lightened and improved by the Zagato factory in Italy) eventually yielded the famous DB5 in 1963 which became the iconic James Bond car. Aston also produced the 4-door Lagonda Rapide from 1961 to 1964 and stayed true to its grand touring style with the DB6 and DBS.     Aston Martin were looking to replace the DB6 model and had designed a larger, more modern looking car. The engine was not ready, however, so in 1967 the company released the DBS with the straight-six Vantage engine from the DB6. Two years later, Tadek Marek's V8 was ready, and Aston released the DBS V8. With the demise of the straight-six Vantage in 1973, the DBS V8, now restyled and called simply the Aston Martin V8, became the company's mainstream car for nearly two decades. It was eventually retired in favor of the Virage in 1989. The Aston Martin Lagonda was a full-size luxury four-door saloon manufactured between 1974 and 1990. A total of 645 were produced. The name was derived from the Lagonda marque that Aston Martin had purchased in 1947.     There are two distinct generations, the original, the short lived 1974 design based on a lengthened Aston Martin V8, and the entirely redesigned, wedge-shaped Series 2 model which was introduced in 1976.    

EZ Electric Power Steering and Aston Martin

EZ Power Steering produces power steering kits for most Aston Martins produced under David Browns ownership. If you do not find the power steering your require, please contact us.