Aston Martin Lagonda is a British independent manufacturer of luxury sports cars and grand tourers. Its predecessor was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. Steered from 1947 by David Brown, it became associated with expensive grand touring cars in the 1950s and 1960s, and with the fictional character James Bond following his use of a DB5 model in the 1964 film Goldfinger. Their sports cars are regarded as a British cultural icon. Aston Martin has held a Royal Warrant as purveyor of motorcars to the Prince of Wales since 1982, and has over 160 car dealerships in 53 countries, making it a global automobile brand. The company is traded at the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. In 2003 it received the Queen's Award for Enterprise for outstanding contribution to international trade. The company has survived seven bankruptcies throughout its history.
Giovanni Michelotti was one of the most prolific designers of sports cars in the 20th century. His notable contributions were for Ferrari, Lancia, Maserati and Triumph marques. He was also associated with truck designs for Leyland Motors, and with designs for British Leyland after the merger of Leyland and BMC.
The Aston Martin Vanquish is a high-performance grand tourer introduced by British luxury automobile manufacturer Aston Martin in 2001 as a successor to the Aston Martin Vantage (1993).
The Aston Martin Lagonda is a full-size luxury four-door saloon manufactured by British manufacturer Aston Martin 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 introduced in 1976.
The Aston Martin Bulldog, styled by William Towns, is a British, one-off concept vehicle produced by Aston Martin in 1979. The code name for the project was DP K901. Initially, a production run of 15–25 cars was planned, but the project was deemed too costly and only one was built.
The Aston Martin DB7 is a grand tourer which was produced by British luxury automobile manufacturer Aston Martin from September 1994 to December 2004. The car was available either as a coupé or a convertible. The prototype was complete by November 1992 and debuted at the Geneva Motor Show in March, 1993; the car was designed by Ian Callum and Keith Helfet. The six-cylinder DB7 was positioned as an "entry-level" model below the hand-built V8 Virage introduced a few years earlier. This model was the highest produced Aston Martin automobile ever, with more than 7,000 built before it was replaced by the DB9 in 2004.
Carrozzeria Vignale was an Italian automobile coachbuilder. Carrozzeria Alfredo Vignale was established in 1948 at Via Cigliano, Turin by Alfredo Vignale (1913–69). After its founder's death in 1969, the studio ceased operation, but ownership of the name passed to Ford, which has continued to use the name sporadically to the present day.
Carrozzeria Ghia SpA is an Italian automobile design and coachbuilding firm, established by Giacinto Ghia and Gariglio as Carrozzeria Ghia & Gariglio. The headquarters is located at Corso Guglielmo Marconi, 4, Turin, Italy.
Ferrari America is a series of top-end Ferrari models built in the 1950s and 1960s. They were large grand touring cars with the largest V12 engines and often had custom bodywork. All America models used a live axle in the rear, were front-engined, and had worm and sector steering.
The Aston Martin DB2 is a sports car that was sold by Aston Martin from May 1950 until April 1953. The successor to the 2-Litre Sports model, it had a comparatively advanced dual overhead cam 2.6 L straight-6 engine in place of the previous pushrod straight-4. It was available as a closed, 2-seater coupé which Aston Martin called a sports saloon, and later also as a drophead coupé, which accounted for a quarter of the model's total sales. The closed version had some success in racing.
Lagonda is a British luxury car brand established in 1906, which has been owned by Aston Martin since 1947. The trade-name has not had a continuous commercial existence, being dormant several times, most recently from 1995 to 2008 and 2010 to 2013.
The Lagonda Rapide is a hand built full-sized luxury four-door grand tourer which was produced from 1961 until 1964.
The Aston Martin Virage is an automobile produced by British luxury automobile manufacturer Aston Martin as a replacement for its V8 models. Introduced at the Birmingham Motor Show in 1988, it was joined by the high-performance Vantage in 1993, and then the name of the base model was changed to V8 Coupé in 1996.
Ian Callum is a British car designer who has worked for Ford, TWR, Aston Martin, and in 1999 became the Director of Design for Jaguar Cars, which then merged into Jaguar Land Rover in 2013, a position he held until mid 2019. His younger brother Moray Callum is Vice President, Design, Ford Motor Company.
Moray S. Callum is a Scottish automobile designer who is currently Vice President, Design for Ford Motor Company. His elder brother Ian Callum was the Design Director of Jaguar from 1999 to 2019.
The Aston Martin Rapide is a 5-door, 4-seater, high-performance sports saloon, which the British luxury marque Aston Martin introduced in early 2010. It was first presented as a concept car at the North American International Auto Show in 2006 and the production version was shown at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show.
Tickford is an automobile engineering and testing business in Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire, known for tuning and such products as the 140 mph Tickford Turbo Capri.
The Lotus M90 is a concept car that was developed by Lotus using many Toyota parts. Rumors were circulated that it was the initial design for the MKI MR2, but, though sharing an engine, it bears very little resemblance to the mid-engine roadster. The project was the last one overseen by Lotus founder Colin Chapman before his death in 1982.
The Fiat 8V is a V8-engined sports car produced by the Italian car manufacturer Fiat from 1952 to 1954. The car was introduced at the 1952 Geneva Motor Show. The Fiat 8V got its name because at the time of its making, Fiat believed Ford had a copyright on "V8". With 114 made, the 8V wasn't a commercial success, but did well in racing. Apart from the differential the car did not share any parts with the other Fiats. The 8V was developed by Dante Giacosa and the stylist Luigi Rapi. The engine was a V8 originally designed for a luxury sedan, but that project was stopped.
The Lagonda Taraf is a four-door full-sized luxury car manufactured by Lagonda, a marque owned by British automobile manufacturer Aston Martin since 1947. The Arabic word "taraf" means ultimate luxury in English. Only 120 cars were built, each of which was priced at US$1 million.
