Aston Martin DB7

If the marque were  named Bamford Martin, would it have the same panache? How about if it were called plainly Ford Martin?  Would the automotive cognoscenti find it similarly appealing?  Truth be told, either name would be as apropos as the fabled Aston Martin moniker, just as the DB initials signify Aston Martin’s significant debt to David Brown, the man who gave a more distinctive stamp on the marque than even its founders.

Those founders,  Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford, certainly didn’t set out to create a legendary automobile brand. Most of the time, in fact,  it didn’t seem as if they cared much about creating any kind of brand at all. The duo finished  their first car in 1914, but didn’t register it with the British government until 1915. After that, they didn’t assemble a second car until 1920, not exactly a roaring start.

The driver and the engineer

Of the two, Bamford was the engineer, while Martin was more the pure driver, and both men rivaled  fairly successfully in hill climbs, which were the test of a vehicle’s mettle in the World War I era. After competing in Singers, the honchos at Bamford & Martin Ltd, as their desultory automotive business  was called, decided to manufacture their own car to compete with the best of the breed. As Martin described it, what he wanted to build was “a quality car of good  appearance and performance, a car for the discerning owner-driver with fast touring in mind.”

The car that emanated from this vision, called unceremoniously “Coal Scuttle,” was built on an altered Isotta-Fraschini chassis and was powered by a 1400cc Coventry Simplex engine hooked up to a 4-speed gearbox. The vehicle’s light weight and stout engine  helped it achieve a top speed of about 70 mph and an enviable record in competition. But when Britain went to war Bamford & Martin quit producing cars until Bamford retired. That left Martin in control, and he changed the name of  the company to Aston Martin, taking part of its name from the then-famous Aston Clinton hill climb.

In the 1920’s,  Aston Martin  built a handful of dual overhead cam 4-cylinder racing cars that garnered attention in Britain and on the Continent. One model,  called “Bunny,” made a 16-and-a-half hour endurance run at Brooklands, setting a world record with an average speed of 76.2 miles per hour. Despite this little piece of  accomplishment, though, the company floundered from owner to owner like a stray dog.

Aston Martin rescued by David Brown (DB)

In 1939, well into its  4th  regime, Aston Martin developed a model e that featured an independent front suspension and a Cotal electric pre-selector gearbox. But a second  World War got in the way, and Aston Martin again seemed one step from receivership. Then,  David Brown became the company’s redeemer, and, eventually, its guiding light.

Under Brown’s management,  an Aston Martin Two-Litre won the Spa 24-Hour Endurance race in 1948, which re-burnished the car’s image. Then David Brown  discovered more critical mass with the acquisition of Lagonda, making Aston Martin nearly relevant as the Fifties dawned. Aston Martin thus gained access to the 2.6-liter 6-cylinder Lagonda engine, which had been designed by the legendary W.O. Bentley, fitted it in a modified Two-Litre chassis.  In 1950, the car was dubbed the DB2 and was launched to the public.

The  earliest  DB2 was a pure 2-seater sports car, but over the years, as the company chased more volume, it was built as a 2+2 “fixed head” (coupe) version as well. In 1958,  Aston Martin built what some would call the best all-around GT car of its period, the DB4. With a hand-made, all-aluminum body designed by Touring of Milan, the coupe was a lesson in traditional tailoring. Its front end was dominated by a fender-to-fender grille bordered by two round headlights, and its understated style bespoke sophistication.

Beauty and function meld

In keeping with its high-performance contour, the DB4’s bodywork was as functional as it was beautiful. Created by Aston Martin general manager John Wyer,  engine designer Tadek Marek, and chassis engineer Harold Beach,  the model was built in the “superleggera” manner (Italian for super-light). Fitted on a rigid steel tube frame, the lightweight panels  permitted  its designers to keep the car’s weight at a svelte 2800 pounds.

Pulsing under the extended  hood was an in-line 6-cylinder engine displacing 3670 cubic centimeters (224 cubic inches). The Marek-designed power plant supplied  263 horsepower at a heady 5700 rpm, while peak torque of 245 pound-feet came at 4000 rpm. The dash from zero to 60 miles per hour took some 8.5 seconds, not stellar in today’s terms, but excellent for a long-legged tourer circa 1959. Better yet,  the maximum speed was some 140 miles per hour.

In 1964,  displacement climbed to four liters, enough to achieve the new designation DB5. It was that model that fictitious spy and ladies’ man James Bond piloted in the movies “Thunderball” and  “Goldfinger” . But while the 60’s were good to Aston Martin, the 70’s and 80’s  were nearly disastrous. Just as the marque switched to V-8 power, the first Oil Crisis strike, sending sales skittering. Then right as recovery seemed to be taking place, a second Oil Crisis in 1979-80, sent Aston Martin staggering.

A last-minute pardon by Ford

The company  stumbled  into the 1990s when Ford Motor Company rode to the rescue. The sudden influx of much-needed cash allowed Aston Martin to formulate a proper successor to the aging DB6, and the resulting version was introduced at the Geneva Motor Show in 1993.

Below the skin,  the new model bore a close similarity  to the Jaguar XJS, not surprising since the blue oval of Ford also reigned at Jaguar. The exterior styling of the new Aston Martin DB7 also had some echoes of Jag, but the huge  difference lay under the shapely “bonnet.”  TWR, a close relative of Jaguar, developed an all-new 3.2-liter (195 cubic inch) in-line 6-cylinder engine, armed with sequential fuel injection, 4 valves per cylinder and, topping it all, an Eaton supercharger.   All this–a perfect variation on the Aston Martin theme-resulted in 335 horsepower at 5,750 rpm and 400 pound-feet of torque accessible at just 3,000 rpm. The DB7 was no lightweight at 3,800 pounds, but the supercharged powerplant could still pull the gentleman’s coupe from zero to 60 miles per hour in less than 5  1/2 seconds.  Maximum  speed was reputed to be 160 miles per hour, which more than balanced the thirsty fuel consumption of 13.8 miles per gallon.

Ian Callum , TWR design chief,  was largely responsible for the sleek if hardly leading-edge exterior shape, and he also penned the convertible “Volante” model  that came to market soon after. Reasonably priced  at about $80,000 in 1993, the new DB7 was immediately successful, and hurled Aston Martin down a new road, one appropriate to a car company, as opposed to the amusing hobby that the marque had been for most of its varied life.

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