Aston Martin was founded in 1914 by Lionel Martin, winner in 1913 of the famous mountain race, Aston Clinton. He had an outstanding participation in numerous high competeciones tourism. Historically, their rivals are the most important Italian firms Ferrari and Maserati, and recently, the German brand Porsche. Providing a distinct English style, bought Aston Martin to provide world-class car for James Bond movies, the agent 007. In 2005 the brand has returned to the sport competeciones successfully achieving a creditable third place in the GT category of the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the DBR9 model. Aston Martin won the legendary last test in 1959.
For almost its entire history, Aston Martin cars manufactured handmade in small quantities, between 1957 and 2000 the total production of the brand failed to twelve thousand units. These volumes have increased in recent years. In 2003, Aston Martin produced 1,476 cars in 2004 and took a remarkable jump to 2,400 units sold closer to the target set by the Premier Automotive Group, when its owner, five thousand cars annually by 2006. The factory, opened in 2004 in Gaydon, England, has that capacity. The sales tax last year enabled the UK to announce its first profit since 1962 with year ending with the incredible record of over 40 years with balance sheets in red.
Aston Martin currently produces two model ranges: DB9 with a V12 engine of 6 liters, and Vantage, V8 engine with 4.7 liters and 420 hp, also makes the DBS V12 from 2007, a limited edition model based design the DB9. Like the Vanquish (produced from 2001 to 2007) and the DB9, the Vantage has front engine and rear drive, the Vantage was introduced as a new entry level to the English brand.