ASTON MARTIN IS A UNIQUE AND SPECIAL BUSINESS
Discussion
ASTON MARTIN IS A UNIQUE AND SPECIAL BUSINESS.
It is possibly the only commercial enterprise which has survived for 106 years, even though rarely making any profit.
The remarkable longevity is due entirely to a long line of people, all of whom had a passion for sports cars and motor racing.
On every occasion that Bamford & Martin subsequently Aston Martin, ran out of money, wealthy backers came to the rescue, enabling the story to continue.
They all presumably began with the dream that, "Aston Martin has the potential to become one of the worlds pre-eminent luxury car brands". That quote being from a 21st century rescuer. Unfortunately so far, each one eventually realised that their endeavours were not working. Collectively though, they are all our heroes. Each one passed on what they had achieved and progressively ever more exciting and beautiful sports cars were created.
The idea of this topic is to compile an easy reference summary, of all the people who provided financial support, or who have rescued Aston Martin.
I will need your help please. Corrections, additions, anecdotes, stories and anything connected which might be of interest.
eg. That rumour I think involving David Brown, where a friend wanted to buy a new Aston Martin at cost price.
| Finance Facilitator or Provider | Period | Background Information | |||||||
| Lionel Martin's family | 1913 to 1920 | Lionel's mother was from a wealthy family which had founded Singleton Birch, a company which is still trading today. The Martin family money came from china clay. Martin Bros was the oldest established of the three companies brought together as English China Clay, incorporated in 1919. | |||||||
| Count Louis Zborowski | 1920 to 1924 | Count Louis Zborowski was an extremely wealthy man and an accomplished racing driver. Drove for Aston Martin in hillclimbs and races including Brooklands and the French GP. He was killed whilst racing for the Mercedes works team at Monza in 1924. | |||||||
| Dorothea, Lady Charnwood | 1924 to 1925 | ||||||||
| Bill Renwick & Bert Bertelli | 1926 to 1932 | Dorothea, Lady Charnwood continued as an investor. | |||||||
| Lance Prideaux Brune | 1932 to 1933 | ||||||||
| Sir Arthur Sutherland | 1933 to 1938 | ||||||||
| Sir David Brown | 1947 to 1972 | After seeing an advertisement in The Times newspaper for a High Class Motor Business £30,000, (David Brown) David Brown and Sons Ltd purchased the Company for £20,500. It became one of the most successful eras for Aston Martin, with beautiful cars and an outright win at the Le Mans 24 hours race. However in 1972, Sir David is said to have paid the debts of about £5 million, then the Company was sold for £101. It was in February 1972 with the David Brown Corporation in financial difficulties, the other members of the board forced Brown to sell the tractor division to Tenneco International and Aston Martin Lagonda to Company Developments Ltd. | |||||||
| William Wilson | 1972 to 1974 | The purchaser was Company Developments, a consortium chaired by William Wilson | |||||||
| Peter Sprague | 1975 to 1981 | A group of businessmen purchased the Company from the receiver for £1.05 million. | |||||||
| Victor Gauntlett & Tim Hearley | 1981 to 1991 | ||||||||
| Walter Hayes | 1991 to 2007 | Walter Hayes joined the Ford Motor Company as the head of Ford's UK public relations department, eventually becoming Vice-Chairman of Ford of Europe. Having always been keen to use the association of motor sport for Ford publicity, he persuaded Ford to acquire a shareholding in Aston Martin in 1987. In 1991, Ford took full control by purchasing the remaining shares. Ford paid for the development of the DB7, Vanquish, DB9 and Vantage and also the construction of a new factory at Gaydon. | |||||||
| David Richards | 2007 to 2012 | A consortium led by David Richards, bought Aston Martin Lagonda from the Ford Motor Company for £475 million. The group included John Singers and two Kuwaiti companies, Investment Dar and Adeem Investment. |
By 2012 there had been a change from the more individual entrepreneurial aspect of the past. No longer was there just a small group of individuals involved, or a single corporate owner. Investment Dar and Adeem Investment continued their support, and an Italian private equity fund, Investindustrial bought 37.5% of Aston Martin, investing £150 million as a capital increase.
Funding was now being obtained by bond issues (debt).
Edited by Jon39 on Thursday 28th March 09:10
ds666 said:
I never knew about CD or the one after , what is their legacy ?
I think you may enjoy reading this, ds.
The inside story written by Mr Sprague.
https://sprague.com/aston-martin/
On Luxury cars - Aston Martin was not a luxury car brand. Pre WW2 Astons raced in the small Le Mans classes and earlier Astons even smaller race cars. There were small cars and big cars pre-WW2 and AM definitely not in the big car game. Atom pretty small too.
So I'd say the business is Aston Martin Lagonda (on majority of years and vast majority of cars)
Lagonda won Le Mans outright (even forgotten on the Gaydon history wall and bysenior employee guides etc). Lagonda competed in the big classes like Bentley.
Lagonda business (WO's engine) cost a lot more than Aston Martin for David Brown the year after Aston Martin purchase.
David Brown was first entrepreneur who took AML in luxury? area. He wanted WO's engine and got it for AM cars. His family also had a history for big (luxury) cars - see the DBS (1914). First DBS?
So I'd say the business is Aston Martin Lagonda (on majority of years and vast majority of cars)
Lagonda won Le Mans outright (even forgotten on the Gaydon history wall and bysenior employee guides etc). Lagonda competed in the big classes like Bentley.
Lagonda business (WO's engine) cost a lot more than Aston Martin for David Brown the year after Aston Martin purchase.
David Brown was first entrepreneur who took AML in luxury? area. He wanted WO's engine and got it for AM cars. His family also had a history for big (luxury) cars - see the DBS (1914). First DBS?
Thank you Reg. I will incorporate your comments into the table.
On the subject of luxury, yes not quite correct, but it was me being rather cheeky using an AML entrepreneurs quotation. Overall, it seemed to be an appropriate quote for everyone on the list, and it just happened to include the word luxury. Do you know whose quote I used?
As you say, the luxury aspect probably not applicable to the earlier years, although expensive does seem to have been a theme from the very beginning.
What is the meaning of your final few words?
Thanks Jon, for the informative list!
Some interesting people there, but none moreso it would seem, than Count Louis Zborowski, I mean, even his name sounds fascinating, and thanks for bringing him to my attention. I have discovered so many interesting aspects and connections to this character, and when you look at photos of him, they certainly speak to you. Here it seems, is an adventurous man of action and derring-do, dashing, and with scant regard for his own well-being, which sadly may have contributed to his undoing in 1924 when he crashed into a tree after running wide at the Lesmo curve at Monza, in one of what was acknowledged as the rather poor-handling Ferdinand Porsche-designed two-litre, straight-eight, Roots-supercharged Mercedes works cars during the Italian GP. He was 29.
The Big Zborowski`s father, William, had also been killed in a motor race, at La Turbie, France in 1903 after a cufflink became tangled in the hand throttle of his Mercedes. Clearly this is a marque the Zborowskis should have steered well clear of!
The young Louis`s mother was an American heiress named Margaret Laura Astor Carey, and she was the granddaughter of the American tycoon William Backhouse Astor, a close relative of John Jacob Astor IV who was famously the Titanic's richest passenger, with a net worth of roughly US$87 million when he died, roughly equivalent to $2.3 billion today, and who was also one of the estimated 1517 who perished that night in April 1912.
Margaret Laura Astor Carey died the year before the Titanic disaster, Louis was just 16. As a result he inherited her rambling Higham Park property near Canterbury, with 225 acres and 12 houses, together with an additional £11m worth of global real estate, including seven acres of Manhattan, and a large chunk of New York's Fifth Avenue!
What`s a 16 year old to do in this situation? Why, race cars of course! The count had benzine in his blood, and was soon designing and building his own huge cars powered by aeroplane engines in the stables at Higham Park. His engineer was Clive Gallop, who was later racing engineer to the infamous Bentley Boys, who had a hand in rescuing the struggling Bentley company in the 1920`s.
You would think putting a 6 litre V12 into a V8 Vantage is impressive… Zborowski`s first car was shoved along by a huge 23 lite six-cylinder Maybach aero engine! He named the car Chitty Bang Bang. Ian Fleming, a name we all know, took time out between writing “On Her Majesty's Secret Service” and “You Only Live Twice” to publish the children`s book “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” as he had been inspired by the young Count`s debonair escapades. Like Fleming`s 007 books, this was also turned into a movie, albeit a musical, in 1968.
Zborowski won races in his mammoth vehicles, including two races at Brooklands on Chitty Bang Bang`s first outing.
After building a couple more cars with more green-friendly 18 and 15 litre aero-engines, Zborowski powered a car with a 27 litre Liberty engine out of the USA. This car, named “Higham Special" was purchased after Zborowski's death to attempt the land/speed record. Designer/driver J.G. Parry-Thomas tweaked the car for his requirements and renamed it “Babs,” and in April 1926 at Pendine Sands, Wales, he took the Land Speed Record at over 170 mph. His second attempt at the same location the following year did not fare so well, as while doing in excess of 100 mph the car flipped over and caught fire, killing the driver.
The car was restored and can be seen either at the Pendine Sands museum of speed in the summer months, or Brooklands Museum during other months of the year.
During his years, 1920 to 1924, as a patron of Aston Martin, Zborowski raced the company cars at Brooklands, as well as in the French GP of 1923. He also, evidently, insisted on all Aston Martin`s to be fitted with Jaeger instruments. In 1924 at Monza his involvement was cut short. How long this cooperation would have lasted is anybody`s guess, but I can imagine the 40 year old Count, clad in leather and splattered with oil and rubber, standing next to a 1935 Aston Martin Ulster LM, fiddling with his cufflinks. In a bizarre coincidence, at the time of his crash at the Lesmo Curve, Zborowski was wearing the exact same cufflinks that were attributed to the death of his father 21 years earlier.
What a fantastic history this company brings to the generations of cars, and owners. We fortunate few get to be a part of this legacy.
Some interesting people there, but none moreso it would seem, than Count Louis Zborowski, I mean, even his name sounds fascinating, and thanks for bringing him to my attention. I have discovered so many interesting aspects and connections to this character, and when you look at photos of him, they certainly speak to you. Here it seems, is an adventurous man of action and derring-do, dashing, and with scant regard for his own well-being, which sadly may have contributed to his undoing in 1924 when he crashed into a tree after running wide at the Lesmo curve at Monza, in one of what was acknowledged as the rather poor-handling Ferdinand Porsche-designed two-litre, straight-eight, Roots-supercharged Mercedes works cars during the Italian GP. He was 29.
The Big Zborowski`s father, William, had also been killed in a motor race, at La Turbie, France in 1903 after a cufflink became tangled in the hand throttle of his Mercedes. Clearly this is a marque the Zborowskis should have steered well clear of!
The young Louis`s mother was an American heiress named Margaret Laura Astor Carey, and she was the granddaughter of the American tycoon William Backhouse Astor, a close relative of John Jacob Astor IV who was famously the Titanic's richest passenger, with a net worth of roughly US$87 million when he died, roughly equivalent to $2.3 billion today, and who was also one of the estimated 1517 who perished that night in April 1912.
Margaret Laura Astor Carey died the year before the Titanic disaster, Louis was just 16. As a result he inherited her rambling Higham Park property near Canterbury, with 225 acres and 12 houses, together with an additional £11m worth of global real estate, including seven acres of Manhattan, and a large chunk of New York's Fifth Avenue!
What`s a 16 year old to do in this situation? Why, race cars of course! The count had benzine in his blood, and was soon designing and building his own huge cars powered by aeroplane engines in the stables at Higham Park. His engineer was Clive Gallop, who was later racing engineer to the infamous Bentley Boys, who had a hand in rescuing the struggling Bentley company in the 1920`s.
You would think putting a 6 litre V12 into a V8 Vantage is impressive… Zborowski`s first car was shoved along by a huge 23 lite six-cylinder Maybach aero engine! He named the car Chitty Bang Bang. Ian Fleming, a name we all know, took time out between writing “On Her Majesty's Secret Service” and “You Only Live Twice” to publish the children`s book “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” as he had been inspired by the young Count`s debonair escapades. Like Fleming`s 007 books, this was also turned into a movie, albeit a musical, in 1968.
Zborowski won races in his mammoth vehicles, including two races at Brooklands on Chitty Bang Bang`s first outing.
After building a couple more cars with more green-friendly 18 and 15 litre aero-engines, Zborowski powered a car with a 27 litre Liberty engine out of the USA. This car, named “Higham Special" was purchased after Zborowski's death to attempt the land/speed record. Designer/driver J.G. Parry-Thomas tweaked the car for his requirements and renamed it “Babs,” and in April 1926 at Pendine Sands, Wales, he took the Land Speed Record at over 170 mph. His second attempt at the same location the following year did not fare so well, as while doing in excess of 100 mph the car flipped over and caught fire, killing the driver.
The car was restored and can be seen either at the Pendine Sands museum of speed in the summer months, or Brooklands Museum during other months of the year.
During his years, 1920 to 1924, as a patron of Aston Martin, Zborowski raced the company cars at Brooklands, as well as in the French GP of 1923. He also, evidently, insisted on all Aston Martin`s to be fitted with Jaeger instruments. In 1924 at Monza his involvement was cut short. How long this cooperation would have lasted is anybody`s guess, but I can imagine the 40 year old Count, clad in leather and splattered with oil and rubber, standing next to a 1935 Aston Martin Ulster LM, fiddling with his cufflinks. In a bizarre coincidence, at the time of his crash at the Lesmo Curve, Zborowski was wearing the exact same cufflinks that were attributed to the death of his father 21 years earlier.
What a fantastic history this company brings to the generations of cars, and owners. We fortunate few get to be a part of this legacy.
Thank you Dean. A brilliant contribution.
Presumably the importance of Count Zborowski's financial support to Bamford & Martin, can be seen by the first of the Company failures, which followed soon after the Count's death.
The photograph (competition number 30) is of Count Zborowski driving one of the pair of 1922 Grand Prix Aston Martins, at the Shelsley Walsh hillclimb (top corner) on 29th July 1922. 3rd in the Light Car class. Note the touch of right hand steering lock. It is a left hand corner!
I think the car still exists, but (based on registration marks) I could only find a modern photo of the other car. There is a rumour though, about number plates being swapped around by B&M.
Edited by Jon39 on Thursday 5th March 10:16
Jon39 said:
The photograph (competition number 30) is of Count Zborowski driving one of the pair of 1922 Grand Prix Aston Martins, at the Shelsley Walsh hillclimb (top corner) on 29th July 1922. 3rd in the Light Car class. Note the touch of right hand steering lock. It is a left hand corner!
Edited by Jon39 on Thursday 5th March 10:16
Whose the Luxury quote, said that Jon?
Chitty Bang Bang (and his other Chittys) were built in Kent (Canterbury workshop and local coachbuilders) and used to do bike rides past Higham Park near Canterbury. Ian Fleming visited the house when friends with later owners and had also watched the Count race in the car as a boy.
I thought Chitty Bang Bang was a rude and flippant name he gave the car after his first choice name was refused by Brooklands officials.
And Clive Gallop also drove for Aston in French Grand prix lived a lot longer than the Count - being killed after being thrown from a skidding car when he was 68. They plus a few others also took Chitty to the Sahara desert.
The 2 of them also built a mile long miniature railway and made a hollywood style silent film with a damsel in distress on a runaway train. The Count was involved with and also ordered the first miniature loco for what would become the Romney Hythe & Dymchurch railway.
Chitty Bang Bang (and his other Chittys) were built in Kent (Canterbury workshop and local coachbuilders) and used to do bike rides past Higham Park near Canterbury. Ian Fleming visited the house when friends with later owners and had also watched the Count race in the car as a boy.
I thought Chitty Bang Bang was a rude and flippant name he gave the car after his first choice name was refused by Brooklands officials.
And Clive Gallop also drove for Aston in French Grand prix lived a lot longer than the Count - being killed after being thrown from a skidding car when he was 68. They plus a few others also took Chitty to the Sahara desert.
The 2 of them also built a mile long miniature railway and made a hollywood style silent film with a damsel in distress on a runaway train. The Count was involved with and also ordered the first miniature loco for what would become the Romney Hythe & Dymchurch railway.
Jon39 said:
I think you may enjoy reading this, ds.
The inside story written by Mr Sprague.
https://sprague.com/aston-martin/
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/148537/stroll-f1...
It appears that Stroll really does understand the AML heritage, and wants to make F1 the foundation of his future strategy.
It appears that Stroll really does understand the AML heritage, and wants to make F1 the foundation of his future strategy.
RL17 said:
Whose the Luxury quote, said that Jon?
" We believe that the Company has the brand, product, engineering excellence and potential, to become one of the worlds pre-eminent luxury car brands in the years ahead."
Lawrence Stroll, Future Executive Chairman of Aston Martin Lagonda. 5th March 2020.
Cheeky of me, but as he was saying that, I just wondered if some of the heroes on our list, might have used similar words on their first day.
I am sure we all wish every success to Mr Stroll with his new responsibility.
Jon39 said:
" We believe that the Company has the brand, product, engineering excellence and potential, to become one of the worlds pre-eminent luxury car brands in the years ahead."
Lawrence Stroll, Future Executive Chairman of Aston Martin Lagonda. 5th March 2020.
Cheeky of me, but as he was saying that, I just wondered if some of the heroes on our list, might have used similar words on their first day.
I am sure we all wish every success to Mr Stroll with his new responsibility.
"The foundation of the strategy is returning Aston Martin to a works F1 team on the grid for 2021, operating under its own brand, enabling it to reach cumulative audiences of two billion people a year, and to engage and entertain our customers at 22 locations.
"It's very exciting for all the parties, and should underpin the building of our brand globally, and allow us to achieve our ambition that Aston Martin will become a pre-eminent luxury goods brand globally."
Maybe, hopefully, probably, Stroll has the money and the maxi to deliver, in today's vastly better connected world - Covid19 permitting, of course. I think our erstwhile AM heroes had a lot more obstacles to overcome when they tried their various rescue plans, and, relatively speaking, a lot less money.
Jon - you might like this video (unfortunately not the best quality, Ebay/Amazon may have one of the original DVDs)
Its Alain de Cadenet's 'Victory by Design: Aston Martin" and what makes it special (for me) is that, not only does he go through all of the AM history up to the Group C racing car, but that he drives each of the cars (in anger). Lovely stuff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T6iib9mx0E
Its Alain de Cadenet's 'Victory by Design: Aston Martin" and what makes it special (for me) is that, not only does he go through all of the AM history up to the Group C racing car, but that he drives each of the cars (in anger). Lovely stuff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T6iib9mx0E
RobDown said:
Jon - you might like this video (unfortunately not the best quality, Ebay/Amazon may have one of the original DVDs)
Its Alain de Cadenet's 'Victory by Design: Aston Martin" and what makes it special (for me) is that, not only does he go through all of the AM history up to the Group C racing car, but that he drives each of the cars (in anger). Lovely stuff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T6iib9mx0E
Thanks for that, much appreciated. I will enjoy watching that later, just opened link to see the first few minutes!Its Alain de Cadenet's 'Victory by Design: Aston Martin" and what makes it special (for me) is that, not only does he go through all of the AM history up to the Group C racing car, but that he drives each of the cars (in anger). Lovely stuff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T6iib9mx0E
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