So what made you fall in love with Astons and when?
Discussion
As per the title, how young you were when they became an object of lust. Was it an old movie that kicked it off? Or did you and your spotty mates park your bikes at the bottom of a neighbours driveway and drool at his V8? (Zero points for mentioning Goldfinger, thats burned into the nation's psyche by now!).
Apart from Bond and Corgi, they always stoof d out in magazines and adverts that were laying around when I was very young. I remember seeing a black and white advert for car stereos, aged about 5 in the early 70s, featuring an arab sheikh and a pair of quad headlight DBSs. My dad filled me in what they were, and I was saddened when he said they had just stopped making them!
However it was the Italian Job DB4 that really did it, more than Bond. I then became a "spotter" for appearances like "The Wrong Arm of the Law" with Peter Sellers, and also this gorgeous caribbean blue example in Doctor In Love. With the advent of video in the 80s the pause and rewind buttons were nearly as worn out with these films as with Sinitta videos!
With many other cars that's when you could say "I knew then I'd have one", but even as a kid it was obvious how rare and expensive they were and it was not a given! So what about you then?
Apart from Bond and Corgi, they always stoof d out in magazines and adverts that were laying around when I was very young. I remember seeing a black and white advert for car stereos, aged about 5 in the early 70s, featuring an arab sheikh and a pair of quad headlight DBSs. My dad filled me in what they were, and I was saddened when he said they had just stopped making them!
However it was the Italian Job DB4 that really did it, more than Bond. I then became a "spotter" for appearances like "The Wrong Arm of the Law" with Peter Sellers, and also this gorgeous caribbean blue example in Doctor In Love. With the advent of video in the 80s the pause and rewind buttons were nearly as worn out with these films as with Sinitta videos!
With many other cars that's when you could say "I knew then I'd have one", but even as a kid it was obvious how rare and expensive they were and it was not a given! So what about you then?
Edited by Loose_Cannon on Wednesday 29th March 00:41
Most of my life's "wish list" was created before the age of 16, this includes cars. I wondered how many other people are the same.
Actual real-life contact with Astons when I was a nipper was limited, although when the neighbour across the road (a lady) got a stunning new light blue V8 asa company car in the late 70s it was a wake-up moment. It was tragic when she traded it in for a Scimitar.
Probably the most pivotal day was in about 1978 when the family had a day out at a country fair in Teesdale (Lartingdon?). It was there I saw my first Lotus Esprit, a gold S2 just like the press car. I could hardly see over the roof which seems absurd now. I knew I'd have one some day.
At the same show a farmer turned up in a ropey old DB4 (complete with taked on rear wiper IIRC) and 3 gorgeous dolly birds got out with him. I knew then I would TRY to have an Aston!
I currently have both, which is just amazing and hopefully will be that way for a long time to come.
Actual real-life contact with Astons when I was a nipper was limited, although when the neighbour across the road (a lady) got a stunning new light blue V8 asa company car in the late 70s it was a wake-up moment. It was tragic when she traded it in for a Scimitar.
Probably the most pivotal day was in about 1978 when the family had a day out at a country fair in Teesdale (Lartingdon?). It was there I saw my first Lotus Esprit, a gold S2 just like the press car. I could hardly see over the roof which seems absurd now. I knew I'd have one some day.
At the same show a farmer turned up in a ropey old DB4 (complete with taked on rear wiper IIRC) and 3 gorgeous dolly birds got out with him. I knew then I would TRY to have an Aston!
I currently have both, which is just amazing and hopefully will be that way for a long time to come.
As far as dealerships goes, our local rich man's emporium was Reg Vardy near Sunderland. For a long while until the 90s it was a multi-marque dealership until Ferrari started getting stroppy about being sold alongside competition. So in 1982 you could walk around and see gorgeous new Astons, Lagonda, Lotus, Ferrari, Rolls Royce, Bentley and even Scimitars I think.
Around that time Aston did a "roadshow" whih also brought along the Bulldog - utter heaven. As a callow 14 year old it was scarcely believable to be able to sit in and play with it (I noticed even then the exhausts getting hot enough to bubble the paint on the valance!).
Promised myself a DB4,5 or S, which always seemed twice as much as I could afford, but sort of gave up eventually. Indeed my family have expressed some surprise at my "new" DB9, saying they had never heard me talking of any burning desire for an Aston. As for many years there seemed as much chance of buying an Apollo moon rocket it wasn't really worth mentioning.
Around that time Aston did a "roadshow" whih also brought along the Bulldog - utter heaven. As a callow 14 year old it was scarcely believable to be able to sit in and play with it (I noticed even then the exhausts getting hot enough to bubble the paint on the valance!).
Promised myself a DB4,5 or S, which always seemed twice as much as I could afford, but sort of gave up eventually. Indeed my family have expressed some surprise at my "new" DB9, saying they had never heard me talking of any burning desire for an Aston. As for many years there seemed as much chance of buying an Apollo moon rocket it wasn't really worth mentioning.
Going back to childhood memories and influences, this thing also had a big effect on me. From a golden time when no-one have a fck about the Nurburgring;
This might be at odds with most peoples ideas of an Aston these days, but back in 1976 this was like a roadgoing Concorde. I still remember having my nosed pressed against the 26" TV as Bob Wellings introduced it on Nationwide. If only there had been a VCR to record it;
It was a feelgood car for Britain at a time when our national assets were dwindling. And what better than Royal approval .
Time might have been a bit unkind to it but it cemented the love for me. If only its spiritual successor the Rapide had been christened "Lagonda"; I wonder why AM bottled out of that whilst still using it's christian name?
I've been bowled over by AM ownership, the next might well be a Rapide and it owes a lot to this car.
This might be at odds with most peoples ideas of an Aston these days, but back in 1976 this was like a roadgoing Concorde. I still remember having my nosed pressed against the 26" TV as Bob Wellings introduced it on Nationwide. If only there had been a VCR to record it;
It was a feelgood car for Britain at a time when our national assets were dwindling. And what better than Royal approval .
Time might have been a bit unkind to it but it cemented the love for me. If only its spiritual successor the Rapide had been christened "Lagonda"; I wonder why AM bottled out of that whilst still using it's christian name?
I've been bowled over by AM ownership, the next might well be a Rapide and it owes a lot to this car.
Edited by Loose_Cannon on Tuesday 25th April 09:53
Edited by Loose_Cannon on Tuesday 25th April 16:55
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