Manufacturers of luxury or sports cars sell their cars almost entirely based on one factor: image. They have plenty of ways of promoting this, but one of the best ones is to pit their cars, engines and teams against the car, engine and team of another manufacturer. This is why you find so many of the luxury car manufacturers creating racing models as well, be they F1, LeMan, Autosport or whichever other competitions happen to take their fancy.

Aston Martin have a history of engaging in racing as their founder co-created versions of their cars to compete in the French Grand Prix as early as 1922, setting speed and endurance records on the track. It’s not surprising that such successes bore them on to competing in more races whilst also making people aware of, and interested in, their cars.

When people saw them winning races they wanted one themselves, which was one of the first instances of a car creating an image for itself that people wanted to buy in to. Who wouldn’t want one of the fastest cars available at the time?

This racing streak was continued after World War II when David Brown Limited bought the company in 1947. The models produced during this period, the world famous DBs, all won plenty of races for the company, bringing in prize money but, more importantly, demonstrating just how fast, slick and cool the cars really were. Read the rest of this entry »