Aston Martin was founded by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford with their first car being built in 1921.  The company name comes from the Aston Clinton hill climb where Lionel Martin used to compete, joined with his surname.  Production began first in Kensington before moving to Feltham in Middlesex.  The cars that were built were primarily for racing with small numbers also produced for road use.  Financial difficulties and poor sales resulted in several changes of ownership, until after WW II when industrialist David Brown acquired the company, also buying Lagonda at the same time.  The DB (David Brown) 1 was followed by a series of fast and expensive GT cars, with much emphasis being placed on racing success.  In 1959, Aston Martin were Sports Car World Champions and also won Le Mans.  In the 1960’s an Aston Martin DB5 was used in the James Bond film “Goldfinger”, with this relationship between Aston Martin and the OO7 series continuing today.  David Brown sold the company in 1972 and for decades afterwards changes of ownership and financial difficulties occurred often.  Today, Aston Martin continues to build their world famous supercars at Gaydon in Warwickshire with the new DBX SUV being produced at St. Athan in Wales.