Eight things you never knew about Aston Martin
Founded in 1913, Aston Martin is one of Britain’s best-know brands. Here are eight lesser-known facts about the company.
Aston Martin made the world’s most powerful road car The V8 Vantage V600 of 1998 was a 600bhp souped-up version of the twin-supercharged 550bhp Vantage (pictured), itself a more potent cousin of the un-supercharged 330bhp Vira 
And an Aston also holds the record for being the most expensive British car ever sold In summer 2017, someone paid $22,550,000 – roughly £17 million – for an Aston Martin DBR1, making it the most expensive British car ever sol James Bond originally preferred Bentleys It may be hard to think of Aston Martin without 007 coming to mind, but Ian Fleming’s early books had Bond driving a 1920s supercharged Bentley – said to be “capable of touring at ninety with Aston Martin’s relationship with Lagonda has met with mixed success Aston acquired British luxury manufacturer Lagonda in 1947 and has made around half-a-dozen Lagondas since. The 1976 Series 2 Lagonda had sophisticated but problema An Aston Martin DBS V8 held the caravan speed record Okay, so the RHAM/1 (also know as ‘The Muncher’) was a highly modified version of the DBS V8, but it successfully pulled a caravan at 124.91mph in 1981 – a record that has since b Price Charles is a big fan As the owner of several Astons – including a 1969 DB6 he was given by the Queen for his 21st birthday – the Price of Wales was offered an Aston Martin V8 by the Emir of Bahrain. Rather than choose any old Aston Martin used to sell cars at a loss (allegedly) Aston’s own heritage website relates the tale of a friend of David Brown who asked for a DB6 at cost price. Brown agreed and an invoice for the car duly followed – for £1,000 over No Astons were harmed in the making of this film… The producers behind Die Another Day needed Bond to drive his Aston Martin Vanquish across frozen lakes in Iceland, so four Vanquish bodies were fitted over Ford Explorer SUV mechani
