Motoriginal

Chapter Two: The Meaning Behind Aston Martin’s ‘DB’

Those who think of Aston Martin, associate the name with James Bond due to repeated movie appearances, but someone who should be more associated with Aston Martin is David Brown.

While one could write an entire book on David Brown’s life story and entrepreneurial achievements, let’s focus on his days with Aston Martin.

Most people buy a single car from the classifieds, but in 1947, shortly following WWII, Brown bought the entire Aston Martin company for a wopping £20,500 after finding it listed in the newspaper classified ads.

Brown got down to business quickly. His passion for high performance sports cars and motor racing led him to develop the DB1 (2-Litre Sports) & DB2 which were great cars but came up short in race events.

After taking what he learned from the DB1 & DB2, he developed the DB3S. It quickly showed its potential as a racer when it made its Le Mans debut in 1952 and from 1955-58, it won 3-consecutive Le Mans championships in its class. 

But the most important DB cars were the DBR1 & DBR1S which won more than a half dozen world championships in the late 1950s, including a triumphant win by driver Stirling Moss at Le Mans in 1959.

Following these cars, there have been a dozen other models that have sported the ‘DB’ nameplate, which had been forgotten in the 1970s but revived recently with the DB7, DB9, and DBS and every one of these cars are a little tribute to David Brown, the man who saved Aston Martin in the mid-20th century.

All past ‘The Art of Naming Cars’ posts are compiled into a single page here. You can also read all previous chapters here. Photos courtesy of Aston Martin and other various sources.