Aston Martin

Lionel Martin raced specials at Aston Hill near Aston Clinton before the founders decided to build their own cars, and the company name combines Aston Hill with Martin's surname. In 1922, Bamford & Martin produced cars to compete in the French Grand Prix and went on to set world speed and endurance records at Brooklands. Three works Team Cars with 16-valve twin-cam engines were built for racing and record-breaking: chassis 1914, later developed as the Green Pea; chassis 1915, the Razor Blade record car; and chassis 1916, later developed as the Halford Special.

Between 1926 and 1937, under technical director and designer Augustus (Bert) Bertelli, the company produced the cars since known as "Bertelli cars," including the 1½-litre "T-type," "International," "Le Mans," and "MKII" with its racing derivative the "Ulster," and the 2-litre 15/98 with its racing derivative the "Speed Model." Bertelli was a competent driver, keen to race his own cars and one of few owner/manufacturer/drivers. The "LM" team cars were successful in national and international motor racing, including at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

After David Brown Limited bought Aston Martin in 1947, the company built the classic "DB" series. In April 1950 it announced production of a Le Mans prototype to be called the DB2, and the subsequent DB models helped establish a strong racing pedigree. A 1956 Aston Martin DBR1 later became the most expensive British car ever sold at auction, fetching US$22,550,000 at a Sotheby's sale in August 2017.

Under Victor Gauntlett's chairmanship in the early 1980s, the company's racing involvement continued via a Tickford-engined Nimrod Group C car owned by Aston Martin Owners Club President Viscount Downe, which came third in the Manufacturers' Championship in both 1982 and 1983 and finished seventh in the 1982 24 Hours of Le Mans. Gauntlett's racing interests took the company back into sports car racing in 1989 with limited European success, before engine rule changes for the 1990 season ended that effort.

In December 2003, Aston Martin announced it would return to motor racing in 2005. A new division, Aston Martin Racing, was created and became responsible — together with Prodrive — for the design, development, and management of the DBR9 programme. The DBR9 competed in the GT class in sports car races, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Aston Martin Racing currently competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship; it is operated by Prodrive as part of an agreement with Aston Martin rather than being directly owned by the company. In October 2023, Aston Martin announced it would compete in the FIA World Endurance Championship and the IMSA SportsCar Championship in 2025.

Aston Martin participated as a Formula One constructor in 1959 and 1960, entering six races over the two years but failing to score any points. In January 2020, it was announced that the Racing Point F1 Team would be rebranded as Aston Martin for the 2021 season, following a funding investment led by Racing Point owner Lawrence Stroll. As part of the rebrand the team switched its racing colour from BWT pink to a modern iteration of Aston Martin's British racing green. The Aston Martin AMR21 was unveiled in March 2021 as the marque's first Formula One car after a 61-year absence from the sport. The Formula One team is owned by Lawrence Stroll, a major Aston Martin shareholder, and operated by his company AMR GP; it uses the Aston Martin brand but is not directly owned by Aston Martin.

This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule. Per scope direction, general road-car and corporate-ownership history present in the corpus was deliberately excluded to keep this a focused motorsport article.