Dr Palmer had already referred to plans during his presentation at the Walter Hayes Lecture in January 2015 to offer a broader range of Aston Martins to appeal to discerning customers other than affluent, successful middle aged men. The DBX Conceot represents such a car to attract more female owners as well as younger drivers. The idea behind concept began on only the fourth day of Dr Palmers time as CEO and was completed within only 5 months.

“Aston Martin must be less dependent on a narrow portfolio and one type of customer,” Mr Palmer said at the 2015 Geneva press conference.

Created to defy conventional thinking about the luxury GT segment, the DBX Concept has the potential to widen the appeal of the iconic British marque and reaches out to a more diverse global audience than ever before. In fact the design team had a very clear focus on creating a car to a particular woman customer, mid 30’s, style conscious, successful and wealthy, living in Silicon Valley and called ‘Charlotte’.

Unveiling the concept, Aston Martin CEO Dr Andy Palmer said: “The DBX Concept is a challenge to the existing status quo in the high luxury GT segment. It envisages a world, perhaps a world not too far away, when luxury GT travel is not only stylish and luxurious but also more practical, more family-friendly and more environmentally responsible.”

Clearly signalling an extension to the brand’s existing model lines in the future, the all-wheel drive DBX Concept seamlessly combines traditional Aston Martin beauty with elegant new engineering that gracefully aligns form and function.

Capable of accommodating four adults in comfort, the DBX Concept also majors on day-to-day practicality. It offers generous luggage capacity by virtue of the fact that its rear trunk and forward load bay can both accept passengers’ belongings.

Embracing the very latest engineering techniques and theories, the DBX Concept needs no engine compartment thanks to its use of electric, inboard-of-wheel, motors powered by lithium sulphur cells mounted low down along the spine of the chassis. It even features an array of solar panels on the rear parcel shelf to capture the suns energy to help keep the batteries topped up.

Drive-by-wire electric steering, toughened glass with an auto-dimming ‘smart glass’ inter-layer, and bespoke driver and passenger head-up displays are further examples of its cutting edge technology.

Active LED exterior lights, carbon ceramic brakes with a kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) and rear view cameras in place of conventional mirrors also underline the mould-breaking nature of this luxury GT concept.

The production DBX was not anticipated to closely follow this concept and indeed when it is seen in 2019, it was nothing like it. It had a petrol engine and it also had four doors. But the new car was called the DBX it had 4 wheel drive and it was built in Wales. Below are pictures of the repainted DBX Concept, some at the St Athan AMOC Spring Concours in 2017 shortly after the vast facility was taken over by AML. As you can see by the Hercules transport plane, the St Athan hangers are seriously big.

These early cars all had the same four cylinder 1486 cc side valve engine with what at the time would have been a heady power output of 38 bhp allowing for a top speed in the region of 77 mph.

For many years, chassis 1926 has been fitted with more sporty 2-seater coachwork and it continued to be entered in competitive events.

More recently chassis 1926 has been painstakingly restored back to the same specification as it was built back in 1923 with the attractive 3 seat layout. The first event that the car was seen was the 2013 Spring Concours at Greenwich where the car won the pre-war class. It then went on to appear as the 4th car in the 101 car timeline during the Aston Martin Centenary Celebration at Kensington Palace in July 2013. It has been recently found that ‘Cloverleaf’ is perhaps the 5th oldest Aston Martin in existence yet as all the early cars were prototypes or race cars, it is the 2nd oldest road going production Aston Martin. Price when new was only £695 plus £11 purchase tax, around £40,000 in todays money. Lionel Martin himself had a similar Cloverleaf bodied car, AM270, although it was believed scrapped in the 1930’s.

During 2014, the Cloverleaf gained even more exposure when Matt Baker took the car up Aston Hill in Buckinghamshire on the BBC TV programme, Countryfile. Interestingly this occurred exactly 90 years, almost to the day, that Cloverleaf came 2nd in the speed trial at Aston Clinton Hill.

Before we consider the Valkyrie, I came across this 2010 mock up of a road car (see above) designed by Adrian Newey and on display in the Red Bull Hanger-7 near Salzburg Airport. It’s not a real road car and only exists in the virtual word of the Play Station 3 game, Gran Turismo. It came about following this question from the Japanese games designer Kazunori Yamauchi,“If you built the fastest racing car on land, one that throws aside all rules and regulations, what would that car look like, how would it perform, and how would it feel to drive?” As the Valkyrie matches that description, is it a precursor to the most extreme Aston Martin in history? I don’t really know but its a possibility I suppose.

Combining the strongest elements of Red Bull Racing, Red Bull Advanced Technologies, Aston Martin and project partner Switzerland based AF Racing AG,  the new partnership unites the world’s best aerodynamicists, composite experts and manufacturing masters. Rather than trying to out-drag the Bugatti Chiron, the focus is on aerodynamics and building a car that will be quick around a circuit. AML CEO, Andy Palmer has stated that the new road car is intended to lap the Silverstone GP circuit in a time equal or less than either an F1 or LMP1 race car – this is about 1 minute, 37 seconds. All this from a two seater road car. 

The concept was unveiled at the Gaydon factory in July 2016 in front of workers and members of the press. Not too many details were given but what we did find out was the price (between £2 and £3 million), numbers (at least 99 but no more than 150) and that the performance will be comparable to that of an LMP1 sports car. By the time of the unveiling, 370 people had requested to be on the list to own one of the cars. 

Aston Martin have never built a production mid-engined car before although they came close back in 1980 with the unique, 200 mph, gull-winged two seat concept known as the Bulldog. Also another mid engined Aston Martin that never saw the light of day was the AM305M, the forerunner to the massively successful V8 Vantage.

Below is a selection of press images showing the full sized concept model

The photographs below show what I believe to be the same model but repainted in signature AMR colours, probably in advance of the 2017 Geneva Motor Show, to coincide with the launch of the AMR sub-brand. It was displayed during 2017 at both the opening event of the St Athan factory and the Gaydon factory family day. 

Again at Gaydon but this time in the Atrium. A more developed full sized concept with a representation of the interior taken during 2018 and 2019.

Another prototype DBX made a surprise visit to No.10 Downing Street to celebrate St David’s Day in 2019. At the same time, other cars were shown being tested at Pirelli’s official test facility, close to the Arctic Circle in Sweden.

All the photos of disguised prototypes were taken at an event at the Gaydon facility during the autumn of 2019. The yellow car is a much earlier development example whereas the red one is probably a later pre-production prototype and one of the first cars to be built at the new St Athan facility in Wales.

The production of the DBX was slightly affected by the Covid Pandemic but the first true production car came off the line during July 2020.

The Gen4 VH architecture features significant changes to the underbody structure which includes lowering the engine by 19mm. This has principally been done for compliance with the latest European Pedestrian Protection regulation without the need for complex deployable systems. That said, lowering of the engine has contributed to lowering the centre of gravity of the DB9 as a whole improving handling and driver response. The ‘new’ DB9 has a 20% increase in stiffness over the original model, it is also 15 kg lighter too.

The AM11 spec engine in the ‘new’ DB9 is exactly the same as fitted to the range topping Vanquish, but has been tuned to suit the character of the DB9. With peak power of 510 bhp, it is 40 bhp more powerful than the 2009MY DB9, 20 bhp more powerful than the previous Virage is therefore equal to the previous range topping GT, the DBS. As with the later original DB9 and Virage, the Gen4 DB9 is only available with six speed Touchtronic transmission with no manual option.

The ‘new’ DB9 braking system uses drilled Brembo Carbon Ceramic Matrix (CCM) discs and monoblock calipers. The brakes are around 12.5kg lighter than a conventional system and on a GT in the price range of the DB9, CCM braking technology is rarely fitted as standard.

The 2013MY DB9 features Aston Martin’s ‘Gen4’ VH architecture version of the Adaptive Damping System (ADS). This next generation of ADS has been enhanced to include three modes; Normal, to deliver the greatest ride comfort, Sport, focused at delivering sharper handling and Track mode, where the damping operates within the range of the stiffest settings.

As with the previous Virage, the same 20 inch wheels come as standard, either 5 spoke as standard or a 10 spoke wheel as a cost option. In addition a new 10 spoke sport wheel, previously available on the DBS is available each of which is a kilo lighter than the standard wheel. Pirelli P Zero tyres are standard fit on the DB9 although Pirelli P Zero Corsa performance tyres are a cost option.

Two small but useful additions to the 2013MY DB9 are automatic rain sensing wipers and also headlights which automatically turn on and off according to the light levels in the surrounding environment. The ‘new’ DB9 can be specified as a 2+2 or as a 2+0 with lightweight seats use a carbon fibre and Kevlar composite structure, manufactured by Belco Avia,  who also supply the motorsports and aerospace industries. By specifying the lightweight seats, their is a significant weight saving of 17 kg per car.

Identifying the ‘new’ DB9 from the outgoing Virage is really quite difficult. All of the special features of the Virage such as the aerosol section front grille, revised side strake design, bi-xenon headlights, glass switches and the welt feature in the interior. One way is that the DB9 has a pronounced flip-up on the boot lid. Also as an option, the DB9 can be specified with an exterior carbon pack comprising carbon fibre front splitter, rear diffuser, exterior mirror heads and mirror arms as well as a graphitic finish tail pipe trim.

Production of the revised DB9 ended in the Summer of 2015 and the car was replaced by the more powerful DB9 GT.

On show at the Geneva Salon in March 2010 was a single, right hand drive silver car with a bright red leather interior which received much attention. I was fortunate to sit in and have a look around the luxuriously appointed cabin – it looked and smelt like an Aston yet had the feel of a Smart, very unusual to say the least.

Of course the Cygnet progressed from the concept stage to reach full production with only a small number of changes. The DB9 style door handles were dropped, the interior door handles were changed and the boot latch was relocated to beneath the lip.

The Frazer Tickford Metro is perhaps the spiritual grandfather of the Aston Martin Cygnet. It was introduced in 1981 at a price of £11,700 and was constructed by Aston Martin’s special engineering department, Tickford. Unlke the Cygnet, it was never badged as an Aston Martin though. It is believed that 26 were built and sold.

Top speed is probably only academic in a high-downforce track car, but AML stated 225mph with others suggesting 250. Of far greater benefit to lap time is the track-only Valkyrie’s ability to achieve lateral acceleration in excess of 3G – a figure far beyond that of any other car derived from a fully homologated road car. 

The inspiration behind the Valkyrie AMR Pro is Adrian Newey, Chief Technical Officer of Aston Martin Red Bull Racing together with Aston Martin’s most talented design and engineering teams, led by Marek Reichman – Aston Martin’s Chief Creative Officer – and David King – Chief Special Operations Officer.

Already by 2018, the then planned production run of 25 cars was already sold out by the time the concept was first shown, even at a suggested price in excess of £3,000,000. Delivery was anticipated to be during 2020 but this has was massively affected by the global pandemic and the difficulties of bringing such a complex car to market. 

Valkyrie AMR Pro Concept, Geneva Salon 2018

The regular DBX was discontinued in mid 2024 leaving the DBX 707 as the only model available.