'This pacy history of a legendary brand is a love letter to an era of gears and gasoline now accelerating towards its twilight' - Financial Times '[Told] with a genuine affection ... a glorious tale of British seat-of-the-pants invention' - Mail on Sunday --------- From bestselling author, racer and stunt driver Ben Collins - the man who was The Stig - comes a story of spies, speed and hard-driving genius: a driver's love letter to one of the world's best-loved machines. Aston Martin's first, wickedly fast models were forged at a time when Ferrari's premises at Maranello was nothing but a ploughed field. This book celebrates a century of innovators who kept the fire burning brightly for over a century, from the visionary pioneers Martin and Bamford to modern-day design guru Adrian Newey; from a glamorous web of pre- and post-war spies and racing drivers, to David Brown and the achingly beautiful DB models beloved of Bonds past and present. Ben Collins explores the car with the double-o prefix from a unique perspective behind the wheel, carving through country lanes in his father's V8 Vantage, driving Aston Martins in four James Bond movies and competing against them in the legendary Le Mans 24-hour race. Ultimately, this is a very British success story: of a triumph of engineering that has burned brightly from the Roaring 20s to the 2020s, and an iconic car that never says die.

Author Biography

Ben Collins, formerly The Stig from the BBC's internationally acclaimed Top Gear, was the benchmark of speed against which hundreds of celebrities set themselves,: the man that everyone - including Formula One stars Nigel Mansell and Lewis Hamilton - tried and failed to beat. He is also the go-to guy for Hollywood car chases (he was Bond's stunt driver in every film since Quantum of Solace) and has raced successfully in almost every class imaginable, from Touring Cars and Le Mans 24 Hour to the American Stock Car circuit.