CarBrandLogos archive · Aston Martin · 1958
Superleggera bodywork, a new all-alloy six, and the shape of every Aston since.
Discover the storyPhoto: Lothar Spurzem · CC BY-SA 2.0 de
The story
Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Aston Martin DB4, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.
01
The DB4 of 1958 was a clean break. Aston Martin moved production to Newport Pagnell, adopted a platform chassis in place of the old tubular frame, commissioned a new engine and licensed a new way of building bodies.
1962 Aston Martin DB4 Series 5 Vantage GT · Stephen Foskett (Wikipedia User: sfoskett) · CC BY-SA 3.0
02
That body method came from Carrozzeria Touring in Milan, whose Superleggera patent used a cage of small-diameter steel tubes to support hand-formed aluminium panels. Federico Formenti drew the shape, and it worked so well that its proportions - long bonnet, short deck, and a grille that has barely changed in principle since - became the marque's identity for the next sixty years.
1960 Aston Martin DB4 Series I rear · Mr.choppers · CC BY-SA 3.0
03
The engine was Tadek Marek's: an all-aluminium 3.7-litre straight-six with twin overhead camshafts, quoted at 240 bhp at 5,000 rpm. It had been conceived with racing in mind and it made the DB4 one of the fastest cars on sale, at the cost of some early unreliability while the design settled down.
1961 Aston Martin DB4 interior · dave_7 from Lethbridge, Canada · CC BY 2.0
04
Two derivatives matter more than the standard car. The DB4 GT, shortened and lightened with faired-in headlamps, was built in a run of 75 and raced seriously. Nineteen of those chassis went to Zagato in Milan, which produced the DB4 GT Zagato, a smaller and far more aggressive body that is now among the most valuable British cars in existence.
05
Production totalled 1,204 cars between 1958 and 1963, across five series that gradually improved the cooling, the brakes and the trim. The DB5 that followed was an evolution of it - larger engine, cowled lamps and a film contract that made it famous - but the engineering that mattered was done here.
At a glance
Produced
1958–1963Units built
1,204Body
2+2 coupéTechnical specification
Badge at launch
This is the marque emblem that accompanied the DB4's era. The full identity timeline is documented in the brand archive.
Explore the logo history →From the journal
Lineage
Contemporaries from the 1950s
Spotted something wrong on this page? Send us the correction — with a source, and we will fix it. How this site is written.
