Customer Reviews

Aston Martin: Power, Beauty and Soul

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This book chronicles all models produced from about 1986 to 2006, with the greatest focus on the hand crafted V-series cars of 1990-2000 (Virage and all its decedents). In many ways the book shows how the company has made the transition from a ultra-low volume maker of coach built cars into a maker of expensive semi-mass produced sports cars (like an English Ferrari). Personally I have mixed feelings about this transformation, but the book does a magnificent job paying homage to both eras.

Each chapter details one model, or one special run of cars. In some cases the "run" describes production quantities in single digits...in a few cases it even represents a single unique car. The book itself contains amazing photographers, and was obviously produced with great attention to detail and love of the cars/company.

One funny aspect of the book... Many places in the text "well known far east customer" is mentioned, but his name is never actually given. This is obviously the Sultan of Brunei. It is well known he was a major Aston Martin customer during this period, and commissioned many of the highly custom cars in the book. Since these cars are locked far away, this book is the only way to experience these works of art.

I only have one minor complaint. I really wish they included more photos inside of the Newport-Pagnell factory itself. Since this book chronicles the last chapter of hand-made cars, it would have been nice to see more details of this lost art.

Worth every penny.

Very comprehensive of the modern cars. Including many, many one off and unique Astons AND Lagondas also.
An incredible resource.
Hence my "Must Buy" title as above.

Unlike the mostly premium-priced Aston Martin cars, this refreshingly cheap Aston Martin book leaves the buyer with the distinct satisfaction of having received great value for money. The book is best approached as a model, not a company history, and even at that only the cars built under Ford ownership. There is absolutely no shortage of Aston books but this one has several features that set it apart. In no particular order: Mike Harbar's drawings, the inclusion of a number of the seldom seen one-offs (almost everything on that topic here is either new to the record or at least moved from prior obscurity to certainty), and also concept cars and prototypes.

The text is very engagingly written and contains many comments by the very people who actually worked on the cars. The focus is on design, construction, and performance aspects.

Find more detail at book review website www.speedreaders.info

Awesome book. Gave it as a gift to a Aston Martin fanatic and they loved it! Highly suggested according to all online reviews that I read before purchasing.