by Mike

My wife and I were walking in London sometime in late 1999, probably in the Mayfair area, when we spotted an Aston Martin DB7 parked on the street. This was the first DB7 we had ever seen and it was the most beautiful car we had ever seen. Aston Martin’s were much more rare in 1999 than they are now and the DB7 still stands out as a great achievement in design beauty.

When we returned to California we went to an Aston Martin dealer in early 2000 (the only one within a few hundred miles then), test drove a DB7, and ordered one. They were made to order back then and Aston Martin would do just about anything that the customer wanted, for a price.

I was back in the UK on business later in 2000, a few months before our car was due, and was able to visit the Aston Martin factory in Bloxham, England where DB7s were hand assembled. There was something secret going on, we were told that they had to clear out some special parts before our visit. Much later I figured out they must have been working on the Vanquish which had not been introduced at the time of my factory visit.

The following are my pictures from the DB7 factory which closed in 2004. The cars were manually pushed from station to station on a cart.

The Aston Martin office at Bloxham was a great place to visit and Aston Martin treated their customers well.

Our 2001 DB7 Vantage in early 2001.

Aston Martin DB7 – Part 2 is here.