The Aston Martin Grille

by Mike Gulett –

One of the first things we notice when we see a car is the front grille. That is except for electric vehicles because they do not need or usually have front grilles.

But on internal combustion engine cars we notice the grille and depending on the car it may be a signature that lets us know who the maker is. The British like distinctive grilles (Rolls Royce, Bentley and Aston Martin come to mind) unlike other car companies like Ferrari with a boring oval shape and Porsche with no grille to speak of on the 911 (maybe because it is air cooled).

Other car makers usually do not have a consistent style or a distinctive front grille design and that is a pity. I know there are a few car makers that do have distinctive grille designs that I am not mentioning here but you must admit the Aston Martin style is unique and has been around for a very long time.

The only other car that has a similar grille shape is the Ford Focus because the designer Ian Callum went from Aston Martin to Ford, fortunately he did not implement the Aston grille exactly but it is close.

Since 1948 the Aston Martin grille lets everyone know who the maker is. The Aston Martin 2-Litre Sports was the first to wear this design style as seen below.

If you study the grille on the DB2 below you can imagine how this shape evolved over the years to what we see on modern Aston Martins today.

The evolution continues on the DB2/4 Mk III below.

The DB4, DB5 and DB6 used grille designs that to me look nearly identical.

Even when other design houses like Zagato did an Aston Martin design like Peter Read’s DB4 GT Zagato below they stayed within the tradition.

In the 1970s the grille shape became more subtle but the basic shape was still there as shown in Buddy Pepp’s V8 below (look closely).

With the DB7 the designers (Ian Callum and Keith Helfet) introduced the modern shape that would stay with Aston Martin for years to come as can be seen on Rebecca Fuller’s DB7 below.

I think our Aston Martin V12 Vanquish S has the classic Aston Martin grille design.

The DB12 grille is much larger, maybe too large?.

Aston Martin loved their grille design so much that they added a “lipstick” paint feature on some race cars and street cars like this one below.

More details than you may want to know about Aston Martin grilles can be found here.

Let us know what you think about grille styles in the Comments.