Aston Martin’s competition prowess has assured the marque’s survival from its very earliest days.

It began with a Singer-based special built by Lionel Martin and Richard Bamford before the First War.

So successful were they in hillclimbs that they adopted the name of their most successful venue, Ashton Clinton near London, as an integral part of the marque name.

After the war similar cars powered by L-head four-cylinder engines with iron cylinder block and head cast as a unit, light alloy crankcase, 4-speed transmission and torque tube drive followed.

Piloted by such lights as Count Louis Zborowski, Sammy Davis, H.

Kensington-Moir and Clive Gallop, the side valve cars were renowned for their excellent handling, their reliability and their speed.

These first Aston Martins were good enough that in 1921 H.

Kensington-Moir took the most famous of them, “Bunny,” to Brooklands and set a British record, averaging over 86mph for an hour.

She followed that up with another Brooklands rec...