1. JAMES BOND’S DB5
The most prolific of all Bond cars, ripe with useful features — ejector seat, machine guns, bullet shield, rotating number plates — which Aston Martin curiously continues to omit from its parts catalogue. First seen in Goldfinger (1964) and most recently blown up, for the umpteenth time, in Skyfall (2012), but will doubtless be recycled in future. A more appropriate 007 companion than the Ford Edge, but then not much about Quantum of Solace made sense.

2. COUNT LOUIS ZBOROWSKI
In the line of wealthy customers who have opened their wallets for love of Aston, the Flying Count rides high. He wanted to go grand prix racing, so he funded Aston Martin with a staggering £10,000 to build the two twin-ohc 16-valve racers that went to Strasbourg in 1922. And at Brooklands he kept Aston’s wings spread with a string of records and wins. It wasn’t all Chitty-Bang-Bang.

3. YELLOW EYEBROWS
Initially there merely as an identification feature, the yellow stripe along the flared top of Frank Feeley’s ‘Gothic arch’ DB3S cutaway wheelarch has become one of those visual tropes that signify certain cars, like a cavallino rampante on the flank, a BRM’s orange noseband or the white bands across the nose of an Ecurie Ecosse C-type.