The history of Aston Martin is a crash-bang-wallop epic worthy of 007 himself, the secret agent with whom the Gaydon marque has become inextricably intertwined. Drama, death-defying escapes and heroic flourishes: since 1913 Aston has experienced the lot.

For example, in 1922, as well as competing in the French GP for the first time, ‘Bunny’ - an Aston prototype - broke no fewer than ten world records when it averaged 76mph at Brooklands. Just three years later the company was close to insolvency, then rescued, renamed Aston Martin Motors, and relocated to Feltham. Lionel Martin was to leave the business he co-founded just a year later.

Le Mans success followed, preceded by another rescue of the company in 1932, but it wasn’t until 1947 that we reached the ‘David Brown’ era; the gentleman whose initials have adorned Astons since the 1948 2.0-litre Sports, later known as the DB1.

Ups and downs naturally followed, but today we stand before a revitalised AM: with Andy Palmer at the helm a new chassis architecture was developed for the DB11 and Vantage, a deal done with Mercedes for engines and electric gubbins and former Lotus handling expert Matt Becker brought on-board.

So to celebrate the new DBS Superleggera - the company’s replacement for the Vanquish S - we thought it worth a trawl through the DB bloodline’s rather pretty history.

Which means a look back at the most famous Aston Martin models ever built. Time to pick a favourite…