In 1914, Lionel Martin entered the light car market with a car of his own making, the Aston-Martin, spelling it with a hyphen. This was used up until 1926 when his company went into liquidation. A new company then took over and dropped the hyphen, calling their new cars Aston Martins. But by 1930 the hyphen had crept back into some advertising. In 1932, the firm re-established the hyphenated spelling with a new enamel badge on the radiators of their cars. David Brown dropped the hyphen completely, although adding his own name as a prefix.

The DB4 was produced between 1958 to 1963, with a total of 1040 cars were made and at least 5 series were produced.
The DB4′s unique design and performance would later form the basis for future Aston Martin classics. The 3.7 L (3670 cc/223 in³) engine, designed by Tadek Marek, was a dual overcam shaft straight-6. It could accelerate from 0-60 mph (97 km/h) in 9.3 seconds and from start to 100 m.p.h. to stop in 26.2 seconds! It was a four-seater production sports car, which was comfortable and truly fast. Superleggera aluminum paneled tubular steel with a completely rust proof chassis which was inselated for noise and heat.