Performance and Prestige: A History of Aston Martin
The Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles opens a new exhibition, Performance and Prestige: A History of Aston Martin, tracing the British company’s evolution from its 1913 origins. Installed in the Meyers Gallery, the presentation gathers more than a dozen vehicles that embody the changing language of speed and craftsmanship that has defined Aston Martin for over a century.
The Aston Martin exhibition is the first in the museum’s history. The collection of models is organized to convey the shifting priorities of automotive design, which evolved from the pragmatic, streamlined sculpting of post-war racing prototypes to the expressive surfaces of contemporary hypercars.
The exhibition will be open to the public on October 30th, 2025 at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, and will be on view through October 2026.
1979 Aston Martin Bulldog | all images courtesy Petersen Automotive Museum
over a century of lineage shows at the petersen museum
The visitor’s experience at the Petersen Museum exhibition begins with early Aston Martin icons like the 1949 DB2 Prototype. Its compact proportions and upright stance reflecting the lean efficiency of a post-war era when aerodynamics were still an emerging science. The subtle curvature of its aluminum panels catches the gallery lighting with a quiet assurance, revealing the hand-formed nature of its construction.
Nearby, the 1961 DB4GT Zagato — designed in collaboration with legendary coachbuilder Zagato — shows an entirely different presence, one that’s much more minimal and distinctly Italian in its interpretation of British engineering.
1961 Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato
sculptural concepts
The exhibition deepens in tone as it moves into the experimental period of the late 1970s and 1980s, led by the 1979 Bulldog. It’s a single, wedge-shaped concept that embodies the era’s fascination with aerospace geometry. Its gullwing doors and sharply folded planes appear less ornamental, a physical record of an era captivated by the future. The Bulldog showed at the Petersen Museum’s wedge car retrospective earlier this year, see designboom’s coverage here!
A few steps away, the 2015 Vulcan and 2021 Valkyrie Spider chart the brand’s transition into the modern age. The track-only Vulcan’s long carbon-fiber hood stretches across the floor like a shadow, its use for racing evident with its vents and contours. The open-top Valkyrie Spider, by contrast, feels almost architectural: an exploration of lightness and airflow, its structure revealing how Aston Martin has adapted Formula 1 knowledge to the scale of the road.
1964 Aston Martin DB5 (No Time To Die)
The Return to Formula 1
At the center of the gallery, the AMR23 race car signals Aston Martin’s current direction. With its layered carbon elements and purposeful asymmetry, the machine marks the company’s return to the top tier of motorsport under the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One® Team. Its green bodywork is both matte and reflective, shifting tone under the controlled lighting as though in motion even while still.
This moment in the exhibition connects engineering performance with the qualities of proportion and refinement that have defined Aston Martin’s identity for more than a century. The progression from the 1949 DB2 to the AMR23 race car demonstrates technological advancement along with a continuation of the aerodynamic, craft-centric design language.
2012 Aston Martin One-77
For Chief Creative Officer Marek Reichman, the exhibition brings a rare chance to frame design history as living practice. ‘This exhibit not only celebrates the iconic vehicles that have made Aston Martin a symbol of prestige but also highlights our continued innovation,’ he says.
1955 Aston Martin DB3S
project info:
name: Performance and Prestige: A History of Aston Martin
museum: Petersen Museum | @petersenmuseum
on view: October 30th, 2025 — October 2026
photography: courtesy Petersen Automotive Museum
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