| ACO |
Automobile Club De L’Ouest. The French equivalent of the British Royal Automobile Club (RAC), it organises and runs the 24 hour race at Le Mans. |
| AIACR |
Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus. The organisation was founded in 1904 to represent the interests of motoring organisations and car users. It is a predecessor organisation of the FIA. |
| ALMS |
American Le Mans Series. An annual series run in north America for the type of racing cars which compete in the 24 hour race at Le Mans. |
| AM |
The quarterly magazine published by the AMOC, predecessor of the ‘AM Magazine’ and ‘AMQ’. |
| AMHT |
The Aston Martin Heritage Trust. The charity which is the custodian of the collection of Aston Martin Lagonda cars, memorabilia and archives. It is based at Drayton St Leonard, near Oxford, in the UK and was founded in 1998. All Members of the AMOC are also Members of the Trust. |
| AML |
Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd; sometimes referred to as ‘the factory’. |
| AMOC |
The Aston Martin Owners Club. One of the oldest and best one make car clubs in the world, looking after Members who share an interest in Aston Martin and Lagonda cars. It is based at Drayton St Leonard, near Oxford, in the UK and was founded in 1935. |
| AMQ |
‘Aston Martin Quarterly’. The quarterly magazine published by the AMOC which is now in full colour. Its previous titles include ‘AM Magazine’ and ‘AM’. |
| AMR | Aston Martin Racing. The joint venture formed by Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd and Prodrive in 2003 to design, develop and compete with Aston Martin racing cars both with works entries and by the sale of cars to other teams. |
| AMW | Aston Martin Works. See AMWS. |
| AMWS | Aston Martin Works Service. The part of AML which provided the maintenance, repair, parts supply, and upgrade service for owners of Aston Martin and Lagonda cars from the David Brown and subsequent eras. It was located at Newport Pagnell, opposite the site of the former factory. It was an integral part of Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd. In 2012 the premises were extensively redeveloped, it was renamed Aston Martin Works and now includes a car sales department. |
| AP | Attribution Prototype. A term introduced by Ford to describe a vehicle used for the development of cars and components but which may not share all its features. These are not usually seen by anyone but the factory’s design, engineering and development staff. |
| BBS | Manufacturer of alloy wheels. |
| Carrozzerria | The term for an Italian coachbuilding organisation such as Touring or Pininfarina. |
| Compomotive | Manufacturer of alloy wheels. |
| COTY | Car Of The Year. An annual competition run by motoring publications to identify their choice of the best car introduced that year. |
| CP | Confirmation Prototype. A term introduced by Ford to describe a development of the Attribution Prototype which is close to the specification of the final production vehicle. |
| CRT | Cathode ray tubes, better known as TV screens. Small ones were used to show information on the dashboard in some of the V8 Lagondas. |
| Coupé | A closed body car, the term replaced ‘saloon’ for AML’s cars in the mid 1990s. |
| DHC | Drop Head Coupe. A car with a folding hood and which is more luxuriously appointed than a convertible. |
| Dymag | Manufacturer of alloy wheels. |
| EFI | Electronic fuel injection. |
| Electron | An alloy of magnesium and aluminium which is light in weight, strong, but expensive. It was used in the 1930s. |
| FI | Fuel injection. |
| FIA | Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile. The governing body for world motor sport and the federation of the world’s leading motoring organisations. It has its HQ in Paris. |
| FHC | Fixed Head Coupe. A car built to resemble a drop head coupe or convertible, but with a fixed roof made of the same material as the rest of the body e.g. aluminium. One result is that sometimes the room for rear passengers is restricted. |
| GKN | Manufacturer of alloy wheels, and chassis for pre-1940 cars. |
| Hartford | Manufacturer of adjustable suspension dampers which incorporated wooden discs to provide the damping effect. |
| Hunter Green Collection | A collection of nine different V8 engined cars commissioned in 1987 to celebrate 21 years of V8 production in 1990. The cars were all finished in Hunter Green paint, tan leather, burr walnut veneer and dark green carpet. The cars had consecutive registration numbers, and were kept as a collection until sold individually by Bonhams in June 2005. |
| LHD | Left hand drive. |
| LMS | The European Le Mans Series. An annual series of races run in Europe for the type of cars which compete in the 24 hour race at Le Mans. |
| MY | Model Year. The year, usually starting after the summer break, in which the car was built. The new MY often coincides with the introduction of specification changes. For further information please see the Introduction from the Registrar. |
| NEC | The National Exhibition Centre. A series of large exhibition halls near Birmingham in Warwickshire. The British Motor Show was held there from 1978 to 2004 |
| Oz | Manufacturer of alloy wheels. |
| PAG | Premier Automotive Group. The part of Ford Motor Company which controlled its premium marques, i.e. Aston Martin Lagonda, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lincoln, Mercury and Volvo. |
| PCOTY | Performance Car Of The Year. An annual competition run by motoring publications to identify their choice of the best high performance car introduced that year. |
| POW | Prince of Wales. V8 engined cars built to the specification originally established by HRH the Prince of Wales. |
| RHD | Right hand drive. |
| Ronal | Manufacturer of alloy wheels. |
| RSW | R S Williams Ltd of Cobham, Surrey, UK and formerly at Brixton in London. A Heritage specialist appointed by AML which offers upgrades and conversions for Aston Martin cars in addition to service, repair and parts. RSW developed the 6.3 and the 7 litre versions of the V8. |
| Silentblok | Manufacturer of flexible bushes used for mounting components such as engines and exhaust pipes. |
| Tourer | A rather loosely defined term to describe car bodies. For pre-1940 cars it was generally used for any non sporting style of car such as a two or four door saloon; one with a folding hood would be termed an open tourer. In more recent times it has come to mean the same as an open tourer. |
| VH | Vertical/Horizontal. The design philosophy used by AML for cars produced at Gaydon. The Vertical component refers to the principles of body and chassis construction which enable various sized vehicles to be developed easily. The Horizontal part covers the integration of various components (such as engines or air conditioning) across the range of cars. There have been several generations of VH to date; VH1 was used for the DB9, VH2 for the DBS and V8 Vantage, VH3 for the Rapide, and VH4 for the 2012 Vanquish and the Rapide S. |
| Volante | The term used by AML for its open bodied cars, it was first used for the 1965 Short Chassis Volante. |