David Brown (entrepreneur)
[citation needed] Brown's father offered to buy him a motorcycle to help him get to work on time, so relying on his father's ignorance of motor vehicles, instead of a small docile motorcycle, Brown after considering a Harley Davidson obtained a powerful Reading Standard 1,000 cc V-twin.
He subsequently improved its performance by modifying the engine and raced it in weekend hill climb competitions at Axe Edge Moor and at Sutton Bank.
[2] After achieving the fastest time of the day at Axe Edge Moor he was invited to be a reserve rider for the official Douglas motorcycle team to complete at the next Isle of Man TT.
[3] David Brown & Sons' gear-grinding skills brought him early contacts with A C Bertelli of Aston Martin for gears and Amherst Villiers for his superchargers.
[citation needed] Sent to the United States, Africa and Europe in 1928 to study business methods and factory conditions he returned and started a bronze and steel foundry in Penistone where unemployment was severe.
As well as meeting his group's own needs the foundry made precision castings for a range of industries and uses including aircraft airframes, aero engines, electricity power stations, oilfields and oil refineries.
In 1939, David Brown & Sons acquired the former United Thread Mills factory at Meltham, on the south side of Huddersfield.
[citation needed] The Second World War saw a massive increase in the production of gears and gearboxes by David Brown Ltd for use in military equipment.
The rising income from the company's traditional products and the manufacture of tractors made Brown a wealthy man.
[citation needed] In late 1946, Brown saw a classified advertisement in The Times offering for sale a "High Class Motor Business".
A few days later Brown visited the company's headquarters at Feltham and test drove their new prototype design, the Atom.
[5] While he felt it had good road handling he considered that its 2.0 litre four cylinder pushrod engine lacked power.
[7] As Lagonda had to vacate its premises, Brown stored his new assets in some rented hangars at the London Air Park in Hanworth, which was close to the Aston Martin factory.
The legendary 'DB' series of Aston Martin cars, including the DB1 (2 Litre Sports), the DB2, the DB3, the DB4, the DB5, the DB6, and the DBS, were named after Brown using his initials.
While at the helm of the Aston Martin company, he used a rival product, a Jaguar XJ Series I, as personal transport as it was cheaper to run.
[9] The new owner of Aston Martin Lagonda dropped the DB model designation, which in 1993 was restored during Ford ownership with the introduction of the DB7.
