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When the new DBX was recently unveiled in Beijing, it heralded a bold new chapter and a landmark moment in Aston Martin’s illustrious 106-year history; a new era in the luxury automaker’s pursuit to deliver performance, style and usability in a segment previously unexplored.

While the DBX has no actual precursor in the marque’s long lineage of models, it displays the same adventurous, yet technically sound spirit of another landmark vehicle – a prototype car that formed an important link between two eras of Aston Martin, and also ensured the company’s survival at a critical time.

Constructed in 1939, the Aston Martin Atom is a prototype, yet fully-functional car featuring a steel frame of rectangular tubes in varying sections, depending on the strength needed in a particular area. Designed by Claude Hill, this construction formed a very rigid cage onto which aluminium body panels were attached.

Stylistically, the Atom was unlike any previous or future Aston Martins, and while it may look a bit awkward today its lines were quite modern for the time. More importantly, its chassis and method of construction formed the basis for the post-war Feltham cars – starting with the 2.0-litre sports (DB1) up to the DB Mark III in 1957.

The Atom was originally powered by a model 15/98 engine but by 1944, it had been replaced by a Claude Hill-designed pushrod engine with SU carburettors paired with an advanced four-speed self-changing semi-automatic gearbox with a pair of electromagnetic clutches.

During the war, the Atom was continuously developed and clocked up over 160,000 km. However, Aston Martin, while financially sound and profitable, did not have the money to develop new cars when the war ended. The thenowner Gordon Sutherland put the company up for sale through a classified advert in The Times newspaper in 1946.

The Yorkshire businessman David Brown saw the advert and showed interest, so Sutherland drove the Atom to Meltham to show it to him. It must have sufficiently impressed him, as Brown went on to purchase Aston Martin and owned the company for nearly another 25 years.

His legacy is well known – as virtually all Astons, including the DBX, still carry the DB nomenclature. It all started the day Brown drove the Atom…