Showing blog posts for One 77

After a shaky marriage with America’s Ford Motor Corp, Aston Martin has successfully returned to form under the stewardship of Prodrive’s David Richards and more importantly, committed funds from Kuwaiti investment companies.

The Gaydon HQ is an impressive site; with its security guards, modern architecture, water features and contemporary art, you would be forgiven for thinking you were arriving at a Bond Villain’s lair. V12 Vantages and DBS are strewn throughout the car park and our group is greeted by Mark Gauntlett a senior executive of Aston Martin who harks back to the old school of the company’s glory days. We discover his father was once the chairman and as he begins his tour we realise he has lived and breathed the firm’s heritage all his life. There is so much to see and take in and Gauntlett has every detail memorised; as my mind wanders I stare longingly at a DBS rolling off the production line, I am half expecting to hear “pay attention 007!”

The factory is unusually quiet with no heavy-duty welding on site; the cars’ components are assembled and thoroughly stress-tested by countless engineers on the floor. I am amazed to see how manual the process is, but despite some critics’ reservations around Astons’ build quality of old, it is reassuring that the company is able to retain a traditional artisan element in the manufacture of these beautiful cars. A new Porsche, in contrast, is very much order-form driven whereas an Aston is a unique project from start to finish, with details such as body-work colours added from bespoke samples chosen by the buyer.

Test-driving follows the factory tour and I am given the chance to stretch the legs of a fully spec’ed DB9 Volante, followed by the gorgeously muscular DBS coupe. Having driven up from London to Gaydon in a F355 GTS I have low expectations as to how much driver-feedback I will receive through the cockpit of the modern DB versus the analogue ‘90s Ferrari. How wrong I am. The big Aston has plenty to give and with the roof down and with the sun pouring into the stunning hand-built fuselage, I begin to get the joke (I also remember how good the car looked when Vincent Chase and his pals were cruising through the Hollywood Hills in Entourage!). The DB9 doesn’t try and be something other than itself, it exudes pure class – it doesn’t drive you, it wafts you, and in some style. Having witnessed the individual seamstresses just moments ago threading each leather panel to each seat component, I begin to really appreciate what the Aston signature wings are all about: exclusivity and desirability.

These two qualities are delivered in spades in the DBS. Collecting a brand new DBS from Gaydon must be up there, I would imagine, with one of the most memorable supercar-owner experiences. It’s hard to take your eyes off this car because from every angle it makes you want to re-mortgage your house, hit the gym, buy the car (and a tuxedo), drive to Monaco and put whatever is left “on black”. For starters, you sit lower than in the DB9 and the ride is tighter, the exhaust note thunderous and the interior detailing is more “secret agent” than “desperate house-wife”. The car pulls from very low revs, thanks to its V12 power plant which produces a mighty 510 bhp and 570 Nm of torque – this makes overtaking on Warwickshire’s single-lane A-roads an absolute doddle, especially when matched to the smooth-as-silk automatic, paddle-operated transmission on my test-car. When cruising, the DBS is as refined as its older sibling – the DB9 – yet a quick dab on the left paddle, sink your right foot into the well and the signature Aston howl fills your eardrums and deafens whichever poor soul is trying to keep up.

We wrap up the day with a design brief from the visual architects behind the staggeringly impressive One-77, and more controversially, the new Aston Martin Cygnet. The Cygnet represents Aston’s first stab at a mainstream, city car. The car is the result of impending EU legislation around emission averages across a manufacturer’s total product range. By introducing a Smart-esque car, and selling it in large numbers, it is likely to make a decent dent in their emissions output. The prototype in front of us at Gaydon proves to be quite a divisive talking point. Two members of our group, who are proud owners of the V12 Vantage and the DBS, are a little suspicious of the brand dilution that could be the product of too many Cygnets flooding the market. However this Cygnet, which is by no means an ugly-duckling, has a fairly prohibitive price tag of £28k. I still feel that the car will sell, as it looks like a piece of jewellery on wheels and will be too much for the WAGs and teenage oil heiresses to resist.