Aston Martin

Aston Martin Lagonda’s second UK manufacturing plant has started to produce cars, as the latest pre-production models of the luxury British carmaker’s first SUV, the Aston Martin DBX, are built. The 90-acre, former Ministry of Defence site at St Athan in Wales was announced as the second UK plant for Aston Martin Lagonda in early 2016 and since then the whole site, including three ‘Super Hangars’, has been transformed into a modern manufacturing facility for our hand-crafted British cars. Forming part of Aston Martin’s continued investment in the UK, the opening of St Athan has so far created 200 jobs and is expected to create up to 550 more. Also, as a direct result of this investment a further 3,000 jobs will likely be created across the supply chain and local businesses.

Aston Martin DBX – the British luxury marque’s first SUV – has continued its intensive development programme this week at Pirelli’s official test facility, close to the Arctic Circle in Sweden. Pirelli’s R&D Sottozero Centre at the Flurheden Proving Ground provides a range of extreme environments, from snowy roads to ice handling courses, allowing Aston Martin’s vehicle dynamics specialists – led by Aston Martin Chief Engineer, Matt Becker – to put the DBX prototype to the test.

The latest title from Porter Press takes readers behind the scenes at Aston Martin to witness the resurrection of the DB4 G.T., one of the most desirable cars ever made. Aston Martin DB4GT Continuation – History in the Making by James Page is due out this month in the UK with sales in the US shortly thereafter with a cover price of $60usd. When the Aston Martin announced in early 2017 that it would build 25 Continuation examples of this model, first made from 1959 to 1963, author James Page was granted exclusive access to key people involved in the project and to the Aston Martin Works factory where the cars took shape.

Aston Martin has agreed to an important new long-term partnership with the D’station Racing AMR team, signaling a high-profile return to the Japanese Super GT Championship for the British luxury sportscar manufacturer in 2019. The agreement, which features the highest level of partner support from Aston Martin Racing, includes a one-car programme in the Super GT 300 class (comprised mainly of customer and works-supported GT3 machinery) using the new Aston Martin Vantage GT3.

Aston Martin’s increasing commitment to historic motorsport has been cemented with the creation of Aston Martin Heritage Racing – an over-arching brand that unites the company’s assorted historic motorsport activities under one banner. In the first of several major new initiatives, Aston Martin has joined forces with Masters Historic Racing – one of the world’s leading historic race event organizers and promoters – to become its official automotive partner. The partnership places Aston Martin and its customers at the heart of the action, through a number of core activities. The most visible of these are the supply of Aston Martin road cars as Official Pace cars and Course cars for Masters Historic Racing. For 2019 this will see Aston Martin’s driver-focused sports car – the Vantage – head each of the grids at selected MHR race weekends, leading the field […]

Aston Martin is poised to take the 89th Geneva International Motor Show by storm with the global debut of the Lagonda All-Terrain Concept. Following the successful relaunch of Lagonda as the world’s first luxury zero emission brand and the surprise debut of the Lagonda Vision Concept at last year’s Geneva Show, 2019 sees the reveal of Lagonda’s All-Terrain Concept. The first model Lagonda will put into production, the All-Terrain Concept bears the bold hallmarks of the Vision Concept. By taking full advantage of its zero-emission platform Lagonda’s design team has created a car boasting extraordinary style and space efficiency combined with a rakish design language that demonstrates the unique freedom afforded by Lagonda’s commitment to zero emission powertrain technologies.

Aston Martin is set to launch a brand new program in 2019, where customers can enjoy exhilarating race track experiences at iconic circuits, with expert guidance available through the AMR Drivers’ Club. This customer-focused driving academy will offer various levels of tuition to suit each driver, from exploring the capabilities of their own Aston Martin to finding the limit in some of the marque’s most extreme track cars, for those with aspirations to race. Sebastien Delmaire, Director of Aston Martin Partnerships, said: Our customers have been inquiring about this type of programme for a while now so we are delighted to be able to offer such a strong and structured package of experiences.  From the customer who would like to know what his or her Aston Martin is capable of, from the manufacturer who designed and built their car, to […]

Aston Martin is pleased to announce the appointment of Alexa Harnett for Aston Martin The Americas, reporting to Laura Schwab, president of Aston Martin the Americas, effective January 28. Based at the company’s regional headquarters in Irvine, California, Alexa’s role as head of marketing embraces brand marketing and communications to both Aston Martin’s customers and 43 dealers in the region, spanning the United States, Canada, Mexico, and South America. Alexa joins Aston Martin from Mercedes-Benz USA, where she’d spent 12 years in a variety of roles focusing on regional, brand and event marketing. Most recently, she led the marketing communications department, overseeing all advertising, marketing, and social media activities, in an effort to drive brand and product awareness. Having graduated from Santa Clara University with a B.S. in commerce and marketing, Alexa launched her career at an internet marketing agency, […]

Aston Martin Works, the world-renowned heritage arm of British luxury sports car maker Aston Martin Lagonda, is promising visitors to the upcoming Retromobile Show in Paris next month an unprecedented view of one of the brand’s rarest and most sought-after classic cars – Aston Martin DB4 Convertible, chassis no. 1173. This one-off model, built in 1963 at the historic home of Aston Martin in Newport Pagnell – now center of operations for the Aston Martin Works heritage sales, service, and restoration business – is unique as, of the circa 70 DB4 Convertibles made by the brand between 1961 and 1963, chassis no 1173 is the only car known to have been built by David Brown’s factory team with the more potent DB4 GT engine as an original fitment.

Beaulieu’s new events season gets off to a stylish start with Simply Aston Martin on Sunday, April 7th as it marks the 25thanniversary of the DB7 going into production. More than 300 Aston Martins are expected to gather in the grounds of the National Motor Museum for the fourth Simply Aston Martin rally, with an impressive display to celebrate one of the world’s most revered sports car marques. A special area will be set aside for Aston Martin DB7s, from coupes to Volante convertibles powered by smooth six-cylinders to brutal V12 engines. An important landmark in the company’s history, the DB7 reintroduced the legendary ‘DB’ title after a two-decade break – and all are welcome to join the display.

Owners of the Aston Martin Valkyrie – the ultimate expression of hypercar design, engineering and performance – already know they’re due to receive a truly exceptional car, but the marque’s personalization service ‘Q by Aston Martin’ is set to realize the unique automotive dreams and desires of this exclusive collection. Borne of the partnership between Aston Martin and Red Bull Advanced Technologies, the Aston Martin Valkyrie is a real-life expression of the uncompromising pursuit of performance. As such, it is fitting that this 150-unit road-going hypercar can now be further optimized with the AMR Track Performance Pack. The pack’s track-only components – which can be interchanged with the existing road-legal parts – are set to deliver approximately 8%* quicker lap times on top of the standard Aston Martin Valkyrie.

With the unveiling of Aston Martin Lagonda’s first SUV scheduled for the last quarter of 2019, work is progressing apace to complete the new St Athan production facility. The site, which started life as a series of Ministry of Defense ‘Super Hangars’, is being completely transformed into a state-of-the-art luxury manufacturing plant. One that will be the British marque’s second production facility and ultimately become the company’s ‘Home of Electrification’ when the marque’s planned BEV models enter production.

Aston Martin Lagonda President and Group CEO, Dr Andy Palmer, was honored with the Vantage Award at the annual Historic Motoring Awards at the Sheraton Grand London Park Lane Hotel. Although named personally as the winner, Palmer accepted the award on behalf of everyone at Aston Martin. The Historic Motoring Awards, now in its eighth year, recognises the elite in the international classic automotive world. The winners are selected by the experts at Octane magazine and an international panel of judges from the motoring world. Brand new for 2018, the Vantage Award celebrates “an individual or company who has made an outstanding contribution to the world of Aston Martin”. The judges were looking for someone who not only champions the brand, but lives and breathes it and has made waves in making it what it is today. After joining Aston […]

Aston Martin Racing’s new FIA World Endurance Championship challenger – the Vantage GTE – heads East in search of its first podium this weekend, as the Super Season goes racing at Fuji Speedway in Japan. Following a highly encouraging performance in the previous round at Silverstone in August, where the new car qualified on the GTE Pro class front row and was a podium contender, the team aims to turn that upward momentum into success this weekend.

Aston Martin Racing will give the new Aston Martin Vantage GT3 its Nürburgring Nordschleife race debut in round eight of the VLN Endurance Championship, a four-hour race which takes place on 6 October. The event marks the first occasion the car, driven by three-time Le Mans class winner Darren Turner (GB) and 2016 Nürburgring 24 Hours winner Maxime Martin (BEL), will have been matched against GT3 opposition.

Aston Martin drivers Flick Haigh and Jonny Adam clinched the 2018 British GT Championship title at Donington Park in a historic day for the sport. Haigh became the first woman to be crowned outright British GT champion in a stellar year racing the Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 alongside Optimum Motorsport team-mate Adam. Her debut season in the series included the first pole position and victory for a woman in the season-opener at Oulton Park in April, followed by another at Brands Hatch last month.

Dr. Andy Palmer, President and Group Chief Executive of Aston Martin Lagonda, today announced plans to create the Palmer Foundation, a privately-funded programme to create industrial apprenticeship opportunities for young people in the UK. Andy Palmer, who began his own automotive career as an apprentice, has undertaken to fund the scheme, which will also be supported by existing shareholders, members of the senior management team at Aston Martin Lagonda and Hitomi Palmer, wife of the CEO.

Aston Martin’s next step into the mid-engined hypercar market has been confirmed with the release of the first official details of Project ‘003’. Project ‘003’ is the third hypercar to be developed by Aston Martin following the Aston Martin Valkyrie and Valkyrie AMR Pro (formerly ‘001’ and ‘002’), 003 has its DNA deeply rooted in concepts and technology currently being developed for those revolutionary road and track-only machines.