Aston Martian

28/09/2017
FEATURE BY MAX NOBLE

Well dear reader they must be off this planet and on the same one as Zak Brown.

The one where such remarkable global engineering companies as Porsche, Honda, and Toyota can completely fail to build a top grade Formula One engine, but a boutique, bespoke, hand-built, small, real small, supplier of uniquely British sporting cars and grand tourers can suddenly build a world class engine unlike anything they've ever built before, with a total company turnover about the same as Lexus spent perfecting screws for the door fascia on the original LS400.

So their CEO, Andy Palmer, fresh from having Infiniti pour dollars into Red Bull, is now seeking to have Aston do same.

I fall back once more on my theory that CEOs, and other senior executives, simply need a justifiable business case to put to the Board as to why they are going racing.

One needs to be on another planet to see any defensible reason why Aston, home of mighty V8 and V12 engines based firmly on the principles first hammered out by Ford in 1932 when the first mass produced V8 (the flat head) saw the light of day in the Model 18. In that launch year Ford produced around 212,000 of the flat head V8 engines.

Climbing from a low of just over 480 vehicles sold in Europe for 1998, Aston scaled the heights of nearly 4,000 sales in 2007, before this lofty peak sloped down to a rather modest 1,500 vehicles again in 2016. Their lowest years saw less than 100 vehicles built.

Aston first went bankrupt in the late 1920's, the first of nearly century long finance challenges. Then with the guidance of David Brown, Aston first won Le Mans in 1959, with a certain Carroll Shelby behind the wheel, and Roy Salvadori being the other driver piloting the 3.6 litre inline 6 engine in a rare racing Aston chassis.

David Brown steered Aston into a purple patch, not limited to Goldfinger and that Bond car, but with a series of beautifully crafted in-line six engines designed by Tadek Marek, produced some of the finest grand tourers to ever grace the Queen's Highways.

In 1964 a certain George Harrison indulged in a then new DB5, a name worthy of being mentioned along with that of James Bond as a famous endorser of the Aston brand of Grand Tourers.

Then in 1991 Ford motor company took complete control of Aston, leading to a run of fine modern models, and in 1995 the record number of 700 vehicle sales.

Think on that. The company that had launched the World's first mass produced V8 in 1932, was here 63 years later producing 219,300 fewer Astons than flathead V8s within a year and considering it a ringing success.

Much pain and sorrow ensued for the Ford Premier Automotive group as Aston, Jaguar, Volvo, and a few others came and went. Aston staggered on, carried mainly by the fact that most drivers knew that Bond Car, and a few soft-hearted Englishmen had enough money to keep things moving, and enough optimism to believe this time, the business future for Aston would be different.

So now fast forward to 2014, and after a spell under David Richards of Prodrive fame, Andy Palmer becomes CEO. That year saw 3,500 cars sold for a loss of 72 million pounds to the company.

Honda sold over 4 million vehicles in 2014, for revenues in excess of 80 billion pounds.

So Aston built 0.08% the number of cars while losing an amount equal to 0.09% of Honda's turnover.

Honda has now spent significantly more failing to produce a winning Formula One engine than Aston has generated in revenue during any year it has existed.

Ford tried to rescue Aston, and with all its mass market might, sold it a few years later at a loss.

In 1932 Ford was pumping out flat head V8's around the 1,000 per day mark. More in one day than Aston has produced in most of the years it has existed.

Bond and Harrison I am sure loved their DB5's.

I love the DB5.

If anyone wants to provide me with a DB11, plus the budget to run it, I will gladly accept with tears in my eyes.

If anyone tells me Aston can beat Honda, let alone Mercedes, at building Formula One engines, while releasing a Valkyrie super car (which it should be noted is powered by a 6.5L V12 Cosworth engine) I would steer them towards that fine set of musical dramas by Richard Wagner.

Der Ring des Nibelungen (more commonly called The Ring Cycle in English) has a fine second part called Die Walkure, or again in English The Valkyrie.

The rather famous section of this part centres on the Valkyrie transporting fallen heroes to Valhalla.

Current Aston management might like to reflect on the lessons in that prior to blowing the dust off the drawing board for a Formula One engine.

That is, if they still live on the same planet as the rest of us.

Max Noble.

Learn more about Max and check out his previous features, here

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Published: 28/09/2017
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