Autocar March 06, 2019

WITH THREE BLOCKBUSTER new models each breaking new ground for Aston Martin (p12), best-in-show honours from Geneva are surely heading to Gaydon this year. For a company the size of Aston, such a statement of intent is quite extraordinary. But it has got used to saying and doing extraordinary things in recent years. Core front-engined sports car and GT models all replaced, we’re now seeing the manifestation of the expansion plans boss Andy Palmer has been detailing since he joined in 2014, the description of each project nearly always starting ‘Aston’s first…’ In Geneva, we see Aston’s first mid-engined supercar, its first ‘usable’ hypercar and its first super-luxury SUV as part of the new Lagonda brand. These are on top of its already confirmed new factory in St Athan, Wales, which will…

Aston Martin has stunned the Geneva motor show with the launch of three concepts that closely preview all-new production models as its dramatic turnaround plan and range expansion gather pace. The new cars, which Autocar received an exclusive preview of before the Geneva show, are a mid-engined supercar called the Vanquish to rival the new Ferrari F8 Tributo (see p26), a mid-engined hypercar called the AM-RB 003 offering the next level of performance from the likes of the McLaren P1 and Ferrari LaFerrari, and an electric SUV concept that previews the first production car for a reborn Lagonda. The Vanquish and Lagonda SUV are the last two models to be shown in Aston’s sevenstrong line-up of regular production models under of the ‘Second Century’ plan of boss Andy Palmer. They join the…

Valkyrie The hybrid hypercar, co-developed with Red Bull Advanced Technologies, will reach first customers later this year. Its naturally aspirated 6.5-litre V12 produces 1000bhp at 10,500rpm and 546lb ft at 6000rpm and its Rimac electric motor 160bhp and 207lb ft. Peak outputs combined are 1160bhp at 10,500rpm and 664lb ft at 6000rpm. Valkyrie AMR Pro The Valkyrie road car will spawn a track-only variant under Aston’s new AMR Pro performance sub-brand for its most extreme models. Even more powerful than the Valkyrie on which it is based, the AMR Pro has been made even lighter still and has a target weight of just 1000kg. Only 25 examples are planned to be built of the car that Aston boss Andy Palmer says has “truly mind-bending” performance. AM-RB 003 Previously known as ‘Son of Valkyrie’, AM-RB 003…

“We need a smaller engine and this is a great opportunity to exercise the capability of our engineers here,” said CEO Andy Palmer on why Aston Martin decided to look in-house for its all-new V6 engine rather than source it elsewhere as it had done with its 4.0-litre V8 from AMG. The last time Aston designed and built its own engine in-house was its old V8, which ended production at Newport Pagnell in 2000. Its current V12 engines are designed by Aston but built by Ford in Cologne. The twin-turbo V6 will be used by both the Vanquish and AM-RB 003 in production and Palmer has promised that more Astons will use the engine in the future, too. “The engine also allows us to redefine ourselves as an engine builder and one based…

WITH THREE BLOCKBUSTER new models each breaking new ground for Aston Martin (p12), best-in-show honours from Geneva are surely heading to Gaydon this year. For a company the size of Aston, such a statement of intent is quite extraordinary. But it has got used to saying and doing extraordinary things in recent years. Core front-engined sports car and GT models all replaced, we’re now seeing the manifestation of the expansion plans boss Andy Palmer has been detailing since he joined in 2014, the description of each project nearly always starting ‘Aston’s first…’ In Geneva, we see Aston’s first mid-engined supercar, its first ‘usable’ hypercar and its first super-luxury SUV as part of the new Lagonda brand. These are on top of its already confirmed new factory in St Athan, Wales,…

What hits you like a lightning bolt when you first see Aston Martin Lagonda’s extraordinary trio of Geneva concepts – as we did at the Gaydon HQ just before they departed for Switzerland – is what they say about the company’s extraordinary levels of ambition and energy. For anyone else, it would be more than enough to propose a brand-new Ferrari F8 Tributo rival for 2022, especially since said Vanquish progresses the genre by a generation. However, at the same time, CEO Andy Palmer and his hyperactive team are unveiling a £1 million hypercar concept (drawing much from the seminal Valkyrie, co-created with Adrian Newey) and an eye-popping Lagonda proposal that takes SUVs in an entirely different direction from the Range Rover, Bentley Bentayga and the rest. Truly, there has never been a…