Good things come to those who wait
Discussion
RL17 said:
The three cars got a mention in the AML tour intro today going through the production run out of Vantage and changes since last year.
Wow fame at last 
Everyone at Gaydon took a very keen interest in our cars and it’s been fantastic to be part of an amazing experience with everyone . Two of the cars were together last weekend at Englefield House but there are plans to get all three together for the first time early next month . Hope you had a great time on the factory tour . silverspeed said:
RL17 said:
The three cars got a mention in the AML tour intro today going through the production run out of Vantage and changes since last year.
Wow fame at last Everyone at Gaydon took a very keen interest in our cars and it’s been fantastic to be part of an amazing experience with everyone . Two of the cars were together last weekend at Englefield House but there are plans to get all three together for the first time early next month . Hope you had a great time on the factory tour . 
Couldn’t resist a picture. The cars at Englefield
Another long post coming following a truly special 24 hours incorporating a day at Gaydon ......I really don't know where to start
In some ways, the delivery of my car (2 months ago) seemed like more of a relief and certainly for all three of us, an end to a project that took up so much of our lives. But in many ways, yesterday which should perhaps have really felt like an end, felt to me like the start - the end of the production journey but the start of the true enjoyment of the cars (albeit I've done 4k miles in mine !), the final item (samples box) collected (although there is still a build book to come) and another renewed feeling of love for and affinity to the brand
We had, as alluded to above, ordered bespoke samples boxes via Q - these were the one items where we took something of a leap of faith as we agreed a price without really agreeing a spec. Yesterday's visit was about collecting the samples boxes and also, at the factory's instigation, a sort of handover of the cars in the atrium which they cleared for our cars, lots of photo opportunities in particular for the factory to record our journeys as we had such an unusual story.
We (The three AMRigos) met at a nearby hotel the night before, when some people from the factory came to join us for dinner which was much appreciated. Richard Tipper (Perfection Valet) came to the hotel very early the next morning to give the cars a clean, then we headed to the factory for what you could almost describe as a day of pampering. Although the photo shoot in the atrium and the samples boxes handover was pre-arranged, the rest of the day was dealt with ad-hoc, partly based on what we wanted to do - I can't begin to get across how great everyone was with us
We had a factory tour when we focussed on areas of particular interest as it would be embarassing to try to count the number of times we have done a tour between us all. It was pointed out to me when we went past a sample stitching board that I must have walked past half a dozen times in the last 5 years, that the lords red diamond stitch sample was actually taken from my last V12V Roadster. I'm not sure what I liked more - the fact it was up there or the fact that someone from the factory saw the sample and immediately knew to say it was from my car (or as wadders thinks of it - 'from one of MY customer's cars')
I'll not talk too much about the tour - perhaps of interest, lots of vantages, plenty of DB11s, the odd Rapide (not AMR) and in the trim shop (although I didn't notice any on the main lines) a lot of DB11 signature/halo seats with the lime stripes being upholstered
As those who can be bothered to read my posts will know, in particular from going off at a tangent on the DBS thread, I'm really not a fan of the way AMR (road cars) is being handled, but for me, whilst some on here feel very differently, I am a big fan of the current core offerings of new Vantage, DB11 and new DBS. Rather like outgoing Vanquish, particularly in darker colours, I think DB11 is a grower and looking better with age. I still don't like the mercified central infotainment controls & screen but the new design of Aston steering wheels is growing on me. For those who want the slightly more conservative, traditional looking ASton, with more traditional Aston performance & handling, DB11 hits the spot
Meanwhile new Vantage & DBS give the more aggressive, forward looking designs. I've loved new Vantage from the moment I was lucky enough to see it at an early stage and straight away, said 'Vulcan' when I saw the nose. Yesterday, there was a Vulcan and a new Vantage parked one in front of the other, both nose forward - the similarities were far more apparent than ever before- for me, a good thing. Meanwhile DBS, whilst also having a huge grille, has a very different look in the flesh, as the grille doesn't slope backwards in the way it does on Vantage and it has much straighter sides then the angled sides of new Vantage grille - together, they make the cars very different
In many ways, I think the various specials/AMRS/ltd eds/etc detract from just how good the base/core cars are. Obviously there will be harder Vantages to come but if there was just a V8 DB11 (and perhaps an S in time), alongside new DBS, with no special or ltd ed for at least a couple of years, I think it would let the focus fall on how good those products are - as it is, there is no time for the dust to settle on one launch before the next happens and I'm really not sure that's a good thing
Anyway, back to our day. It was amazing to see how many induction tours for new employees were taking place which is now a regular occurrance. It was also lovely to see a small group of excited schoolchildren on a tour (competition winners I think), especially so when they gathered round our cars for photos
The samples boxes came out better than any of us dared expect. We have personalised engine build style plaques with our names, VIN numbers and 'edition numbers' on the boxes, the paint moulds have our stripes and also, the 'good things come...' & edition numbers, then we have leather samples, painted rotaries, thread, pouches, full build records & more - they make for stunning momentos
Plus we have our custom build books to come, which will incorporate photos from yesterday
Can't express enough thanks to Pete Coyle, Steve Waddingham & Nick Duckworth who were the guys responsible for yesterday.
Photos to follow soon
In some ways, the delivery of my car (2 months ago) seemed like more of a relief and certainly for all three of us, an end to a project that took up so much of our lives. But in many ways, yesterday which should perhaps have really felt like an end, felt to me like the start - the end of the production journey but the start of the true enjoyment of the cars (albeit I've done 4k miles in mine !), the final item (samples box) collected (although there is still a build book to come) and another renewed feeling of love for and affinity to the brand
We had, as alluded to above, ordered bespoke samples boxes via Q - these were the one items where we took something of a leap of faith as we agreed a price without really agreeing a spec. Yesterday's visit was about collecting the samples boxes and also, at the factory's instigation, a sort of handover of the cars in the atrium which they cleared for our cars, lots of photo opportunities in particular for the factory to record our journeys as we had such an unusual story.
We (The three AMRigos) met at a nearby hotel the night before, when some people from the factory came to join us for dinner which was much appreciated. Richard Tipper (Perfection Valet) came to the hotel very early the next morning to give the cars a clean, then we headed to the factory for what you could almost describe as a day of pampering. Although the photo shoot in the atrium and the samples boxes handover was pre-arranged, the rest of the day was dealt with ad-hoc, partly based on what we wanted to do - I can't begin to get across how great everyone was with us
We had a factory tour when we focussed on areas of particular interest as it would be embarassing to try to count the number of times we have done a tour between us all. It was pointed out to me when we went past a sample stitching board that I must have walked past half a dozen times in the last 5 years, that the lords red diamond stitch sample was actually taken from my last V12V Roadster. I'm not sure what I liked more - the fact it was up there or the fact that someone from the factory saw the sample and immediately knew to say it was from my car (or as wadders thinks of it - 'from one of MY customer's cars')
I'll not talk too much about the tour - perhaps of interest, lots of vantages, plenty of DB11s, the odd Rapide (not AMR) and in the trim shop (although I didn't notice any on the main lines) a lot of DB11 signature/halo seats with the lime stripes being upholstered
As those who can be bothered to read my posts will know, in particular from going off at a tangent on the DBS thread, I'm really not a fan of the way AMR (road cars) is being handled, but for me, whilst some on here feel very differently, I am a big fan of the current core offerings of new Vantage, DB11 and new DBS. Rather like outgoing Vanquish, particularly in darker colours, I think DB11 is a grower and looking better with age. I still don't like the mercified central infotainment controls & screen but the new design of Aston steering wheels is growing on me. For those who want the slightly more conservative, traditional looking ASton, with more traditional Aston performance & handling, DB11 hits the spot
Meanwhile new Vantage & DBS give the more aggressive, forward looking designs. I've loved new Vantage from the moment I was lucky enough to see it at an early stage and straight away, said 'Vulcan' when I saw the nose. Yesterday, there was a Vulcan and a new Vantage parked one in front of the other, both nose forward - the similarities were far more apparent than ever before- for me, a good thing. Meanwhile DBS, whilst also having a huge grille, has a very different look in the flesh, as the grille doesn't slope backwards in the way it does on Vantage and it has much straighter sides then the angled sides of new Vantage grille - together, they make the cars very different
In many ways, I think the various specials/AMRS/ltd eds/etc detract from just how good the base/core cars are. Obviously there will be harder Vantages to come but if there was just a V8 DB11 (and perhaps an S in time), alongside new DBS, with no special or ltd ed for at least a couple of years, I think it would let the focus fall on how good those products are - as it is, there is no time for the dust to settle on one launch before the next happens and I'm really not sure that's a good thing
Anyway, back to our day. It was amazing to see how many induction tours for new employees were taking place which is now a regular occurrance. It was also lovely to see a small group of excited schoolchildren on a tour (competition winners I think), especially so when they gathered round our cars for photos
The samples boxes came out better than any of us dared expect. We have personalised engine build style plaques with our names, VIN numbers and 'edition numbers' on the boxes, the paint moulds have our stripes and also, the 'good things come...' & edition numbers, then we have leather samples, painted rotaries, thread, pouches, full build records & more - they make for stunning momentos
Plus we have our custom build books to come, which will incorporate photos from yesterday
Can't express enough thanks to Pete Coyle, Steve Waddingham & Nick Duckworth who were the guys responsible for yesterday.
Photos to follow soon
Edited by jonby on Tuesday 3rd July 12:43
Edited by jonby on Tuesday 3rd July 13:05
Edited by jonby on Tuesday 3rd July 13:06
silverspeed said:
I know Jonathan is going to post the photos but I couldn’t resist posting just one teaser photo
You & Ian are welcome to post all the photos you want - I'm sure they are at least as good and probably better than mine ! Although perhaps none will be as good as my photo of Maureen - do you think it's acceptable to post that one in this thread ? (God knows what those who don't know what I'm talking about might be thinking now.....................)
HBradley said:
Chuffed to bits that you were all able to mark the culmination of such a fabulous project in fine style & that AML made the day so special!
Not sure this would have been possible with any other luxury car brand; for me it just confirms why I love it so much!
Thanks. Agreed on all counts. I mentioned it earlier, but to think, after all the customers and tours he's been involved in since, for Steve Waddingham to walk past a samples board and remember completely unsolicited (I wouldn't have noticed if it wasn't for him) that a sample piece of stitching on the board related to a car I had built more than 5 years ago was incredible. Not sure this would have been possible with any other luxury car brand; for me it just confirms why I love it so much!
It was also great to finally meet Ahmed Munir, who signed off my last roadster. I'm not sure who signed off this car as with the Halo scheme, the plaques have David King & Marek signatures. However I will probably be able to tell when I study the full build records we were presented with yesterday - a quick glance suggests they are pretty comprehensive !!
Going off at a tangent, but when I visit Gaydon, I'm often reminded that to anyone other than those with a marketing/branding type role, they don't see the cars with the same eyes that we customers do. They see the core products upon which editions & variations are based and beyond that, they simply see one customers version of that car or another. So what they don't see is if it's a customer, dealer or factory spec car. They don't see whether someone gets a discount or not, whether there has been a production delay or not, whether the car is kept for 1 week or 20 years, etc. It's very easy (especially for me !) to get caught up in those issues but it isn't what most at the factory are involved in - most at the factory just want to engineer, then make the best cars they can for their customers who they go out of their way to look after and please. Perhaps I should try more to look at things the same way - issues about how many editions there are of the same car, marketing & pricing strategies, etc don't change what those core cars are, how they are made and how good they are
jonby said:
You & Ian are welcome to post all the photos you want - I'm sure they are at least as good and probably better than mine !
Although perhaps none will be as good as my photo of Maureen - do you think it's acceptable to post that one in this thread ? (God knows what those who don't know what I'm talking about might be thinking now.....................)
That photo would make a brilliant caption competition ! Although perhaps none will be as good as my photo of Maureen - do you think it's acceptable to post that one in this thread ? (God knows what those who don't know what I'm talking about might be thinking now.....................)
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jonby said:
Thanks. Agreed on all counts. I mentioned it earlier, but to think, after all the customers and tours he's been involved in since, for Steve Waddingham to walk past a samples board and remember completely unsolicited (I wouldn't have noticed if it wasn't for him) that a sample piece of stitching on the board related to a car I had built more than 5 years ago was incredible.
Steve has immense first hand knowledge about Aston Martin, both the Company, the cars, and some of the many customers he has met. Added to that as you say, he must also possess an encyclopedic memory. Extremely diplomatic too, when fielding delicate questions, e.g. "I never want to know anything about the next models, then I cannot talk about them".
He might now be one of the longest serving employees, although certainly does not look old. Have you seen a YouTube video, showing a tour of the Newport Pagnell factory, which does briefly feature Steve. They clearly did not worry about video cameras in those days.
So glad that you all had a wonderful day, and thank you for describing it to us.
)
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