1997 Aston Martin Factory Visit

[Welsh Pirate]

Not owning an Aston, I've never posted in this sub-forum before (but I've been a frequent lurker). As part of some recent tidying up around the home (thanks COVID 19), I found my old photo album of a visit I made to Aston Martin back in the Newport Pagnell days. I thought I'd post the best pictures on here in case anyone found them of interest.

Background: in 1997, I was an Aston Martin obsessed teenager. So much so, that my birthday present for that year was a factory visit. Living in deepest north Wales, this was a fair old day trip - my poor old Dad was driving for over 9 hours there and back in our Cavalier 1.7TD for a factory tour (with the very kind Roger Stowers) lasting a couple of hours. The visit was fantastic, it made my year and had me buzzing for weeks after. Over 20 years later I still love the old V-cars. I'm no closer to having deep enough pockets to own one though!

The original photos aren't great and my attempts at capturing them on my camera-phone aren't too good either, so apologies for the poor quality, but I hope you enjoy them:





















I'll post some more when I get a chance. Next up - engine build...

[EVR]

Thanks for digging out this, always a pleasure.

If I may, regarding taking pictures of well, pictures, there is neat app called PhotoScan, that makes them basically like they were taken with a digital camera.

[oilit]

These are fantastic - definitely worth preserving - thanks for sharing

[DB4DM]

There's a rather special green car in the first image, which might be a design study for the DB4 called DP114. Very interesting to see them all, thanks

Edited by DB4DM on Monday 7th September 16:28

[Octavarium]

Some great photos there. Thanks for sharing. Back in the days when hand-built truly meant hand-built.

[RichB]

DB4DM said:

There's a rather special green car in the first image, which might be a prototype DB4. Very interesting to see them all, thanks

I also spotted that and was about to say the same! It is indeed DP114/2 the DB4 prototype which was restored by the Aston Martin Works team in the late '90s so this was probably fresh out of the workshops! More here: https://astonmartins.com/car/dp1142-db4-design-stu...

[V8LM]

Wonderful. Thank you for posting these. Can’t wait the second instalment.

[Jon39]

Thank you for posting.
Craftsmen at work. We can see why the Newport Pagnell cars cost so much. Think a DB5 was roughly twice the price of a Jaguar E type.

I use a scanner to produce digital version of old print photos.

If you have not already seen them, there are a few YouTube videos taken by people on those factory tours (before AML insisted no photography).

[DB4DM]

I went on a tour ages ago when in a corner of one workshop behind a heavy curtain they were trying to break a competitor's engine, cycling it from low to full power for days. Best visit was 2008-09 for the DB4 50th anniversary, Works even cleaned my ex-DB Rapide and displayed it next to their restoration car, now in the timeline at Gaydon

[williamp]

First went in 1992. Also went for the public open day in the mid 90s, and a couple of more times before the very last AMOC tour of the end of Vanquish production. Their policy on taking photos seem to vary dep3dning on the guide, nut the last one ww could take hundreds of photos. I'll have to scan them in, too

[BlackV8]

Just stunning, thank you for your sharing 👍🏻

[DB4DM]

Burble, scream, burble, scream, the engine might have been Italian!

[Welsh Pirate]

I'm glad you're all enjoying them!

EVR - thank you! I should've realised that there would be something clever to do a better job! I'll remember it for next time.

If you all don't mind, I'll continue to post the rest of the pictures in the current format as I'd already done the lot of them in one go...

Anyway, the engine shop:









Assembly:















I unfortunately missed taking photos of the trim shop - from memory I only had a couple of rolls of film and by the end I was running low, so I was rationing my photos.

The end product:

[Welsh Pirate]

Then at the end of the tour, I spied the service car park. This area was out of bounds for the tour, but my disappointment was clearly evident and Roger Stowers gave me a nod to go and have a quick look once all the other tour members had gone on their way, with a warning of not to get caught!

One of the development/early cars:



Press car at the time:



The following were all customer cars to the best of my knowledge:

















We also had a tour of the Works Service area, but I couldn't get away with taking photos in there.

It was such a memorable day out. Its easy to forget - Astons are a rare sight nowadays (well they are around York) but they were like hen's teeth back in the 1990s, especially in rural areas like where I grew up. Going to the factory was like visiting another world to me. I'm still like a kid in a sweet shop if I see a 1980s/90s Aston. Fabulous, fabulous cars.

Edited by Welsh Pirate on Monday 7th September 21:19

[Pothole]

I grew up near Newport Pagnell. Your first pic is just how I remember it. Weirdly, although we knew they were expensive supercars, they were "just" those Aston Martins made up the road. I would often see them testing on local roads.

[DB4DM]

Great photos, thanks! Some of those "Virage" derivatives are distincly bespoke it seems to me, perhaps V8LM has a view?

[V8LM]

I think the ‘special’ ones are the two red cars. First, as said, is the final Vantage prototype DP2055/5. The other is a 6.3 Widebody Virage that has been back to be Vantage-bodied. Its grille is different - same as that used on the Vantage Special II Brunei cars.

[RDMcG]

Exceptional pics, and give a great sense of how much hand fettling went into these cars.

[EVR]

Welsh Pirate said:

I'm glad you're all enjoying them!

EVR - thank you! I should've realised that there would be something clever to do a better job! I'll remember it for next time.

If you all don't mind, I'll continue to post the rest of the pictures in the current format as I'd already done the lot of them in one go...

No problem, they are fantastic as is, thank you for digging this out. Having grew up in Italy during those years, those cars were the most exotic of exotics. Which takes me to...

Pothole said:

I grew up near Newport Pagnell. Your first pic is just how I remember it. Weirdly, although we knew they were expensive supercars, they were "just" those Aston Martins made up the road. I would often see them testing on local roads.

Yeah, for me seeing a Ferrari on the road was special, but not that special like an Aston. And I believe in Modena they must be borderline mundane. The closer you are, the less exotic.

[Dewi 2]

Welsh Pirate - If you have not already seen it, here is a video you should enjoy.
The true craftsmen are still there, possibly even one or two you saw in 1997.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JfgALH_l1BA