Thursday 21st June 2018

Silverstone to become Aston Martin test hub

Gaydon has found a nice local track to use for benchmarking its prototypes. You might have heard of it...

---

In case you hadn't noticed, Aston Martin is on something of a high at the moment. Last year it made £87m profit, which is impressive when you consider than in 2016 it made a pre-tax loss of £163m. That was in part thanks to demand for the DB11; this year, it has the new Vantage. It also has game-changing ambition, as evidenced by its new manufacturing facility in Wales, which is due to open next year - just in time to start building the SUV-shaped DBX.

Now it turns out that the firm's footprint will be getting bigger still, with the announcement that Aston Martin will open two additional sites: one in central London for meetings and events (in other words, somewhere which doesn't involve international VIPs schleping up to Gaydon) and, much more importantly, a new Test and Development Centre at Silverstone.

The latter is significant because it means that the home of the British Grand Prix will become Aston Martin's hub for prototype vehicle testing. Its proximity to Gaydon - and also the logistic facility at Wellesbourne - naturally worked in Silverstone's favour, as did the obvious connection to the manufacturer's extensive (and ongoing) motorsport heritage.

"Automotive brand centres have always been a big part of Silverstone's diversification plans and I am delighted to be in a position to announce that Aston Martin have chosen Silverstone as the location to open their new testing and development centre," said Stuart Pringle, the Managing Director of Silverstone.

Despite the geographical convenience of the new centre, Aston Martin says it will continue to make use of its existing facility at the Nurburgring, although Silverstone has already been dubbed the 'home' of dynamic testing and development by CEO Andy Palmer.

Matt Becker, Aston's chassis boss, added: "Every true performance car company needs a reference circuit and I can think of none more suitable than Silverstone. It is the perfect location to develop the next-generation of Aston Martins." The facility will be based at the Stowe Circuit, which will be the primary venue for exclusive testing (although it will have access to other track configurations). The firm expects to have around 60 employees based there from October this year.

[Turbobanana]

I predict future Aston Martins will struggle to deal with any kind of hill, or knowing which county they're in

[Rugbyman]

Right next door to the Porsche Driving Experience centre ..... interesting

[RumbleOfThunder]

3 Gaydon's. Must try harder.

[TXG399]

RumbleOfThunder said:

3 Gaydon's. Must try harder.

Haha! I only read the article to do a 'Gaydon' count. As soon as I saw the author and that it was about Aston Martin I knew there was a Gaydon-hunt on the horizon. Depressingly, one of the 'Gaydons' was actually relevant. I'm worried the Gaydon-hunt game might be on the way out. Sad times.

[Plug Life]

This Gaydon guy is very clever. Much closer than Nürburgring.

[chickensoup]

shame there is not a test track in Gaydon

[unsprung]

something powerful and chartreuse?

yes please

[anonymous-user]

The Crack Fox said:

This is a bit disingenuous. They actually use Millbrook which has all manner of roads and surfaces for proper testing. You learn little about a car from wanging it around a flat, fast, smooth F1 circuit alone.

^^ this x10. Silverstone is not really set up for dev test tbh. Fine for smooth, V fast laps on a wide track, useless for all the numerous little tests required during development of which there are thousands!

Surely this is just a stab at marketing a link twix't the two companies so they can do driver experience days there (which silverstone IS set up for....)

[Eviltad]

chickensoup said:

shame there is not a test track in Gaydon

JLR not allowing Aston to play on either the Gaydon track or the one at Fen-End I'm guessing.

[LotusOmega375D]

^^^^ is that even Silverstone in the photo?

[cookie1600]

Max_Torque said:

^^ this x10. Silverstone is not really set up for dev test tbh. Fine for smooth, V fast laps on a wide track, useless for all the numerous little tests required during development of which there are thousands!

Surely this is just a stab at marketing a link twix't the two companies so they can do driver experience days there (which silverstone IS set up for....)

Or a move towards them getting deeper into F1???

[Thorburn]

What the hell are they going to learn on the Stowe circuit.

[PAUL500]

They could build there own at St Athan, plenty of room there inc a lovely runway and service roads that are hardly used these days. That is if there ever get around to building any cars there!

[Mr.Jimbo]

LotusOmega375D said:

^^^^ is that even Silverstone in the photo?

It's got me perplexed, it almost looks like a smaller version of the chicane at Road Atlanta.

[kaiowas]

Rugbyman said:

Right next door to the Porsche Driving Experience centre ..... interesting

I seem to recall there was a potential deal to sell Silverstone to one of the manufacturers (May have been JLR, don't recall now) a couple of years ago that was nixed by Porsche. At the time the terms of their lease gave them exclusivity for this kind of usage so either the exclusive period has ended or Porsche have agreed to this.

[Macboy]

kaiowas said:

Rugbyman said:

Right next door to the Porsche Driving Experience centre ..... interesting

I seem to recall there was a potential deal to sell Silverstone to one of the manufacturers (May have been JLR, don't recall now) a couple of years ago that was nixed by Porsche. At the time the terms of their lease gave them exclusivity for this kind of usage so either the exclusive period has ended or Porsche have agreed to this.

It was JLR but from what I know of the deal, Porsche has absolutely no influence over it not being finalised.