The skies are brightening over Warwickshire, where they breed Aston Martins. The recession reduced staff from 1,200 to 900 but now they’re back up to 1,000 and are opening a dealership in — of all places — Dublin. After spending almost a century in the red, they’ve finally nudged into profit under the leadership of Dr Ulrich Bez. If asked by a friend to let him have an Aston at cost price, Dr Bez need no longer reply by quoting former owner David Brown: ‘You couldn’t possibly afford that. It’s cheaper in the showroom.’
It takes about six weeks to make one, which includes 50 hours’ paintwork and 70 to do the trim. Yet it took just 19 months from designer Marek Reichman’s first sketch to delivery of the new Virage, launched in Spain last month. The flexibility of Aston’s VH platform helped, of course, but so does being a small company with a fairly flat management structure.
Priced midway between the £125,000 DB9 and the £175,000 DBS, the Virage grew out of a what-if conversation between Bez and Reichman.
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