The end of an era
Aston Martin plant was one of last to hand-build cars
Tony Lewin
Automotive News
August 20, 2007 - 12:01 am EST
NEWPORT PAGNELL, England -- When Kenny Clarke drove the last Vanquish off the line at Aston Martin’s factory here on July 19 he was doing more than just marking the end of an illustrious model line.
He was signaling the end of a century-long tradition of hand-built luxury sports cars.
For with the simple but intensely symbolic ceremony marking the end of carmaking at Newport Pagnell, Aston Martin’s spiritual home for the last 50 years, the shutters close on the old way of doing business.
No longer will Aston’s €300,000 premium sports cars be lovingly shaped by skilled craftsmen using age-old techniques. The successor to the Vanquish will be assembled with millimetric, computer-controlled precision in the company’s surgically clean new factory at Gaydon, 80km away. The carmaker’s factory is directly linked to its design studios, r&d facilities and test track.
A more complete contrast to the intimate but dusty atmosphere of Newport Pagnell would be hard to imagine.
It’s a contrast that Clarke has decided not to experience. Chosen to drive the last Aston Martin off the assembly because of his 43 years of service with the company, the 58-year-old diagnostic electrician has decided not to transfer to Gaydon.
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An interesing history
1915: First Aston Martin car registered
1926: Aston Martin Motors founded after 2 bankruptcies; 3 different owners
1932: More financial problems; 2 changes of ownership
1946: Tractor entrepreneur David Brown buys the company
1954: Production moved from London to Newport Pagnell
1972: Sold to a succession of owners, approaching bankruptcy
1981: Victor Gauntlett and Pace Petroleum acquire company
1983: Gauntlett finds new backers: the Livanos shipping family
1987: Ford takes 75 percent stake
1994: Ford takes 100 percent stake; DB7 goes into production
2003: 7,000th DB7 completed; new Gaydon plant opened
2007: 80 percent stake sold to consortium led by Dave Richards; car building at Newport Pagnell ends
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Time to say goodbye
Against the background of popping champagne corks and excited recollections of past Aston glories, Clarke said that July 19 will be remembered as a sad day for his colleagues and for Newport Pagnell. “Some, like me, will retire,” he says, “others won’t be able to get jobs.”
Clarke calls himself a traditionalist, but he also understands that all things change.
“The company has to move forward.”
Those labor-intensive methods were Aston Martin’s hallmark and also its near downfall. The enterprise that provided James Bond with his gadget-laden DB5 for the 1964 hit movie “Goldfinger” rarely turned a profit in 80 years under a succession of cash-strapped owners.
Ford Motor took full control in 1994, but it was only in 2005-2006, the year leading up to the carmaker’s selloff to a consortium led by Prodrive’s Dave Richards, that CEO Ulrich Bez was able to report a profit.
Where is the CEO?
Yet Bez was conspicuous by his absence at the Newport Pagnell closing ceremony. Some said he was on holiday, others that he wasn’t comfortable at the old site.
“It’s probably best he’s not here,” whispered one veteran. “He’d probably have taken over all the speeches himself.”
The road signs on the entry to this quiet English town will continue to read “Newport Pagnell, Welcome to the home of Aston Martin Lagonda.”
The factory will be leveled to make way for a housing estate, but Aston Martin Works Service, a thriving business that restores and services up to 2,000 customers’ cars each year, will stay.
So for Clarke and many others, this place will remain the marque’s spiritual home.
