Читать книгу Aston Martin Engine Development: 1984-2000 - Arthur Wilson L. - Страница 16

There were many changes at AML during the 1990s, the most significant being the takeover by the Ford Motor Company, which happened midway through the supercharged Vantage project. People’s reactions were very mixed when this first looked like becoming a reality, but there can be little doubt that we had reached a point in AML history where we could no longer go on as we had been. The increasing costs of design and development to comply with the ever-more stringent safety and environmental standards for each new model were not recoverable by making motor cars at the very low production volumes that we were used to – particularly as they were already very expensive and labour-intensive hand-made motor cars built to the highest possible standard with almost the entire car being manufactured on-site. From raw casting, sheet of aluminium or leather hide to the finished article, Newport Pagnell was a true manufacturing plant. It wasn’t that AML was a badly run company; quite the contrary, we had achieved a number of industry firsts, many coachwork awards and accolades from the motoring press – such as the fastest car ever tested – and we were well-respected within the industry as a whole, all on a small volume manufacturer’s budget. Looking back, it is amazing what we were able to achieve for so little; we certainly didn’t need any lessons in economics. Let’s face it, the heritage that the people at AML had created was what attracted a major player like the Ford Motor Company to invest in it. And we must not forget that James Bond drove one of our cars – what better recommendation can you have? It was just that times were changing, the exclusivity of hand-crafted coachwork, etc. didn’t hold the same appeal as it once did and even if it did, it would always be for a very limited market and we needed to sell at least one of our range of cars at much higher volumes to recoup the increased costs of making them. So we had to adapt if we were to survive. The motor business was becoming much more international with major units being sourced from specialist suppliers, the actual build process was to become much more of an assembly process, albeit to the same high standard.