AU N EGL

British racing team buys Aston Martin

07 March 2007


British racing team buys Aston Martin - News image
Top British racing team Prodrive has emerged as favourites to buy Ford-owned British brand Aston Martin.

Prodrive boss David Richards is believed to have purchased the brand for £500m with support from a consortium of American and Middle Eastern businesses.

Ford is understoof to have favoured Prodrive’s offer partly because the team already runs Aston Martin’s DBR9 racing cars (pictured) in the FIA GT series, Le Mans 24 Hours and similar events.

Prodrive is also entering Formula One in 2008, leading to speculation that it may run an F1 team under the Aston Martin brand.

Aston Martin sold a record 7,010 cars in 2006. Forthcoming models include the DBS as seen in last year’s hit James Bond film Casino Royale. This will be followed by a new V8 convertible, and a four door model called the Rapide is expected in 2008.

Unsuccessful bidders for Aston Martin include technology firm Doughty Hanson, Simon Halabi, a Syrian property businessman and billionaire Nelson Peltz.

Source: http://www.autotrader.co.uk/EDITORIA...ent/33744.html

What happen to Louise Vitton ??

John Shiels

I wonder what parts are common with Ford if any like Jaguar? What if Jaguar is sold off how dies that affect Jag?

xsiveone

That's awesome news! That's exactly who needed to buy Aston Martin. They were well on the road to re-establishing the nameplate to it's former glory and now it's just going to get even more credibility with the new owners.

xsiveone

I don't think that a whole lot of Aston Martin or the upscale Jag's had much in common with Ford. It was just the lower end Jag's like the S Types and the X Types.

AU N EGL

7-8,000 cars a year. 500 million pounds, Now how long until profitablity?

Dont think I will buy any ProDrive stock.

0Randy@DRM

Well if you sell 8,000 piece of crap cars at 80,000 pounds each. 640,000,000.00

I think one could build 8,000 cars faster then the Auston for 140,000,000

Randy

Jeffvette

So where is the entry into ALMS?

chuntington101

great move for prodive! they have done ALOT of development work on the AM V8 and are an amazing outfit.

and how can you say they wont be profitable???? aston was the only part of ford to make money last year!!!!

Chris.

chuntington101

what are you talking about? aston aims for that market because that is the best mark for the brand!

most people in that sector of the market arn't bothered if your 8K car is faster. all they are bothered about is they have an aston. thats why rich people buy the exspensive makes.

thanks CHris.

az55

What happen to Louise Vitton ??[/QUOTE]

He packed his bags and left in a huff!

Cheers from Arizona.

95jersey

Never realized Prodrive has THAT much money. That is unbelievable. Where the F do all these people get their money? I am scraping up $10 for lunch!?!?

XPC5R

Here's how: http://www.grandprix.com/gpe/cref-ricdav.html

Mr. Richards is a very savvy businessman, and uses OPM (other people's money)

xsiveone

Smart, wealthy enthusiats buy the car first and then the other wealthy sheep just follow. Do you ever wonder why Yuppies buy BMW's and Porsche's? It isn't because they are expensive. It's because they've built their reputations on racing and sold their street cars to racing enthusiasts. The friends of the enthusiasts buy these cars because their car savvy friends own them.

Aston Martin is built on racing and the reason why people buy the car today is because of the reputation of the marque. I'm glad to see that the car is getting back to its racing roots and building credibility back into the brand. I hate it when marques trade on their past reputation and become just another Zsa Zsa Mobile with no substance.

Rogue Leader

The AM V12 is essentially 2 Ford Duratec V6's attached together. AFAIK the basic design for the Jag/AM V8 came from this as well, but they did a LOT of development work.

Oyishdog

Good to see...I would hate to see the brand die out. Granted, the vettes need competition in ALMS, but really, the ALMS needs the aston's.

xsiveone

The engine in the Bugatti Veyron is basically two Volkswagen W8's attached together with 4 turbochargers. It doesn't matter what the engine started from. It's how it's developed and implemented.

The Noble M12 uses a turbocharged version of the 3.0 Liter Duratec engine. I haven't seen anyone compare driving a Noble to driving a Taurus.

The problem that I see is when they basically use the same driveline directly out of the Ford like with the Jag S-Type.

BrianCunningham

a racing team goes and buys the company, got to love it!

How about putting Cosworth engines in them?

Rogue Leader

I wasn't knocking the design, just saying that AM has more in common with Ford than just the bankroll.....

AU N EGL

So in 08 when ProDrive enters F1, maybe we will see Aston Martin on the sides of the teams cars.

xsiveone

I know that you weren't and I wasn't either. I was just trying to point out the fact that a lot of these companies share a lot of parts with their parent company. VW built the Veyron and Audi basically built the Gallardo which is arguably the best Lamborghini yet. What I think is important is how these parts are developed and implemented. Not where they come from.

Another funny irony is that Ford dropped Champ Car as a sponsor this year and Mazda took it's place. Ford is the parent company of Mazda and they are now basically using an engine that was derived from a Ford powerplant. Most of it's going to be developed by Cosworth anyway, so how much of that original Ford engine is going to be in the car?