Tour of Aston Martin factory

Thanks to our Vice Chair, Ray Sommerville, we had a VIP visit to the Aston Martin factory at Gaydon. 12 Fellows were made most welcome on arrival, the Aston Martin reception and welcome team were fantastic, very friendly and professional.

We gathered in the VIP room for teas and coffees, where customers can see the range of 60 colour schemes, samples of leathers etc. As we learnt later on in the tour there are rarely two cars leaving the factory that are identical due to such a wide choice of personalisation. We split into two groups of six for the tour of the manufacturing plant, with each group having very well-informed and friendly tour guides, Paul and Alan, who pointed out various interesting procedures and also had a wealth of knowledge on the history of Aston Martin, and indeed the companies’ aspirations for the future.

What we saw was a combination of highly complex pieces of equipment coupled with a range of traditional skills, both of which had to be admired. You soon understood and appreciated why these wonderful cars demand such a high sale price, as each car requires many man hours, has the highest quality individual components, and benefit from being assembled by a highly skilled and dedicated team, who clearly love their job. (Borne out by a very low staff turnover). The factory on average produces 20 cars a day, which underlines that Aston Martin is all about quality not quantity.

Our tour was enhanced by also being able to view 4 of the iconic “Bond Cars”, right back to the DB5 featured in Sean Connery’s Goldfinger in1964, Pierce Brosnan’s Vanquish and Daniel Craig’s DBS. We also got to see the latest Limited Edition DB12 Goldfinger. We felt very privileged to have the chance to get up close to such famous cars.

The tour finished with a very enjoyable lunch, and the chance to share our thoughts on what was a super event. As always with Fellowship events there was much fun and banter! Again, we thank the team at Aston Martin for making it such a memorable day, they could not have been more welcoming. Finally, again my thanks to Ray for being able to source such an exceptional tour.

Peter Cottle