Aston Martin sold

[Manntis]

http://money.cnn.com/2007/03/12/news/compa...sion=2007031210

Ford selling Aston Martin in $925 million deal

Troubled automaker selling luxury brand, maker of James Bond car, to Kuwaiti firms, racing company founder.

March 12 2007: 10:23 AM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Troubled Ford Motor Co. said Monday it would sell its Aston Martin luxury car business to the founder of an auto racing company and other investors in a deal valued at $925 million.

The consortium of buyers includes David Richards, founder and chairman of Prodrive, an auto racing company, John Sinders, a Texas banker and Aston Martin collector, and two Kuwaiti investment firms Investment Dar and Addem Investment.

Aston Martin, founded in 1914, makes several different sports cars with prices starting at $110,000. But the brand is still best known for making the DB5, a car first driven by the character James Bond in the 1964 movie Goldfinger.

The sale values Aston Martin at $925 million, according to a Ford announcement. As part of the deal, Ford, which lost $12.7 billion last year, will retain a $77 million stake in the car brand.

The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2007, according to Ford. Ford officials were not immediately available for further comment.

Ulirch Bez, who currently heads Aston Martin for Ford Motor Co., will continue in that role as its Chief Executive Officer, according to an announcement from the buyers.

"This new partnership is a tremendously exciting opportunity for Aston Martin," said Bez in the buyers' announcement. "Under the ownership of Ford we have become a successful, profitable company and I will be working with the new owners to build on this great foundation."

Aston Martin cars will continue to be made at the brand's current factory at Gaydon in Warwickshire in Britain, the new owners said.

The new owners also announced plans to make a version of the four-door Rapide concept car shown at the Detroit Auto Show.

[oneshot]

Just been on our local news - sold for

[Tentenths]

Really relieved that Aston Martin has gone to a British led consortium. I have a huge amount of respect for Dave Richards and his achievements with Prodrive, and hope that AM continues to prosper under his stewardship.

Edited March 12, 2007 by Tentenths

[bosbon_be]

I'm invited to visit the plant next week. I'll hope that all employees will be happy with the takeover. I'm glad that the new owners already have plans of bringing new models to the market.

[USAndretti42]

Good news that Aston's future has been settled. It's always unsettling when a company is for sale. It slows development work as you have to keep preparing stuff for prospective buyer visits and budgets may be cut to help the balance sheet.

And good for Dave Richards. He has built a few nice Aston Martins already.

Couldn't take my eyes off them when I went to Road Atlanta last summer.

[Tentenths]

In which case you might be interested in some of the pics I took whilst at Prodrive's Banbury HQ last year Trevor...

Take one of these

Add it to one of these

Add a few bits of carbon fibre etc

et voila

The Vantage based rally cars weren't too shoddy either

Edited March 14, 2007 by Tentenths

[Manntis]

Is the stock AM floorpan that boxy, or is that a race-only stamping?

(BTW - lovely pics!)

[bosbon_be]

Building process of a "normal" DB9. Hope you see the details of the chassis.

http://www.astonmartins.com/factory/db9_production.htm

[Manntis]

excellent link!

[Mark Blanchard]

Good news Aston

[USAndretti42]

Enjoyed looking at both the pictures from Prodrive and the link to the DB9 build. I went to an open day at the Newport Pagnell factory many moons ago and it was certainly nothing like that!

I didn't know about Prodrive laying people off. Are they still looking after the Subaru rally cars? The GT1 Aston Martin's have been run a pretty tight budget so I suppose that means there's not much money around . Then there's the cost of setting up the Formula 1 team. (Or the profit from selling the franchise )

[Tentenths]

Oh yes

[Mark Blanchard]

I didn't know about Prodrive laying people off.

When he left, they'd been laying people off for a few years.

He was luck enough to work on the DB9 and DBR9 and also worked on the Holden SS.

[mayevora]

[Tentenths]

Do look odd don't they Ian? Look equally bizarre from the front/side elevation

As you can see from the next pic the whole thing sits slightly behind the rear of the car itself.

All to do with aerodynamics apparently. The 'sectioning' within the rear spoiler is there to help maintain 'yaw stability at high slip angles' i.e. when its blasting round corners sideways.

Many race cars incorporate equally odd looking fin arrangements - diffusers - below the chassis to clean up airflow. An example of which is shown below (yet another image from my Prodrive visit )

[nello]

The new Prodrive F1 Factory is being built just up the road from me - looking forward to hearing some serious V8 power as its on the sight of an old WW2 Spitfire Airbase!