► New video shows off 28 Astons
► 104-year history in film
► Factory now has bonus tyre marks
We all do it: we move somewhere new and want to celebrate so we throw a party and trash the place – even before all of the boxes have been unpacked. So, it’s comforting to know that some of the petrolheads at Aston Martin wanted to do the same thing at the brand’s soon-to-be second manufacturing plant in St Athan, Wales.
Aston’s chief engineer Matt Becker and WEC drivers Darren Turner and Nicki Thiim play around in the vast hangars of the former MOD site in South Wales in around £65m-worth of Astons, including everything from the A3 to the One-77, Cygnet and Vulcan.
Feast your eyes on almost seven minutes of drifting and donuts in and around the empty facility and take in the gorgeous engine notes from Aston Martin’s 104-year history. Right up until head honcho Andy Palmer arrives, who is understandably a tad unhappy at all of the fresh tyre marks on his new floors.
Wait… Aston Martin has a new factory?
It does indeed. Like Aston’s home in Gaydon, the St Athan facility in south Wales is a former RAF base, but is just a shell at the moment. Aston will be slowly moving in and setting up in the next year or so, and will start producing its new DBX crossover there from 2019.
Aston Martin claims 750 new jobs will created by the new plant, and that 3000 applications were attracted by a recruitment drive in 2016. More than 40 of the first technicians that will be working in St Athan from 2020 are already in training at the Gaydon HQ.
Aston boss, Andy Palmer, called the new facility ‘an excellent opportunity.’
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