The Astons I created

I’ve been very fortunate to have been involved in the creation of many cars, including a number of Aston Martins. The first was the DB7, the mildly controversial car whose somewhat surprising conception and birth I’ve written about in a previous story.

But there is a broader tale to tell, about how TWR (Tom Walkinshaw Racing) in general and me in particular got so involved with Aston Martin and the many designs we considered for the brand, only a few of which made it into production.

At the time, back in the early 1990s, Tom could see that Aston Martin was a forgotten car company. The majority of its shares were Ford-owned but it was clear the boys and girls at Dearborn knew neither what they had nor what to do with it. Tom saw the vacuum.

Looking at Aston Martin today, it’s unbelievable to think only 30-odd years ago nobody was interested. In 1992 when the Virage was all it had, the company produced, wait for it, just 50 cars – not even one a week. And you’ll not be surprised to learn it was losing money, not that losing money was in any way an unusual occurrence in Aston’s history. On the contrary, for much of it, it had been the norm.