Driving back home from work yesterday after a good solid 2 hrs work :D I decided to give my mate at Aston Martin a ring. He had been promising for ages to take me round the factory.

"no probs" he says so in I drive to the visitors car park. Go on a tour of the production line. Very intesting, seems the entire car is stuck together with glue! Get to see all the guys there hand beating aluminimum panels, sanding and buffing, hand painting everthing. Tour of line take about an hour and he tells me all the ins and outs of how the car is built.

Get to the end of the line and he asks the ultimate question ( well nearly ultimate question)

"Do you want to grab a coffee or go out for a run in this Vanquish"

(Ultimate question would hve been 'Do you want these keys, see you in a coule of days :D)

So we jump into this Vanquish that happens to be sitting there. Still covered in cling film :D, it is literally just off the line.

Quickly grab my Eminem CD, load it into the Linn CD Changer and jump in the passengers seat.

"Go on press the start button" he says.

OH MY GOD......I touch the start button and after a split second the ultimate throaty growls builds up in side the cabin and shivers tingle down my spine. I thought a decat scoob sounded nice but a V12.....need I say more.

So we potter out of the grounds and of towards some country lanes. He couldn't push it to hard, new car and all, but the power delivery was the smoothest I have ever felt.

"COME ON, give it a bit of welly" i say.

"We just went round the last corner at **cough** mph, that's plenty"

I honestly thought we were gently crusing, turn out we were doing no such thing.

20 mins of so later we were back at the factory and my little adrenaline rush was over.

It was an unbelievable experience and one I will be doing again in the near future.

A truley amazing car, but for £160k, you would expect as much :D

Nice! Beautiful car.

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/motoring/ro...tvanquish1.jpg

jammy git!

Very nice :D awesome sound too :D

:D I think I qualify as a reasonable jammy git, he on the other gets to take them home, making him a fully fledged JAMMY GIT:D

Quality, you lucky chappie.

I've had a couple of factory tours, one a few years ago when my mates dad used to work their building V8's, and one last year when i pulled up in an old DBS and wandered in being nosey, asking lots of questions. Never got offered a ride in a Vanquish though :( !

not bad for what is basically an XJS :)

Edit - Doh thats the DB7 isn't it?

Still uses the old jag v12 tho'



[Edited by mikelmr - 6/17/2003 12:49:50 PM]

lol

The vanquish is also mainly Jag parts and it's cosworth that make the engine, so it's really just a re-badged shed :D:D

A DB7..? A DB7....?????

Now there speaks a man who doesn't appreciate Britain's finest car, as per the XJS comments! No sir, that sir, is a Vanquish.

Leave the Astons to the aficionados amongst us..!

Mikelmr, no it doesn't. The engine bears no relation to the Jag V12 whatsoever. It is based on the new Ford 'modular' engine, the block is effectively two Mondeo V6's with a lot of fettling & bespoke AM designed heads

jammy barsteward:D went out in a Volante with a test driver oh boy the A422 was just a blur:D
Cheers
Colin