Aston Martin opened its first purpose built engine plant in Cologne, Germany yesterday. The plant which will produce engines for the Vanquish S, DB9 and forth coming V8 Vantage, has been constructed to meet Aston's ambitions to be building 5,000 cars a year by the end of 2005.
Aston Martin's Chief Executive commented: "The new plant will allow us to have greater flexibility than ever before. We now have control of the production of our engines, so can consider doing smaller runs of special high performance versions."
Although situated alongside Ford's Niehl engine plant, the Aston facility is equiped soley to produce Aston engines and is staffed by 100 Aston technicians. As with Aston Martin engines of old, each engine at the new plant will be constructed from start to finish by a single technician. The new 12,500 square metre plant incorporates machining for engine blocks and cylinder heads, component construction and extensive testing facilities. Built to meet Aston's production demands now and in the future, the unit has been designed to simultaneously construct both V8 and V12 units.
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