One of Reichman’s recent projects has been to oversee the creation of Aston Martin’s mid-engined family of cars like the Valkyrie and Vanquish Vision Concept, so we ask how mid-engined machines fit with Aston’s traditionally front-engined model line-up.
“It’s vital. We’ve said since becoming a publicly limited company, post the IPO, one of the aims is obviously to grow the portfolio, to become a true competitor to our friends in red, if you like, and the only way you can do that is to have a mid-engined portfolio.
“It started with Valkyrie – I guess the pieces slowly came together for everyone, and finally in Geneva you could see the Vanquish concept. But the whole relationship with Red Bull Advanced Technologies and the F1 team and Valkyrie is about getting to Vanquish. It’s about getting there with arguably the world’s greatest car since a McLaren, that’s a road car. The Valkyrie will reset many of the times, limits, speeds, g-forces, downforce etc. – it has 1,800kg of downforce. It’s a unique product.
“That was there so that when we get to Vanquish as a true road car, a competitor to wherever F8 goes or 720, we have the provenance of coming from the world’s greatest mid-engined car, arguably working again with one of the world’s greatest aerodynamicists and engineers ever in Adrian [Newey] – I don’t know how many times he’s won world championships, but it’s a lot more than anyone else. You know, he is a genius in that field. The reason, at the end of the day, they’re wonderful products but they’re limited series cars, and Vanquish will be a true on-road competitor.”