In what amounts to a major expansion for the firm and a doubling of its staff, the new Bicester HQ will house not only production facilities but also a design studio, client handover area and experience centre. Owners will even be able to test the cars on Bicester Heritage’s test track.
“To start the company with the new Bugatti Baby was such an honour,” the Little Car Company’s founder and chief executive Ben Hedly tells GRR. “Just as with the original Bugatti Baby we are making a limited run of 500 cars and they are almost all sold out.
“The car I always wanted to do after the Bugatti was the DB5, it is such an icon. We worked very closely with (Aston design director) Marek Reichman and his team who provided a 3D scan of a real DB5 for us to work from. Marek even insisted on full-size Aston Martin badges. The result has been fully endorsed by Aston Martin.
“We are making 1,059 of the DB5 Junior, same number that were made of the original, and we can match chassis numbers to actual cars so parents and youngsters can share in the DB5 ownership experience.”
Young (from about five years old) DB5 drivers may even be able to share in motorsport too: Hedley is planning a race series with an “equivalence” formula so that Bugattis and Astons can race each other on an equal footing.
“With our cars we make sure adults can drive them as well as children so everyone can have fun,” says Ben. “What we would like to do is some form of adult-child racing like a pro-am series. When people see the detail in our cars they want to have them in their living room, then when they drive them and see how quick they are all they want to do is race them. Imagine a field of DB5 Juniors hammering around Goodwood!”