Beautiful indeed they are, but at the 2018 Revival, some of the brand’s heritage track weapons have been doing the business around the circuit too. Notably, Aston Martin’s factory driver Darren Turner taking his first ever win at the event in a 1950 DB2 during the Fordwater Trophy on Saturday. A point that Palmer reacts positively to.
“I think Astons were always built to be driven. While they've always looked beautiful, they've always driven beautifully as well. Even today, when we sell cars like Valkyrie, or the Zagato, we always try and allocate them to people who really drive the cars”.
It’s something Paul Spires passionately spoke about as he talked us round the DB4 GT continuation car. Aston Martin still want to deliver motorcars for real drivers, petrolheads, and people that have a genuine appreciation for the heritage associated to the brand.
“The demonstration of that is that people come here with very, very expensive classic cars, yet they're racing them like the stole it. A few people have asked me to drive! I said ‘you've got to be crazy. You want to put me in a multi-million-pound car and go racing? I can't do it, I can't do it’. It's challenging here. It's a great track, but there's not much room for error”.
You get the impression that error is not a word Palmer has had much experience of, and it seems the iconic premium automotive brand is in a very safe, and diligent pair of hands.
“On the new car side the next car out is the SUV, and there's lots of very exciting things happening in terms of stabilising the company. In our plan, you've got the seven cars, then every year you've got two specials, like a GT8 or a GT12, and then you've got one heritage revival. So, you've seen DB4 GT here this weekend. We've just announced DB5 Goldfinger, which incredibly, is already sold out. It costs £2.75million. There's 72 people, last time I looked, that have placed an order, and there are only 25 cars…”
“It breaks my heart to say no to the 50 people who didn't make it! We keep honest on those numbers though. There won't be any more made. If people trust us, then they'll invest in the brand.”
For a final tease, Palmer shares an exciting update on what else to expect from Aston Martin in the future.
“We always try to look for something significant. And there’s an anniversary coming up soon. I won't tell you what it is, but there's another good reason to have a limited run of a certain classic car."
Hmmm, curious. We’ll let the Aston Martin geeks sift through the history books to try and work out what Palmer is nodding to there, and if we’re lucky he’ll will be here to show it off at a Revival in the future.
“I get to go to lots and lots of events during the year, and lots of motor shows. This is the best. Even from a personal point of view, I just love coming here. It's an opportunity to interact with our customers, or our potential customers on a very informal basis. Just wearing the vintage clothes just lowers the barriers for everyone. This is the one where I get to slip the lead of the PR people and get the chance to disappear for a couple of hours to enjoy everything that's going on.”
And with that, we take the hint and leave the easy-going CEO to enjoy the rest of his tea and his day. It sounds like the next 12 months are going to be busy.