Aston Martins are known for being timeless and achingly beautiful grand tourers. You’ll find most of them with their engines in their noses. But now there’s talk of a mid-engined Aston coming to slay Ferraris? We’re gobsmacked.
Speaking with Auto Express, Aston boss Andy Palmer outlined the brand’s plan in the coming years:
“We have one car every year for the next seven years. It starts with our GT cars: DB11, Vantage and Vanquish. In 2019 we’ll have DBX, then we’ll have, for the sake of argument, let’s call it a [Ferrari] 488 competitor. Then we have Lagonda, which is Lagonda One and Lagonda Two. Each car has a seven-year life, so in 2023 you have DB12.”
Palmer explained that the car doesn’t have to be mid-engined; that particular configuration is just the best one for a 50:50 weight distribution.
We’d heard previously that a cheaper, mid-engined Aston was coming, but this is allegedly the first time that Palmer gave us a glimpse at what it would compete against.
The unnamed Aston wouldn’t technically be the first mid-engined Aston Martin road car, either. There was the Aston Martin Bulldog from the early 1980s, but sadly never made it to production. Then, of course, there’s the disputed origin of the Saleen S7.
But in terms of current projects, the closest thing to a mid-engined Aston is the AM-RB 001/Valkyrie. Sure, the car is just a concept for now, but Palmer said that Aston will take lessons learned from that and apply them to the new, mid-engined car.
He told Auto Express, “The Valkyrie will definitely produce some of the DNA for the 488 competitor. The mid-engined car will be a composite type of vehicle, but feature some of the technology from the [new] Vanquish.”
Cheers, everyone.