Advantage Aston Martin

It is something of a toss-up over which has lived the most dangerously: Aston Martin or its most famous customer, James Bond - reports the Financial Times.

During the course of its 91-year history, the proud old British luxury sports carmaker has turned up its toes no less than seven times. On each occasion it has been rescued, often by a colourful, enthusiastic entrepreneur.

In the late 1970s it was a consortium including Alan Curtis, the suave, slightly Bond-like property tycoon, whose assets included Farnborough airfield. In the early 1980s it was the late Pace Petroleum owner Victor Gauntlett - a larger-than-life character as English as the cars' Connolly hide interiors. Both found, like others before them, that making a small fortune out of upmarket cars mainly requires starting with a large one.

Even so, there were quite a few groans from die-hard Aston owners when, in 1987, the mighty but emblematically blue-collar Ford bought three quarters of the company. By the 1990s Ford was outright owner and intent on putting Aston Martin on a firm financial footing, but there were more groans from traditionalists when it said it was putting a German in the driving seat.

Five years on from his appointment, Ulrich Bez can afford to look back on those customer misgivings with a benevolent grin. Aston Martin is on a roll like no other in its history. It took 91 years for Aston Martin to produce its 20,000th car. This year alone, says the 61-year-old former senior engineer with Porsche and BMW, it will build 5,000.

Behind Bez, as he talks with enthusiasm of the fact that the company has finally turned the corner into profitability, lies the reason why, as he puts it, "Aston Martin has reached the most important milestone in its history". It is a touch over 14ft long, just over 6ft wide, packs a 380 horsepower punch and is called the Aston Martin V8 Vantage. Just like one of 007's earlier amphibious cars, it is about to take Aston Martin into uncharted waters.

When it goes on sale in the UK this year, the V8Vantage will cost £79,995, inclusive of virtually all the bells and whistles expected of a 175mph luxury sports car. Aston's current range, from the DB9 to V12Vanquish, has a price spread of £103,000 to £175,000. For the first time in its life, Aston Martin is driving into Porsche territory.

At first glance, there is still a sizeable gap. Porsche's iconic 911 range starts at £62,000. But adding some of the extras already on the Vantage narrows the gap considerably. At £90,000 the 911 Turbo, in comparison with the Vantage, looks distinctly pricey. So has the time finally arrived for Porsche's 40-year-old defier of the laws of physics to start quaking in its tyre treads?

Bez should know. For a start, it was he who, during his long tenure at Porsche, directed development of some of the greatest 911 models, including the Turbo and the Carrera RS. Indeed, for a long time he was responsible for all research and development and took Porsche into F1, the World Sportscar Championship, Indianapolis and Le Mans. These were not simply the actions of a strategist, as Bez practises what he preaches. He has been - and still is - a serious racer of both sports cars and single seaters.

And that DNA shows up in the V8 Vantage. On testing in the hills around Siena, the car displays a pedigree in pace, ride and handling that would have made Aston's founders ecstatic. The first Aston Martin was called the "Coal Scuttle". The Vantage gets closer to space shuttle - except that nothing falls off.

In some respects the 911 and the Vantage are quite alike. Both are built to be capable of withstanding daily use. Both are designed to chew up demanding roads with awe-inspiring rapidity. But the differences are much greater than detail factors such as the 911 having (purely token) rear seats while the Vantage is strictly a two-seater.

I have had a lifelong love of 911s; few shapes are more iconic, or have endured so long. But set against the sinuous form of the Ian Callum-styled Vantage, the 911 looks, at last, like a product approaching its sell-by date.

Under Bez, Aston Martin is heading towards Porsche from another direction: the race track. He has already taken a racing version of the DB9 back to Le Mans; the Vantage, too, is destined for GT Racing.

For all that, I suspect Porsche has only a little to fear from Aston Martin. Unlike Porsche, Bez appears to have no plans to take Aston Martin further downmarket, or into sports-utility vehicles. Inevitably, with the emergence of wealthy new markets, at some point production of 5,000 cars a year will not be enough. But Bez says that nothing will be done to prejudice Aston Martin's exclusivity. In contrast, Porsche makes 20,000 911s a year and its total output is about to top 100,000. "About 2,000 of those 20,000 911s will do us nicely," says Bez

Thanks to `JP` for the alert.

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