All language subtitles for Supercar.Superbuild.S01E02.Bentley.Continental.GT.V8.S.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-RAWR_track4_[eng]

(rousing music)

(engine roaring)

- [Narrator] It is synonymous
with sophisticated elegance,

high performance, and secret agents.

(tires screeching)

For over a hundred years,

Aston Martin has made
distinguished sports cars,

but now this tiny British
brand stands alone.

- We are a David versus a Goliath.

- [Narrator] Battling
multinational conglomerates

in an ever changing world.

- Aston Martin has no margin error.

- [Narrator] To survive,
they need a new machine.

- We are it.

There is no helper or big brother.

- [Narrator] A small but
dedicated team looks to the past,

only to find salvation in an
old American hot rodders trick.

- I was absolutely adamant,

we're gonna make this
do 200 miles an hour.

- [Narrator] A uniquely English machine

called the V12 Vantage S.

(engine roaring)

(rousing music)

In 2007, Aston Martin
stands as one of the top

European sports car
manufacturers in the world,

(engines roaring)

winning both on the race track,

and also on the showroom floor.

- We were really into our stride

and producing over 7,000 cars.

And we had established the
DB9 as the the new icon,

a super cool GT,

we got the VA Vantage in production,

and we established what
we call the new era.

- [Narrator] Almost without warning,

the world economy collapses.

(tranquil music)

Overnight, Aston Martin loses its empire.

- Some challenges in the market for sure,

from 2008 onwards, a global recession.

- [Narrator] It's a global recession

that sends car makers around
the world into a tailspin.

For Aston Martin, it's now do or die.

- Aston Martin is one of
the very few independent,

really small car makers.

- Most supercar manufacturers

are owned by worldwide conglomerates,

but Aston Martin has no
corporate safety net.

The company's next move could be its last.

- No matter what's
going on in the company,

in the economy, in whatever,
these guys gotta be thinking,

I wanna build a sports car,
I wanna build a sports car.

And well, they did.

- [Narrator] Now, for the
first time in over 20 years,

it's success or failure rests
solely in British hands.

- They have to fight for
their own little niche.

They don't have economies of scale

which other manufacturers have,

so they have to pay more
for every single part

that they develop for their cars.

- So what Aston has done
is sort of repurpose

the same architecture
and their same engine

to make new things.

- [Narrator] Lead designer Marek Reichman

itches to push the brand forward.

- We've always had a
policy of of thinking about

what could we do next with the assets

that we have around us.

What would be exciting?

(engine roaring)

- [Narrator] With limited money

to build a new machine from the ground up,

Reichman has to do a lot with a little.

- The idea was, well,

what if we put the V12
engine into the Vantage?

How could we make that work?

- [Narrator] Squeezing
the brand's biggest engine

into one of its smallest
and oldest chassis

is a daring proposition,

yet the notion ignites
a passion for speed.

- And that genesis absolutely,
of Ian coming along saying,

hey, we have this idea.

We talked together, said this
will be an amazing car to do.

- The engineering team
quickly sets its sight

on creating a bold goal.

- When we're laying down the
targets for the V12 Vantage S,

I was absolutely adamant to the guys,

we're gonna make this
do 200 miles an hour.

(engine roaring)

- [Narrator] An outrageous top speed

isn't the only objective.

- We wanted to get below the magic

four seconds of naught to 60.

(engine roaring)

So it really came out
of a small group of guys

free thinking.

But once we got hold of the
concept, then we thought, yeah,

this is a serious project
and a serious car.

- [Narrator] With the
performance target set,

the design team faces a unique challenge,

how to take an existing and
universally applauded supercar

and fit a substantially
larger engine inside it.

- We had a Vmax target.

All those were defined.

We create the sketch,

and that sketch has to
look like an Aston Martin.

- [Narrator] Making an Aston Martin

look like an Aston Martin is no easy task.

- Your first reaction has to
be, (gasps), it's beautiful.

- [Narrator] It takes time to find

the right balance of beautiful.

- If I was to describe the
thing that we had to win,

it was about making sure that proportion

was absolutely perfect.

So the fight was for perfection.

- [Narrator] It's a distinctly
British form of perfection

that starts in a very old-world way.

- All Aston Martins start with a sketch.

In my mind, that immediately starts

to give you a proportion.

Within that proportion,
you have to fit the person.

So you can then start to realize
where the front wheel is,

where the rear wheel is,
where the occupant will sit,

and you can start to sketch.

You can start to have an idea of the form,

the language of the car.

- [Narrator] That language is
the key to Aston's rebirth,

and it's all due to a
time honored process.

- That sketch then becomes a
three-dimensional scale model.

- Designers design a lot
of stuff on computers,

but you can't touch what's
on the computer screen,

but you can touch what's in clay.

- [Narrator] At first, they
create an 1/8th scale model.

It's a fast way to bring the
language of the car to life.

- At that point, we can then start to scan

that three dimensional form.

The CAD doesn't understand

whether this is a scale model or not,

because we can convert
the scale to full size.

So we can turn a 10 millimeter square

into a 100 millimeter square.

So immediately then we have a surface.

- [Narrator] Once the
surface becomes digital,

the team can look for the
most minute imperfections.

- Our role is to get the scan data

and the nuances that are done physically

by the clay modeler.

Our job is to refine those.

Then we go back to the physical world

to make sure what we've done is correct.

(rousing music)

- [Narrator] Modelers work tirelessly

to perfect the shape in the real world,

handcrafting each sensuous curve in clay

on a life-size model.

(engine roaring)

- I'm not a designer, but it's
all about their proportions.

It's all about the way that
car sits with a big, long hood,

and just the elegant, simple
lines that go across it.

They're just timeless.

- When you build something in clay,

you get this full-size model,

and you get the whole
feeling of how the car looks

and what it's gonna express
that you just don't get

if you design the car
solely on a computer screen.

- We're looking for the most beautiful

proportion all the time.

We use golden section
naturally as designers

to create form, to create shape.

- [Narrator] The golden
section, or golden ratio

is a mathematical formula
used to describe beauty.

It was first discovered
by the ancient Greeks

over 2,500 years ago.

It's a theorem that tries
to find logic in beauty.

Yet even today, it still
affects the most exotic

and modern supercars in the world.

- It's a rule and a principle,

a mathematical rule, comes from nature.

The nautilus shell for instance,

everything within the nautilus shell

fits perfectly within that golden section,

the golden triangle, as it were.

- [Narrator] The golden rule
might come from the old world,

but the design teams' use
is uniquely contemporary

and uniquely British.

- The Brits are known
for understated design.

They bring cues from the 60s and 70s,

and they brought that
all the way into today.

It's not an easy thing
to define necessarily,

but it's an elegant, classy design.

It's not vulgar in any way.

There's no huge affectations.

- Aston Martin means these
sporty grand touring cars,

cars that you wanna drive
across continental Europe

in 10 minutes with your foot on the floor.

They're incredibly powerful,

but they're also incredibly
comfortable and beautiful.

It's a car to be seen in.

- It's the understated
gentleman's Ferrari.

- [Narrator] Marek and his team

blend that open appeal
with a modern style.

- That becomes the battle,

to make sure we get the best looking car

that is gonna be timeless
design, a future classic.

So it's really about making sure

everyone understands the
direction and the goal.

- [Narrator] That goal is a
contemporary reinterpretation

of an old American hot rodders trick.

Take the biggest, heaviest,
and most powerful engine

and drop it into the lightest chassis,

a 565-horsepower engine called the AM28.

- And that's just the ancient hot rodders

recipe for making an awesome sports car.

- Everybody loves a good

stick the biggest motor in
the smallest car you got.

And sometimes it can be fun,

sometimes it can be a little bit too much.

In the case of the Aston,
it's probably both.

- [Narrator] Engineers predict

that the four extra cylinders
will propel the machine

to a 329-kilometer-an-hour top speed.

(engine roaring)

There's only one problem, the
engine doesn't actually fit.

In an ever-changing automotive landscape,

Aston Martin looks to turn heads

with a new hot-rod-inspired supercar.

- Since Aston Martin doesn't have

a big car maker to support them,

they have to do everything on their own.

- It takes so much money
to develop a new car,

and if you don't sell
four trillion of them,

you can't recoup that development cost.

- They can't afford to
make any big mistakes,

'cause that could cost
the company everything.

- If Aston misses on anything,

I think we're gonna have
to say goodbye to them.

- [Narrator] So how does
an independent car maker

expect to compete

with some of the largest
car companies in the world?

The answer lies in the quiet green hills

of Warwickshire, England.

Welcome to Gaydon,

the beating heart of
Aston Martin since 2003.

It is one of the most
technologically advanced

automotive factories in the world.

- It's a facility where
people are manufacturing

these beautiful sports
cars with great passion.

- [Narrator] 54 acres
of space age technology

paired with British refinement.

- It's quiet, it's clean,
it's very, very high tech.

- [Narrator] Every phase
from design to production

takes place on a single campus.

It's here that engineers and designers

struggle to solve the critical
problems facing the project.

(engine roaring)

- The front end of the car was
designed around a V8 engine.

So the first challenge is actually getting

the large engine to fit in the space.

(engine roaring)

- [Narrator] Engineers digitally comb over

every single millimeter of the engine bay

to find a solution.

- The big challenges were
the packaging of an engine

which had four more cylinders
than the previous engine.

Just to give you an example of that,

that's about that much longer
within the same wheel base.

- [Narrator] When engineers
first digitally dropped

the V12 engine into the V8 chassis,

they immediately have a problem.

- And you can start to see
some of the pinch points here,

and just here on the front of the engine.

As the bonnet dives over, we're
in a tight pinch point here.

- [Narrator] A pinch point

is where two pieces don't fit correctly.

Getting the engine to fit comes down

to just 12.5 millimeters,

a little less than the
height of two iPhones

stacked on top of each other.

- Usually we'd look for 25 millimeters,

but in some cases we've halved that.

(engine roaring)

- [Narrator] In the end,
12.5 millimeters are the key

to bringing a new machine to life.

(engine roaring)

- The pressure on Aston must be enormous,

because they have such limited resources

and they have to keep coming
out with different things.

- [Narrator] Any failure
could mean the end

of the mark's illustrious legacy.

- One of the challenges that we believe

we always take on here
is doing the impossible.

- [Narrator] With their
reputation hanging in the balance

and perhaps, their solvency,

the Aston Martin design
team boldly surges forward.

- As a small independent car company,

they're are a lot more agile.

They can do fun things,

they can do crazy things like that car,

things that wouldn't get through

a regular car company's processes.

(tires screeching)

- That's something that we would say,

well, of course we can do it.

We don't have to follow this rule,

we don't have to think in this way.

We can make it work.

- [Narrator] It's a unique form of bravado

from a company that's no longer willing

to keep a stiff upper lip.

- But if they built like some sort of car

that wasn't really an Aston Martin,

and they spent a lot of money
on it and it didn't sell,

that could kill the company.

- [Narrator] This small independent

is about to go toe to toe

with some of the most powerful
companies in the world,

but only if it can learn
to control something

that you can't actually see.

In the world of extreme supercars,

powerful engines always get the glory,

but it's the air surrounding them

that provides the greatness.

- Literally as you shoehorn your foot

into a very tight shoe,

that's what we try to do with
the V12 Vantage S engine.

- [Narrator] Shoehorning the
larger V 12 into the chassis

is just the first step.

The real key is to
manage the airflow around

and inside the machine itself.

- And we've got a lot to come
through the the engine bay,

what we're gonna do with all the air

that's going into the front of the car.

- [Narrator] Controlling the air

creates three distinct challenges.

First, the machine needs to be tuned

so that it's stable at high speed.

(engine roaring)

- At 200 miles an hour,
an airplane can take off.

At 200 miles an hour, a
car can take off, too.

So you wanna make sure that
the aero package is right

so that the car stays on the road.

- [Narrator] But the car also needs

to cut through the air easily.

That requires creating the
least amount of drag possible.

Drag is a type of air resistance.

- Drag effectively is the
force you've gotta hammer,

how hard you gotta work to
push the air out of the way.

- [Narrator] Tuning the
machine to be stable

and reducing the drag proved to be easy

compared to cooling the machine.

- You've got a more powerful engine

and it fills the engine bay a lot more.

- As soon as we found out we're gonna

put up a V 12 in this car,
first thing for me was

what we're gonna do with all that heat.

- [Narrator] A team of aerodynamicists

use a sophisticated
three-dimensional model

made up of over 60 million cells

to find the best way to move the air.

The first step is to
map what you can't see.

- Red is good,

and that means there's lots
of energy left in the air.

So this is us before we get to the car.

And as the car passes through the air,

that energy is transformed
into heat rejection.

- [Narrator] Air particles
pass through the car

in just 50 milliseconds.

(engine roaring)

- In that 50 milliseconds worth of time,

that air has to cool the brakes,

it has to travel around the car

without causing too much drag,

(engine roaring)

and it also has to make sure

that the car is absolutely
planted at speed.

(engine roaring)

- [Narrator] The air loses half its energy

before it even hits the engine.

- Within the space of
about a 100 millimeters,

or the length of your forearm,

the air is slowed down
from 200 miles an hour

down to 100 miles per hour.

- [Narrator] When the machine is moving,

the air slows down quickly.

But when the machine is stopped,

getting the hot air out is even trickier.

To do that, they tune
the louvers on the hood.

- The aerodynamics is kind
of seen as being high speed,

but actually delivers more at low speed.

What we've got here is,
this is a prototype bonnet.

We've got this bonnet here

which have all got these extra louvers in,

which we derived from
motorsports experience.

These parts actually in
here, they can be changed.

So if I flip it over, you can see

each one of them is tuneable.

So we tuned these to get the
maximum airflow through them.

(engine roaring)

Whilst it's running at high speed,

so it draws more air out,

that gives you kind of
a better head start.

If you keep the engine
cool in the first place,

you haven't got such a mountain climb

when you actually stop.

But also, when the car stops,
it allows all that heat

that we've built up inside
the engine bay to come out.

- [Narrator] At speed,
managing the airflow

is critical and complicated.

Because air travels through components

at pressures a thousand times greater

than the capacity of the human lung,

how the team channels it
throughout the vehicle

makes all the difference.

- We've gotta kind of separate that out

between how much goes into the engine

to give us the extra power
to reach the top speed,

how much we need to
obviously cool the engine.

You're gonna heat the
brakes up to 700 degrees.

You've gotta have airflow
pumping into those wheel arches

to cool those back down.

So it's a finite balance

of we're trying to
achieve all those things

with all the air around the car.

(tires screeching)

- [Narrator] From an
engineering standpoint,

the V12 Vantage S is an
engine-heavy dragster,

just like the 1950s American
hot rods that inspired it.

- The V12 Vantage is
a real engineer's car.

There's a bit of hot rod in there,

'cause it's a big engine in a smaller car.

(engine roaring)

- [Narrator] One of the
keys to a great hot rod

is how it sounds.

(engine roaring)

Inside a hidden garage
off limits to the public,

engineers use a high-tech camera
system with 32 microphones

to visually chart the
engine's audio signals.

This lets the team precisely tune

which sounds occupants
hear, and which they don't.

The camera records data at
96,000 times per second.

They then use a color map

to identify the noise characteristics,

with purple being the loudest sound.

Finally, they combine the camera
imagery with the audio data

to pinpoint exactly where
the sounds originate,

sounds which help intensify
Aston's unique exhaust note.

(engine roaring)

- Absolutely beautiful noise

that you only get from
a 12 cylinder engine.

I mean, they don't sound
like anything else.

- [Narrator] The problem is,

Aston Martin doesn't make hot rods.

They make exquisite supercars
laced with sophistication.

Today's global buyers expect
more than just a big engine.

- Anybody can make a fast car these days.

What Aston really needs to do

is appeal to the emotional side.

- There's an understated
elegance about an Aston Martin.

It's maybe more about wearing
the label on the inside

than a label on the outside.

- It is the gentleman's supercar.

First of all, they look the part,

they sound the part, they're
a little bit more restrained,

but they are no less serious
when it comes to performance.

- [Narrator] So how do
you transform a hot rod

into an Aston Martin?

- There were some really
long nights on that,

us saying that, how do we make this work?

How do we get that mix of refinement,

but with a little bit
of rawness into there?

(engine roaring)

- [Narrator] A fateful
discussion over a cup of coffee

has led Aston Martin to
put their largest engine

into their smallest chassis.

The question now, is how do they transform

this modern hot rod into
a refined luxury vehicle?

(rousing music)

- It's always about
pushing the technology,

pushing the innovation of the material.

- [Narrator] High-tech and handmade

are two staples at the Gaydon factory,

where over 200 man hours
go into the assembly

of just one Vantage.

(engine roaring)

The process begins in the trim department.

- This is Gaydon Trim Shop.

This is where all the leather panels

are all stitched together.

- [Narrator] Each Vantage interior

utilizes six full hides of leather.

- These are Alcantara panels.

These have just come from the sewing area.

The parts are now being laid
out into the spray booths,

and the adhesive is now being applied.

- [Narrator] Once the glue is sprayed,

the leather workers have just four minutes

to apply it to the plastic.

- Now the adhesive's no
longer wet, it's just tacky.

Once you put the two parts together,

it forms a permanent bond.

There are 50 trimmers,

and they'll make over 300 parts a day.

- [Narrator] It takes roughly 50 hours

to make all the interior trim
pieces for just one Vantage.

And the most important tool has a name

that hearkens back to Stonehenge.

- There is one major tool.

That tool is called a bone,

and that is the one that
pretty much does it all.

- [Narrator] The leather parts

might be made very traditionally,

but if you order a bespoke Vantage,

the stitching is absolutely high tech.

- This is the quilting operations area.

This is where our bespoke
quilting is produced.

- [Narrator] The quilting
machine looks fast.

It had better be.

There's more than one million
stitches in a Vantage.

While old-world artisans spend two days

crafting the interior,

it takes just half as long
to build the space frame.

Each panel or casting
arrives at the factory

having already been super formed,

a process where metal is
heated to extreme temperatures

before being stamped into a final shape.

Robots supply oxy adhesive.

The adhesive is both more accurate

and stronger than a traditional weld.

The entire space frame is cured in an oven

at 185 degrees centigrade
for over 30 minutes.

A slow burn for a fast machine.

Now the chassis is ready
to receive its body work.

Then they fit the doors,

front quarter panels,

and bonnet.

Each body is inspected by hand,

then it's time for a
splash of English color.

- We're know at the start of
the Aston Martin paint process.

As you can see, we've got the
car delivered in to paint.

Quite a different car as
to what you're gonna see

at the end of the process.

- [Narrator] Only, at Aston
Martin, that colorful demeanor

is just as special as the machine itself.

- The full paint process takes
on average 50 hours per car.

- [Narrator] Unlike high volume factories

where cars are painted in
batches of the same colors,

at Gaydon, each vehicle
is painted individually.

It's not efficient, but it is effective,

even though they actually
use very little paint.

- 120 Microns of paint
will be added to the car,

of which we'll remove 30
microns in our polish process

to make it a mirror glass finish.

So in theory, you have got
something the thickness of that

on the car, finished, gloss level.

- [Narrator] That shine starts
with a single coat of primer.

Now it's ready for the prep line.

- The idea of the prep line is,

we look for any imperfection
before base coat is applied.

We have a very big ethos with prep work.

- [Narrator] Once the car
is primed and prepped,

it's ready for paint.

- This car will have base coat
applied in the booth there.

It will then be dried for 20 minutes,

moved into a flash off oven,

and then we apply the clear coat by hand.

- [Narrator] Each Vantage then
receives two layers of paint

and two layers of clear coat,

some done by robots, some done by hand.

- The paint shop has a
degree of automation,

we've got some robots
in there for spraying,

and lots of hand finishing

to get the depth of paint
finish onto the car.

- [Narrator] The machine
is ready to be polished.

- Very different to high volume.

Run-of-the-mill factories,
you will not get this process.

- [Narrator] Once painted,

it's time to put the machine together

in the final assembly hall,

where it takes 42 stations
to build a Vantage.

- We're currently on the first
part of the assembly line,

trim one.

Throughout the rest of this line,

we're fitting some of the key parts

that your average driver
doesn't really think about

on a day-to-day basis.

- [Narrator] It's a very
classic way to build a supercar,

and the only way to build an Aston Martin.

- Superficially, it can look very similar

to a conventional car production process.

It's still very much a
craft-based production system.

- [Narrator] Rear deck
lids are preassembled

and then installed.

Finally, the car is ready

for its massive handcrafted
instrument panel.

The technicians will use
this big device here,

this assistor,

it's a very heavy part, is the IP,

then pick it up and
mount it to the vehicle.

- [Narrator] While the majority
of the work on the line

is done by hand,

the newest addition to Gaydon
is completely automated.

The robot places adhesive on
the edge of the windscreen

and is far more precise than a human.

- Well, it's the first
part of automated equipment

that we have on this line,

and we've done it solely
to help us improve quality.

- [Narrator] Quality
that meets performance

on an adjoining sub-assembly line,

where the powertrain
begins to come to life

with a naturally-aspirated V12 engine.

(engine roaring)

- We're now in the
powertrain subassembly area.

Here you can see one of the V12 engines.

And what we do is we take
the engine in the pallet,

we load it up like this,
and then we carry it over

to the first part of the assembly process

where we assemble the
engine to the torque tube,

and we then have the gearbox
at the back of the vehicle.

- [Narrator] They continue
to build up the drivetrain

by bolting on the transmission,

followed by the catalytic converters,

then the heat shield,

rear disc brakes, and suspension.

- So we fix what we call
the front corner units.

So that's the assembly of the brake disc,

the brake parts, and the suspension parts,

before we then marry it up to the car.

- [Narrator] The front suspension is built

as a separate subassembly,

where they bolt on the 398-millimeter

carbon-ceramic disc brakes.

Once it's completed,

it's joined to the rest of the drivetrain.

- We need to fit the radiator

on the front of the engine unit.

By having the engine, torque
tube and gearbox arrangement,

we can get the optimum weight
distribution in the car,

which is so important for
the handling of the vehicle.

(engine roaring)

- [Narrator] 85% of
the weight distribution

sits between the wheels,

helping agility on a track.

(engine roaring)

The seven-speed transmission
launches the machine

from zero to a 100 kilometers
an hour in under four seconds.

Now it'll take the team
at Gaydon 40 minutes

to install the single most
important piece of the Vantage.

(engine roaring)

It's taken over a 100
man hours for the fastest

production-based Aston Martin ever

to get to the single most
important station on the line.

- The bit that I like the best

is what we call the marriage station,

where we take the whole of
the drive line of the car

and we marry that up into the
body structure of the car.

(engine roaring)

- [Narrator] Even though
the machine is now married,

it's not quite ready for a honeymoon.

The Vantage still needs
some key bits of kit,

like exhaust pipes,

(engine roaring)

the front bumper.

(tires screeching)

- There is no line that intersects

between the lamp and the fender.

It's embedded like a jewel set in a ring.

- [Narrator] Jewelry that
takes a surprisingly long time

to install.

It takes 15 minutes to
set just one headlight.

Then they place the tail lights.

- Clearly, these cars are
gonna need some wheels.

And after that,

we build up the interior
trim of the vehicle.

- [Narrator] The Vantage is ready to move

to the very last line.

- And trim tree is around
fitting all the parts of the car

that you touch and you feel
when you're inside the car.

- [Narrator] Front seats come to the line

fully assembled from the trim shop.

Then the hand-sewn steering wheel.

Doors are brought to the line

and carefully installed.

- Once we fitted the doors,
the car will complete

the last couple of stations
on the assembly process.

- [Narrator] As the car
nears the end of the line,

there's one more key step,

the famed Aston Martin Wing,

so precious that they keep it locked up

until it's ready to be installed.

- This is the only badge, or wing

left in the automotive
industry made by a jeweler.

So we know this is very special.

- [Narrator] Before a
completed Aston Martin

can leave the factory,

it must first take a few
laps around the test track.

(engine rumbling)

- This is part of the off-tracks facility.

This is our new rolling road.

It's gonna get it up to
about 70 or 80 miles an hour.

- [Narrator] Off-tracks is
where each vehicle is tested

to meet quality control standards

like wind noise and waterproofing.

(engine roaring)

- By doing these test processes
in a controlled environment,

we can make sure we do
it the same every time.

- [Narrator] Then building a Vantage

literally hits a bump in the road.

In the hydro pulse area,

they simulate road inputs
using hydraulic actuators

to find squeaks and rattles.

The very last test is a final inspection.

- Where we spend about 20 hours

specifically checking over
the car as it's produced,

and at the very end of line

to make sure it's absolutely perfect

before we ship it on to a customer.

- [Narrator] It's taken
almost 10 days of assembly

to complete the V12 Vantage S,

the fastest production-based
Aston Martin ever built,

and a bold gambit by one
of the only remaining

independent car makers in the world.

(engine roaring)

In a hyper-competitive automotive world,

Aston Martin must do a lot with a little

in order to stay relevant.

- Building a car on your own is expensive.

If they build the wrong
car that doesn't sell,

they're a company that's
gonna be in a lot of trouble.

- [Narrator] Now, after
months of sketches,

sculpting, and intricate assembly,

the risky idea is finally
ready to enter the real world.

(engine roaring)

(tranquil music)

- The first thing you do when
you get into any Aston Martin

is go, how do I start it?

You have this key that
is made out of crystal,

and you put it in a slot in
the dash and you press it in,

hold it, and then the engine starts.

(engine rumbling)

Aston calls it the Emotional Control Unit.

You could look at it as gimmicky,

but when it's that
beautiful, it doesn't matter.

It's a little bit of theater, but my God,

if you're gonna do theater,

you might as well do it on
a car that looks like that.

- You fire the car up and it
just goes (engine roaring),

and it just wakes up like
it's been in some deep slumber

and it's really pissed off
that you just woke it up.

And then you go out driving
it and more of that happens.

- [Narrator] It's a decidedly angry form

of British sophistication.

- Astons are British Camaros.

They're loud, they're
brash, they're rough.

What Aston's done
brilliantly over the years

is taking a small number of ingredients

and making a lot of
different dishes with them.

This V12, for example,

dates back to the year of the flood.

It's really old.

(engine roaring)

- [Narrator] What makes the AM28 so unique

isn't new technology,

but rather, old technology at its best.

- Thank God it's not a turbo.

Downsizing an engine
and putting turbos on it

makes easy power, but I call it cheating.

It's just too easy.

(engine roaring)

There is a charm and a personality

that normally aspirated engines have,

and that's something we're missing out on.

- To have a naturally-aspirated
engine these days

is actually becoming kind of rare.

It's old technology.

But there's something
kind of special about it.

- It's an angry, angry car,

and it's really visceral
and really powerful.

(engine roaring)

(tires screeching)

It really speaks to you in that way.

- And every time Aston comes out

with a new version of
this engine, you think,

oh, they're beating this dead horse,

except the horse ain't dead.

This horse is faster
than the previous one.

It sounds better.

(engine roaring)

It's more powerful.

(engine roaring)

It responds better.

- [Narrator] The V12 Vantage
S is the most mainstream Aston

to ever crack the
330-kilometer-an-hour barrier.

- We've sort of dialed a few things up,

maybe from 10 to 11 in some cases,

and we put more power and
performance into the car.

- 205 miles an hour is incredible.

It's a completely different world.

This is the highest performance version

of a high performance version
of a high performance version

of the Vantage.

Every time you step up the ladder,

you get a little bit more jewelry

and spoilers and stuff like that.

- It's an extreme way of building a car,

and that's not for everybody.

You throw fuel economy out the window.

You throw everything that most people

really care about on a daily basis,

you throw that out the window
and you build an extreme car

that's loud, and powerful,
and raucous, and fast.

(engine roaring)

- [Narrator] An extreme car
with extreme performance.

(tranquil music)

(engine roaring)

- If you take one drive
in one of these cars,

you realize that the
people who are working

behind the scenes at Aston
are clearly sports car guys.

- [Narrator] Sports car
guys who continue to battle

for their very survival

by doing the only thing
they know how to do,

build beautifully exotic supercars.

- At the end of the day,
no matter what I drive

at what whatever speed and whatever track,

I always come away from
the Aston thinking,

God, that's more fun than anything else.

- I pinch myself every single day still,

after almost nine years,
that this is not a job,

it's a vocation,

it's something which is very
hard to describe the feeling.

(rousing music)

Just the sensation of what
you're actually achieving

in terms of the heritage, the future

of the brand of Aston Martin.

(rousing music)

- They are the most
communicative sports cars

on the market now,

and they show no signs of
moving anywhere away from that.

If that means there's
no Aston in 20 years,

hey, at least we had some
of the best cars now.