How It’s Made: Aston Martin DB11

Take an insider’s look at how the Aston Martin DB11 is born into the world at their manufacturing facility in the UK.

The MOTOR1 US YouTube channel recently put up this mesmerizing chunk of footage taken from various cameras placed around Aston Martin’s production facility in the UK. There’s no voice-over, music, or creative editing here. Just raw footage that gives you a real taste of the atmosphere, people, and the process it takes to build a DB11.

Tucked away in the county of Warwickshire is a small village called Gaydon. It’s home to Aston Martin and where the company designs and builds its cars. On a map, it looks like a curious place to home an international luxury brand. However, it’s the perfect place to both develop and build their cars. Gaydon is just a 40-minute drive from the Silverstone race track and right on top of the M40 motorway that provides a corridor to and from the major motor industry cities.

What caught our attention in the video first is the quiet pace of production. A company such as Honda is busting out 1 car every 90 seconds further south at it’s Swindon factory. However, Aston Martin is essentially hand building cars, and starts a new one every 26 minutes.

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Of course, in the modern era, it wouldn’t be very smart to not utilize modern technology where it can be of great benefit. In the relative quiet of the production line we see they use computers as well as modern tooling and machinery. As Aston’s CEO, Andy Palmer, has said before, “Handmade doesn’t necessarily mean lack of technology.”

It’s not just the building and painting of the DB11 that’s fascinating. There’s painstaking quality control and inspection going on as well, and all quite befitting of a bespoke automobile. The skilled technicians are meticulous and unhurried as they put together each piece of these mechanical masterpieces. Obviously, build time is important to a businesses bottom line. But to hand build a high-end car, it’s just as important that time is put to use making it perfect.

Ian Wright

Ian Wright has been a professional writer for two years and is a regular contributor to Corvette Forum, Jaguar Forum, and 6SpeedOnline, among other auto sites.

His obsession with cars started young and has left him stranded miles off-road in Land Rovers, being lost far from home in hot hatches, going sideways in rallycross cars, being propelled forward in supercars and, more sensibly, standing in fields staring at classic cars. His first job was as a mechanic and then trained as a driving instructor before going into media production.

The automotive itch never left though, and he realized writing about cars is his true calling. However, that doesn’t stop him from also hosting the Both Hand Drive podcast.

Ian can be reached at bothhanddrive@gmail.com