RoyPoyntingcolumn
The famous car maker has decided to manufacture a motorcycle – though don’t expect to see any on the road…
Motoring history has often been complicated by the manoeuvres of makers attempting to cope with – or take advantage of – contemporary financial and social circumstances. We are mostly interested in twowheelers of course, but many marques best known for their motorcycles – such as AJS and Triumph – were also once associated with car manufacture, while firms like Rover went the other way, and abandoned motorbikes to concentrate on up-market cars.
Other companies stayed within the transportation field but made more fundamental changes. Aermacchi, for example, produced aeroplanes (hence the first part of the company’s title) until forced to switch to motorcycles by post-Second World War restrictions, while MV Agusta made a similar change – which continues to this day – before returning to aeronautics with a concentration on helicopters. Laverda – best known in this country for its heavyweight sports bikes – made an even more unexpected turn when it first supplemented agricultural machine manufacture with motorcycles. And even prominent sports car maker Porsche also made tractors at one time.
One of the most surprising changes of direction, however, is that after more than a century as a maker of prestigious cars, Aston Martin has decided to branch out with its very first motorcycle. Naturally, given the firm’s reputation, it’s an up-market sports bike rather than a ride-to-work machine, and it features a 1000cc V-twin motor. Not just any old motor either, it comes from the equally prestigious modern Brough Superior company, and its already ample power is boosted to an eye-watering 180bhp by turbo-charging.
Incidentally, Aston Martin has had as chequered a history as any British motor company, with more nearbankruptcies and rescues than you can shake a stick at. The best known and most successful rescue occurred in 1947, when a takeover by David Brown led to the Golden era of Le Mans success and the glorious DB-series sports tourers immortalised in the James Bond films. Like Laverda, David Brown’s automotive background lay in the manufacture of farm machinery; a nugget of information (along with Porsche’s similar involvement) presumably unknown to those who think ‘tractor’ is a witty nickname for Harley-Davidsons!
Anyway, the point is that given the firm’s reputation and its zero tradition in the field, the Aston Martin AMB001 was never going to be a motorcycle as we know it. In fact, the design team was instructed to make it as unlike a traditional motorcycle as they could, and designs were axed or tweaked until that aim was achieved. That said, it would have been impossible to ignore all the concepts developed over the 20th century, so there is still an engine suspended between a front wheel which provides steering, and a back wheel providing traction.
Where things are apparently most different is in manufacturing techniques which are more akin to those used in the car industry, with much effort put into making sure there are no exposed nuts and bolts to spoil the appearance. Also, avant-garde materials are well in evidence, with prolific use of aluminium alloy and carbon fibre, resulting in an all-up weight of just 180kg. That figure of 1bhp per kg puts the AMB001 in F1 racing car territory, or in more mundane terms could be compared to a BSA C15 weighing less than a pedal cycle!
So the Aston Martin has a stunning individualistic appearance, is technically impressive, and has an amazing performance, but what’s it all about? Throughout motorcycling history the most prestigious models – like the Norton Brooklands Special, the
Brough Superior SS100, the Triumph Bonneville, and even the Honda Fireblade – have always been recognisably part of their maker’s road-bike range with a bit more performance, extra bling and an inflated price. Now Aston Martin has deliberately made a ‘motorcycle which doesn’t look like a motorcycle’, and even if you could cope with its low bars, high footrests, and minimally-padded seat, you can’t actually go anywhere on it, because the AMB001 isn’t street legal!
You are not even likely to see one unless you, or somebody you know, has a hundred grand to spend on a new toy, because just 100 of these remarkable machines will be made. I suppose one or two might make it to a track day where their proud super-rich owners can teeter round frightening themselves witless. But – unless the ‘Double O’ designation means one will appear in a Bond movie – I imagine the rest are destined to sit in air-conditioned garages, complementing equally pristine DB5s, evidence of yet another motorcycling cul-de-sac to rival odd-balls like the Neracar, the Bohmerland and the Quasar.
“The Aston Martin has a stunning individualistic appearance, is technically impressive, and has an amazing performance.”