How Aston Martin Builds the Gorgeous One-77 Supercar

• By Basem Wasef 
• Email Author 
• December 15, 2011 

GAYDON, United Kingdom — Henry Ford created a monster.

The mastermind of mass production gave rise to the modern automobile industry by perfecting the art of building cars quickly and cheaply. In 2010, Ford’s assembly line concept was responsible for the nearly 78 million vehicles that rolled out of the world’s factories that year. That’s more than 213,000 new cars produced each day — kinda makes your Camry feel a little less special, doesn’t it?

Though Aston Martin’s typical assembly process involves a “line,” it doesn’t exactly churn out cars ad infinitum. It took 70 years for the British firm to sell its first 10,000 vehicles. Even today its elegant creations remain handmade by a small army of workers at the company’s headquarters in Gaydon, nestled on the edge of the idyllic Cotswolds region in the British countryside.

But when Aston set out to build its radical One-77 flagship, it stepped away from its main manufacturing facility and constructed a small structure where it turned the assembly line concept upside down. Rather than move the car along a line as it’s constructed, there are seven workstations where craftsmen and parts revolve around each vehicle. The setup hews more closely to the golden age of bespoke coachbuilding than the brave new world of hyper-efficient mass-production.

Above: Pretty in white, a finished One-77 awaits final testing. Photo: Nick Dimbleby

The One-77 is Aston Martin’s ambitious campaign to simultaneously distill the company’s purest essence into one vehicle and re-establish a stratospherically high standard for the nearly century-old brand.

“We had amassed all of this intellect and understanding, and really wanted to show our capabilities to the world,” designer Marek Reichman said.

Chief engineer Chris Porritt adds that the project was intentionally executed before a rabid environmental lobby could make it even more difficult to produce so politically incorrect a vehicle.

“We wanted to give our best shot at delivering the most exclusive, the most exciting and highest performance Aston Martin we could ever build,” Porritt said.

Yet, any Aston Martin exec — including CEO Dr. Ulrich Bez — will agree that the One-77 is hardly the quickest, fastest or best-handling supercar, despite the haunting exhaust note of its 750-horsepower V12 or its top speed north of of 220 mph.

On the other hand, it may just be the most gorgeous.

Above: Clamps hold an interior component together as glue dries. Photo: Basem Wasef

Above: A painted body and chassis setup awaits assembly. Photo: Basem Wasef

The One-77 runs 1,120,000 British pounds (around $1,750,000, depending on exchange rates), more than triple the cost of the next most expensive Aston, the V12 Zagato. To get an idea of where the range-topper sits on the Aston Martin pyramid, not only is it twice as rare as the already unattainable Zagato, it’s also innumerably more exotic in both concept and execution.

The One-77 features the most powerful normally aspirated production engine in the world, a one-off interior that looks like it was plucked from a concept sketch and a seemingly endless array of personalized elements. A palette of unusual finishes and features like a laser-etched leather headliner are available, and the experience culminates with an engineer who flies to the customer’s favorite track or stretch of road in order to calibrate the car’s suspension to the owner’s personal taste.

The car is so exclusive, so luxurious, that the only way to increase its sticker price is to order interior surfaces finished in real gold or ruthenium, a rare metal in the platinum family that’s popular at the moment in the world of high-end wristwatches.

Above: Aston Martin workers will assume almost any position to access hard-to-reach areas during the assembly process. Photo: Basem Wasef

Above: Each One-77 seat is built to customer specification. Everything from stitch patterns to hide textures can be customized by the buyer. Photo: Nick Dimbleby

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Article By Basem Wasef