Seems like Aston will be joining the Ferrari, Lamborghini, and McLaren in the mid-engined supercar game in three years. In a recent interview, Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer set out the information of the British luxury automaker’s seven-year plan-including a mid-engined rival to the Ferrari 488 due out in 2020.
“We have 1 vehicle every year for the next 7 years. It begins with our GT cars: DB11, Vantage and Vanquish. In 2019 we’ll have DBX [the crossover], then we’ll have, for the sake of argument, let’s call it a [Ferrari] 488 rival,” Palmer informed Auto Express. “Then we have Lagonda, which is Lagonda One and Lagonda Two. Each vehicle has a seven-year life, so in 2023 you have DB12.”
Palmer went to say that not only will the new supercar bring them closer to Ferrari in the minds of fans, but economically also.
“Under our price pillars, we’ll have Vantage, DB11 and Vanquish-then you have absolutely nothing up above them. We have a slightly lower average transaction price than Ferrari, so you require something that links your Valkyrie at ₤ 2.5 to ₤ 3 million with the rest of the group. We have an obvious blind spot where the likes of the 488 sit,” he stated.
Mentioning the mid-engined V-12 hypercar, Palmer verified that some of the Valkyrie’s DNA will be transplanted into its more pedestrian sibling and that Red Bull F1 CTO and aerodynamics master Adrian Newey will have a part in its development. When asked whether or not the new car must be mid-engined, Palmer responded, “It does not, however it’s simpler to get the 50:50 weight circulation which market has the tendency to be defined as mid-engined.”
