Hands Together - Maybach To Utilise Aston Martin Expertise in Mutually Beneficial Alliance

Aston-Martin-Maybach Salon - Maybe

By Robert Erskine
Senior European Correspondent
Autolab USA

'Hands Together’

When it comes to hands they are the extension of the human brain in terms of our abilities to 'make'.

As the first recorded ages of our existence blossomed from the Stone Age, Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, and to our present advanced industrial time, our hands have left evidence of our industry. Find a ceramic shard from an early clay vessel and if you look hard you may discover a fingerprint preserved and left by its maker on the wet surface. Discover a Stone Age flint and you understand that this cutting technology is efficient. Come across a stone artefact and the marks left by carving tools always look fresh. Indeed tools have evolved as has our intelligence from before 250,000 years ago, for tools are an extension of the hand . A hammer is the result of our ability to strike with the fist, pliers to grip with the hands, adjustable spanner wrenches to grasp and turn with the fingers. Perhaps our most spectacular success with hand tools is the taming of the flame, heat, the development of welding torches, after thousands of years of evolution in metal working. All of this is about handling 'stuff' or material, and fashioning it into almost whatever our creativity and intention allows. But it is the hand that does it all ever since humankind had the urge to create something to advance his state on this planet.

Today there are few if any automotive car manufacturers who still make vehicles exclusively by hand. In fact you could count them on one hand, most prominent in Europe are Maybach of Germany, and in the UK Aston Martin, Bentley, Morgan, and Rolls Royce, all producing handmade super cars. When we use this term 'handmade' in car production, we are describing that a high percentage of the car is made/machined, assembled and finished by hand. What was long ago the only way to make cars cheaply is now reversed and carries a cachet and premium of value. This way of making cars is closely linked to that of art, especially sculpture, and not surprisingly many of the processes have their roots in this field, starting with drawing a design, always done with the hand.

To some an unlikely alliance between Aston Martin Cars UK and Maybach Cars, of Mercedes Benz Daimler division has recently been announced.

Both cars makes are regarded as exclusive, Aston Martin the exotic, emotional, exciting, masculine, supremely sexy and powerful. Maybach however is the utterly decadent, plush, unusual, somewhat understated, and to some utterly unknown. As a car it is considered somewhat strange and is a very rare site on Europe's roads. As one pundit described Maybach cars 'Subtle it ain't, its vast, flash and comes with absolutely every extra you can think of and then some, you can have gold plated wheel rims'.

What is not commonly understood to the general public is that both cars are made, machined, and assembled by hand.

I was fortunate to have spent time at the Aston Martin facility here at Gaydon, Warwickshire, UK. I saw an Aston Martin made from start to finish and it is a work of art, each car handmade and ever so slightly different from the one before. That Aston Martin may build Maybach's, Germany's attempt at a Rolls Royce is not that surprising. After all both companies employ similar methods of 'making' and each has the need for one another.

Aston is developing a new vehicle to compete with other high performance SUV's such as the Porsche Cayenne, and since having been sold off from Ford's PAG group, Premium Auto Group, which included Land Rover/Range Rover, it has been bereft of in-house off road technologies easily taken from Land Rover's stores. Additionally it needs super-efficient ready-made ultra-low emission diesel engine technologies.

Daimler/Maybach has all of this kit and equally Maybach needs Aston Martin because they have a more significant hand made production line heritage and efficiency know how, together with specialist high performance engineering design technologies, and superb automotive design, which Daimler/Maybach lack. The new Maybach will be placed to have outstanding qualities in performance luxury, to compete with such cars as Bentley, Rolls Royce, etc. It could even cause concern to these marques when Aston Martin commences development. Maybach Cars lack an immediate charisma and have not changed their design look for some time.

Aston Martin with their world renowned in house design studio, we have previously had their head of design Mareck Reichman as guest on Autolab, will easily be able to interpret the Maybach brief of creating its new image and fettling by hand a new dynamic look.

There is a synergy of hands here and it will be fascinating to see how both companies benefit. By utilising each others strengths development costs will also be greatly reduced.