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Aston Martin posts deep quarterly loss as coronavirus pandemic dents sales

LONDON — Aston Martin posted a deep first-quarter loss after sales dropped by nearly a third due to the impact of the coronavirus crisis, though the luxury car maker said production of a crucial sport utility vehicle was on track. Aston Martin, popular for being James Bond's carmaker of choice, suffered a torrid time since it floated in October 2018, seeing its share price tumble from 19 pounds to around 40 pence. Dire conditions forced the company to bring in Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll to invest in the firm, while Aston said it will continue to review future funding and refinancing options to boost liquidity. The pandemic hit demand and forced factories around the world to suspend production. However, Aston resumed operations as its Welsh plant last week but not at its other site located in southern England as yet. "We were obviously fairly significantly hit by COVID-19, starting with China in January but more clearly in what we saw as it came across towards Europe and the United States," Chief Executive Andy Palmer told Reuters. The company posted a pre-tax loss of 119 million pounds ($145 million), compared with a loss of 17 million pounds ($21 million) last year, and said it could no longer provide an annual outlook. Its full-year loss in 2019 came in at 104 million pounds. Shares were down 5% at 36 pence, as of 07:35 GMT on Wednesday. The carmaker said production of its DBX SUV, which is key to boost volumes and appeal to new buyers including more women, was on track and had a strong order book. The luxury brand, which has seen core retail sales slump by an annual 31%, has furloughed staff, introduced additional safety measures and cut the pay of its senior management as part of measures to handle the crisis caused by the pandemic. Stroll, who hopes to pursue a turnaround partly by sharing Formula One technology with the firm's range of road cars, leads a consortium that took a 25% stake in the company earlier this year as part of a capital raise worth 536 million pounds. "Given the ongoing uncertainties, as is prudent, the company continues to review all future funding and refinancing options to increase liquidity," the company said on Wednesday.   (Reporting by Costas Pitas; Editing by James Davey and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

Supercar parade entering highway is mesmerizing

In what must have looked and sounded to motorists on the M6 like an invasion of The Swarm, a parade of 50 enthusiast gems leaving a charity event were caught shooting down the on-ramp and merging into traffic. There were plenty of Porsches joining the 959 and Ducktail above, Aston Martins going back to the badboy V8 of the last millennium, a Ferrari Testarossa, a TVR and numerous other Easter eggs.
There were not, however, plenty of turn signals, with someone counting just five among the fifty engaging in proper use of the blinker. One reason put forth for that is the same reason we're posting this video, which is from last Summer, below: "because supercar." Enjoy.

Aston Martin working on mid-engine Valkyrie ‘brother’ to rival McLaren P1

We know about the Aston Martin Valkyrie and the Valkyrie AMR Pro (pictured). And we know Aston Martin is planning a mid-engine rival for the Ferrari 488 and McLaren 720S. Now Autocar reports that the English luxury maker is working on yet another mid-engine model, a hypercar to outdo the McLaren P1 and Ferrari LaFerrari and stand up to the coming McLaren BP23. The newest addition to the small carmaker's grand plans is said to be known internally as "brother of the Valkyrie," and came about because of the sellout success of both the Valkyrie and Valkyrie AMR Pro. Both "brother of Valkyrie" and the 488 competitor are expected to use a carbon monococque with aluminum subframes. Both will use lessons from Aston Martin's tie-up with the Red Bull Formula 1 team, especially in packaging. Both are due to hit the market around 2021. And both will be products of the carmaker's Performance Design and Engineering Centre, a base of 130 engineers set up at Red Bull F1's Milton Keyes headquarters. However, the former car will fight in the GBP1M-plus price bracket ($1.4M-plus) where various manufacturers have made amazing hay with warp-speed daily drivers, and will be a limited edition "in order to add to its desirability." We remain in the dark on powertrains for both cars, but outsiders expect both to use a V8. When it comes to the "brother" car, Aston Martin's working relationship with Mercedes-AMG means it could tap the 4.0-liter V8 used by the DB11 and the Vantage. Apparently that engine can be wrung out to 800 horsepower with help from an ultimate EQ Boost setup. That still wouldn't be enough to compete in the segment, though, so the "brother" could become a demonstrator for Aston Martin's electric know-how — a rolling showcase that could turn its halo light on a potential electric sports car. Or perhaps there's another option that turns to Cosworth, the company helping develop the 1,000-hp 6.5-liter V12 in the Valkyrie. Aston Martin boss Andy Palmer wouldn't say much more about the junior supercar powertrain than, "In our portfolio today, we don't have an engine capable of giving us the output we require.