Pictures from today's PRODRIVE factory tour

[Ashok Arora]

Thanks to everyone who came along today for our visit to the Prodrive factory about 70 miles outside London. After a mini meet in Greenford, the London contingent headed up the M40 (thanks for leading the way Gus) and joined everyone else in Banbury.

Here we have a M3 CSL, E39 M5 and M6 convertible lined up in the car park:



The visit began in the Heritage Centre where some of Prodrive's past masters are kept:



Classic champion E30 M3:



Prodrive's own P2 concept car:



Then it was time for an a/v presentation (I felt like a student again):



Prodrive specialise in "re-manufacturing" cars to turn them into track and race winners. After a look at the intricasies of wiring loom construction (more interesting than it sounds) and checking out rally engines and transmissions, it was time to see how they transform 'ordinary' Aston Martins into true beasts.

The cars come in and are completely stripped down:



Carbon fibre body panels (made by Prodrive) are added:



..and the results include the world's most prestigious rally cars:



and some impressive race cars:



The engine enhancement is equally impressive - this is a DBRS V12:



Now here's something very special:



What a beast!



Beast of an engine to go with it...



Prodrive are best known for their WRC winning Subaru rally cars and these were fascinating. Here is a current car as driven by Peter Solberg:



Just look at those brakes - note the tag to record peak temperatures:



Pure engineering excellence. Every key component is checked and labelled so that faults can be traced back as needed. Here's the boxer engine from the WRC car:



A good end to a fun afternoon - we even got free hats!



Hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did - thanks again to those who came along.

More info on Prodrive can be found at www.prodrive.com

[legacy260]

A really great evening and I shall start saving to buy an Aston Rally / Track Day car. If you want some additional shots I am more than happy to forward or post them on here. A fun group of M5 owners and thank you for organising the visit.

[Sebring NL]

Nice writeup as always Ash


DBR's are amongst my favourite racecars..

I have high hopes for their Formula 1 aspirations, which is more than can be said about some other new teams.

I have full faith in Prodrive being the first company to let Aston turn a profit and make them succesful in racing, although succes in Formula one is not often translated into winning the championship.

Wout

[legacy260]

I think their F1 'fantasy' will soon be sold to repay borrowings either from Apax (Private Equity firm) or to develop the consulting division. I believe McLaren are interested in a second team with R&D funded by Middle Eastern backers and M-B.

[shimmy]

They said that the F1 car may be racing next season all going well and they will be anouncing who is their partner supplying the car very soon.(Honda??)

They also had a top secret booth which we were not allowed to go near on pain of *****. It had a big hoarding around it and my guess is that it housed one of the three already made new Subaru Imprezza's due out next year. They must be sorting out te handling packages ready for the rally season.

Great evening out and very very interesting. Even think we saw David Richards in a RR Sport (when his Vanquish just sat there shiney in the car park)

[legacy260]

Talk about a rewiring job...a customer DB9RS

[legacy260]

Interior shots of the Aston Martin DB9 RS as engineered by Prodrive. Yours for around £175,000 and upwards. Over 20 have been sold and are ready for 'Track day' fun and games.

[legacy260]

Awesome six pot Brembo carbon disks and a lag free 300BHP turbocharged 2 litre Subaru WRC engine. The torque figures are huge, with acceleration of 0-62 mph in around 3 seconds, on any surface!

[alantd]

You can even have one of your own!

http://romansinternational.co.uk/car.asp?id=433

[alantd]

More pictures of that beautiful M3 (the E30 - not the E46 CSL, which was also lovely).