Skip to main content

Watch pro drivers joyride in $83.4 million worth of Aston Martin cars

It’s all in good fun when three employees rip it up inside and out at British luxury sports car maker Aston Martin’s new St Athan plant in South Wales. A promotional video shows off the new super spacious facility along with 65 million pounds ($83.4 million) worth of Aston Martin hardware.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Aston Martin has already started redeveloping the St Athan plant’s three super hangers into a state-of-the-art luxury vehicle factory. The St Athan facility is Aston Martin’s second U.K. manufacturing plant.

Recommended Videos

The film was produced to celebrate the transfer of ownership to Aston Martin. It is not a typical blue sky corporate production panning wide open spaces and exalting the company’s past and future people and products, however. In this corporate video, the cars are the stars, which is only fitting — as well as great fun.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

The premise of the video is three employees, after delivering cars to the lineup of 28 varied historic and current Aston Martins, decide to break in early the next morning to have some fun with the impressive lineup of sports cars and race cars. Two Aston Martin Racing’s World Endurance Championship (WEC) drivers, Darren Turner and Nicki Thiim, are joined by Aston Martin Chief Engineer Matt Becker.

The drivers sneak by snoozing guards at the factory gate. The cars include a restored 1921 A3, a 1958 DBR1, a One-77, a number of Vantages, a Rapide S, an Aston Martin Vulcan, and more. There is even a Cygnet minicar that stays still while two other cars blast around it like wolves circling a lone sheep.

The drivers take the cars out three at a time and spend most of their time drifting and blowing wide donuts around each other. It’s all great fun until President and CEO Andy Palmer shows up. Suddenly the drivers disappear.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Palmer grills three security guards who claim to have heard nothing. After telling them they can forget about getting company cars, Palmer puts the guards to work cleaning up skid marks in one of the hangers.

Bruce Brown
Bruce Brown Contributing Editor   As a Contributing Editor to the Auto teams at Digital Trends and TheManual.com, Bruce…
Hyundai teases Ioniq 9 electric SUV’s interior ahead of expected launch
hyundai ioniq 9 teaser launch 63892 image1hyundaimotorpresentsfirstlookationiq9embarkingonaneweraofspaciousevdesign

The Ioniq 9, the much anticipated three-row, electric SUV from Hyundai, will be officially unveiled at the Los Angeles Auto Show next week.

Selected by Newsweek as one of America’s most anticipated new vehicles of 2025, the Ioniq 9 recently had its name changed from the Ioniq 7, which would have numerically followed the popular Ioniq 6, to signal the SUV as Hyundai’s new flagship EV model.

Read more
Kia EV5: everything we know so far
Kia EV9 front exterior

Kia is expanding its EV lineup in a big way. The company is currently in the middle of rolling out the EV3, which is now available in Europe and is likely to come to the U.S. next year. Not only that, but it's also prepping the EV4, which it will likely announce more widely in 2025. And it's not stopping there either -- the Kia EV5 is a slightly scaled-back version of the much-loved EV9 SUV, and not only is it a vehicle we're excited about, but it's one that has already launched in Australia.

If the EV5 is anything like the EV9 -- only cheaper -- it'll be an instant success. Curious about whether the EV5 could be your next car? Here's everything we know about the EV5.
Design
Despite the lower number, the Kia EV5 is actually larger than the EV6 crossover — but not quite as large as the EV9 SUV. Kia calls it a “compact SUV” that offersa boxy design that’s similar to the EV9, but with only two rows of seats instead of three.

Read more
Trump administration prepares to end Biden’s EV tax incentive, report says
president biden drives 2022 ford f 150 lightning electric pickup truck prototype visits rouge vehicle center

If you’re looking to buy or lease an electric vehicle (EV) and benefit from the Biden administration’s $7,500 tax incentive, you’d better act soon.

The transition team of the incoming Trump administration is already planning to end the credit, according to a report from Reuters citing sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

Read more