After 10-Year Hiatus, Aston Martin Resumes Production at Historic Car Factory

British luxury carmaker Aston Martin announced that operations have officially restarted at the company's historic Newport Pagnell production site. The move was part of the brand’s 'Second Century Plan,' a strategy initiated by its CEO Andy Palmer, which hopes to turn the storied sports car manufacturer into a serious rival to Bentley and Ferrari.

Aston Martin marked the milestone by announcing that they will build a special limited run of 25 DB4 GT Continuation cars. The original DB4 GTs were built on the same site almost 60 years ago.

When Aston Martin moved its headquarters to a more advanced facility in Gaydon in 2003, they let the Newport Pagnell site serve mainly as a hub for heritage sales, parts and service, and restoration, although they still produced the MK1 Vanquish there. When production of the MK1 Vanquish ceased in 2007, the site functioned solely as a restoration center for classic Aston Martins, and renamed as Aston Martin Works.

"For more than half a century Newport Pagnell was the heart of Aston Martin," said Palmer. "Thanks to the efforts of those at Aston Martin Works it has since become the torchbearer for our Heritage division. It's immensely satisfying and wholly appropriate that this historic, yet state-of-the-art facility should now form a key part of our expansion. Together with Gaydon and our all-new production facility at St. Athan--which is progressing towards completion--it's my pleasure to see production officially return to Newport Pagnell."

Paul Spires, the managing director of Aston Martin Works, said: "It's a source of enormous pride that our Tickford Street premises are once again building new cars for Aston Martin. The DB4 GT Continuation is the perfect demonstration of the capabilities we have here at Works and testament to the timeless appeal of Aston Martin’s illustrious classics."

Less than a year after Palmer announced the DB4 GT Continuation project, the first car off the production line has already been delivered. Completely hand-built, each new DB4 GT takes an average of 4500 hours to create. According to Palmer, the remaining 24 units of the limited series will be completed and delivered within 2018.