Engineering news
Production of Aston Martin’s new twin-turbo V12 engine has started at its engine plant in Cologne, Germany.
The engine is the first turbocharged engine in the company’s history. Developed in-house, it brings 608PS and 700Nm of torque, with a top speed of 200 mph and a 0-62mph time of 3.9 seconds.
The completed engines will travel by road to Gaydon in Warwickshire where they will be fitted into the new GT. At the current rate of one shift per day, the manufacturer’s chief executive, Andy Palmer, claims the plant can build more than 130 engines each week.
Opened in 2004, the Aston Martin Engine Plant (AMEP) is a dedicated facility created solely for the production of Aston Martin power plants. Workplace for over 100 highly-trained employees, the 12,500 square metre production hall is divided into four areas: one for the machining of the engines’ cylinder blocks, one to machine cylinder heads, an assembly area where a team of specialist technicians hand-build the engines and one for receiving components and shipping completed engines. Production of the 6.0L V12 and 4.7L V8 engines will continue at AMEP.
To ensure quality and consistency of the engines, one engine assembly technician will build each engine, following the process through from start to finish. It takes a total of eight hours to build one V12 engine and the AMEP has a production capacity of 8,000 engines a year. Once completed, each engine undergoes stringent cold and hot testing within the AMEP facility, and only when it has satisfied the various test criteria is it released for shipment to Gaydon.
Brian Fitzsimons, Aston Martin chief engineer, powertrain, said: “To see this new engine go into full production at AMEP makes me very proud. Designing and developing the 5.2L twin-turbo power plant has been an all-consuming passion for me and my team. Knowing that the end result would be built with meticulous care in a truly state-of-the-art facility such as AMEP was an added motivation. It’s a hugely exciting time to be an engineer at Aston Martin, not least because this is just the beginning for the new twin-turbo V12.”