Aston Martin's $4 million One-77 for Australia

ONE wealthy Australian has placed an order for the most expensive car in the world – the Aston Martin One-77 – which could cost $4 million by the time it arrives here in 2010.

It will be one of only 77 examples being built by the British company, which last week finally revealed official photographs of the car it describes as “perfection”.

Aston Martin regional manager for Asia-Pacific, Marcel Fabris, told GoAuto that at least one of the hand-built supercars will come to Australia and that there is “the potential of one or two more”.

Unlike the Bugatti Veyron – the only car that comes close to the Aston on price – the One-77 will have full local certification and will therefore be able to registered and driven on Australian roads.

As part of Aston Martin’s global certification program, the One-77 will be crash-tested at Volvo’s test lab, including specific aspects that are unique to the Australian Design Rules.

The official price of the One-77 is 1,050,000 pounds – which is $2,340,000 at the current exchange rate – plus local taxes.

For Australia, that means an extra 10 per cent import duty ($234,000), 33 per cent luxury car tax ($849,000), 10 per cent GST ($342,000) and stamp duty of about five per cent ($188,000), for a grand total of $3,953,000.

Mr Fabris said that the first Australian buyer has paid a $200,000 deposit and has been told his car will be delivered in early 2010.

The first of the 77 ‘production’ One-77s will emerge from Aston Martin’s Gaydon, Warwickshire headquarters in the fourth quarter of 2009.

The newly independent company – which was sold by Ford almost two years ago – wants to get the exclusive model into as many countries as possible to act as halo cars, so fewer than 10 per cent have been earmarked for the big UK and US markets.

Aston Martin first revealed the One-77 through an obscure teaser photo three months ago and taunted enthusiasts further with a mostly covered car at last month’s Paris motor show, so these are the first unbridled images seen of the hand-built supercar.

Although it will fall short of the Veyron, Aston Martin CEO Ulrich Bez said that he is not concerned about comparisons or his car’s performance figures.

Dr Bez has revealed that the car’s 7.0-litre V12 engine (a development of the 6.0-litre unit in the DB9 and DBS) will produce 700 horsepower (522kW) and about 700Nm of torque.

“It will have seven litres and 700 horsepower and it’s called One-77 – there are a lot of sevens in this – but Aston Martin is not about figures,” said Dr Bez.

“I do not care if the car has three point something seconds from zero to 100 or the maximum speed is 200 miles per hour or whatever, this is not so important for us – it’s more important what is beyond the figures.

“It is an expression of all the beauty we could bring to a car, it’s an expression of all the emotions we can bring in the car, and by this it is the expression of what Aston Martin stands for.

“So what you are getting here is what we understand is perfection.” Each body is sculpted by hand from a flat sheet of aluminium and is about 125mm longer than a DB9, the carbon-fibre chassis is made by an outside supplier, and the interior and even some of the technical aspects of the car will be tailored for each of the 77 owners.

British reports suggest that the lightweight (1500kg) One-77 will be able to accelerate to 100km/h in about 3.5 seconds and have a top speed approaching 220 miles per hour (354km/h), depending on gearing.

“It is going to have some fantastic performance,” admitted One-77 program manager Chris Porritt.

“It will put a real smile on your face when it’s doing something. The noise that will come through the exhaust when it starts up will be fantastic – it will sound like nothing that you’ve ever imagined before.

“The big thing on this particular car is effortless ability to be able to get to speed, so you can imagine being able to accelerate in any gear faster than anything else on the road.

“It is beyond feeling fast it’s almost to the point of feeling a little bit, ‘Should I be doing this?’.” Mr Porritt said that the car was an extension of Aston Martin’s history of doing low-run vehicles like the DB4 GT Zagato, only 24 of which were built between 1961 and 1963.

“Each of these programs is building Aston Martin heritage and pedigree, so what we’re doing with One-77 is building on that by bringing in a today version of a very low-volume, very high-tech, very exclusive Aston Martin product.” Dr Bez said that the extremely low production run meant that the company could do things with the car that could not be done with a run of 3000 cars or more, enabling each car to be tailored to its owner’s requirements.

As well as the interior, the suspension can be set-up specifically and even the weighting of the gearshift paddles can be tailored.

“This car should give you the feeling like it is a tailored suit,” said Dr Bez. “It’s a tailored suit to your mindset, to how you see things, to your eyes.

“This is the difference – we can do things you cannot do with a machine because of the low volume, so it has to be hand-made. You have much more freedom.” Aston Martin director of design Marek Reichman, said that one of his earliest discussions with the company boss was about doing a car that was “closer to art than to the automobile”.

“Ulrich said to me, ‘Just make the most irresistible Aston Martin, something which is just pure emotion’,” said Mr Reichman.

“There will be that true craftsmanship, the juxtaposition of art, design and engineering combining to make this incredible product.

“Obviously we are designing a car, but it’s as close to a piece of art that we can possibly get it. The body of the car will be hand-made and the chassis is high-tech, made carbon-fibre, so that mixture of art and engineering really is the essence of the One-77.

“There isn’t a higher level we can go to. If we could bottle the essence of Aston Martin – power, beauty, soul – as a three-dimensional expression, that really is what One-77 is all about.”

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