AMB 001 BY ASTON MARTIN AND BROUGH SUPERIOR
LIMITED EDITION MOTORCYCLE
The iconic Aston Martin wings appear on a motorcycle for the first time with this exciting new collaboration between Aston Martin and Brough Superior.
“The very first Aston Martin motorcycle in history, the AMB 001 represents the union of iconic Aston Martin design and Brough Superior’s state-of-the-art engineering. This track-only motorbike is reserved for only the greatest luxury motorcycle connoisseurs. The Aston Martin design team used the series of mid-engine Aston Martin cars to inspire them on clear principles of form and function. Design and engineering work in perfect symbiosis, raising the bar standards to new heights, resulting in the AMB 001. The Aston Martin AMB 001 is a technical masterpiece of high performance, designed with a degree of elegance that is rare in racing motorcycles. Beauty and power are the hallmarks of this exceptional machine. Superior in every way, the AMB 001 is hand-assembled by the finest French craftsmen in Brough Superior’s workshop in Toulouse, France.”
https://www.astonmartin.com/en-us/our-world/partnerships/brough-superior
Strictly limited to just 100 examples, the track-only AMB 001 represents the union of iconic Aston Martin design and state-of-the-art Brough Superior engineering to create a piece of automotive art for the motorbike connoisseur.
Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings PLC (/ˈæstən/) is a British manufacturer of luxurysports cars and grand tourers. Its predecessor was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. Steered from 1947 by David Brown, it became associated with expensive grand touring cars in the 1950s and 1960s, and with the fictional character James Bond following his use of a DB5 model in the 1964 film Goldfinger. Their sports cars are regarded as a British cultural icon.[3] Aston Martin has held a Royal Warrant as purveyor of motorcars to Charles III since 1982,[4] and has over 160 car dealerships in 53 countries, making it a global automobile brand.[5] The company is traded on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.[6] In 2003 it received the Queen’s Award for Enterprise for outstanding
Founding
Aston Martin was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford.[22] The two had joined forces as Bamford & Martin the previous year to sell cars made by Singer from premises in Callow Street, London where they also serviced GWK and Calthorpe vehicles. Martin raced specials at Aston Hill near Aston Clinton, and the pair decided to make their own vehicles.[23] The first car to be named Aston Martin was created by Martin by fitting a four-cylinder Coventry-Simplex engine to the chassis of a 1908 Isotta Fraschini.[24][25]
They acquired premises at Henniker Mews[26] in Kensington and produced their first car in March 1915. Production could not start because of the outbreak of the First World War, when Martin joined the Admiralty and Bamford joined the Army Service Corps.[27]
Brough Superior (/ˈbrʌf/ BRUF) motorcycles, sidecars, and motor cars were made by George Brough in his Brough Superior works on Haydn Road in Nottingham, England, from 1919 to 1940. The motorcycles were dubbed the “Rolls-Royce of Motorcycles” by H. D. Teague of The Motor Cycle newspaper. Approximately 3048 motorcycles (19 models) were made in the 21 years of production; around a third of that production still exists. T. E. Lawrence (“Lawrence of Arabia“) owned eight of these motorcycles and died from injuries sustained when he crashed number seven; the eighth was on order. Moving forward to 2008, vintage motorcycle enthusiast Mark Upham acquired the rights to the Brough Superior name. In 2013 he met motorcycle designer Thierry Henriette and asked him to design a new Brough Superior motorcycle. Three months later a prototype of a new SS100 was shown in Milan.
History[edit]
George Brough was a racer, designer, and showman – his father William E. Brough had been making Brough Motorcycles in Nottingham since 1908, and continued to do so until 1926. Convinced he could improve on his father’s designs, all Brough Superior motorcycles were high performance and superior quality. Most were custom-built to the customer’s needs, and rarely were any two of the same configuration.
Each motorcycle was assembled twice. The first assembly was to fit all the components. Then the motorcycle was disassembled and all the parts painted or plated as needed. Finally, the finished parts were assembled a second time. Every motorcycle was test ridden to ensure that it performed to specification, and was personally certified by George Brough. The SS100 model was ridden at 100 mph (160 km/h) or more before delivery. The SS80 model was ridden at 80 mph (130 km/h) or more before delivery. If any motorcycle did not meet specification, it was returned to the works for rework until it performed properly. The fit and finish was comparable to a Rolls-Royce car, and they were the most expensive road-going motorcycles in the world.
Brough Superior motorcycles have always been rare and expensive. Prices for these motorcycles ranged from £100 to £185 in the 1920s and 1930s. Since the average annual salary in Britain during the 1930s was £200, only the wealthy could afford them.
In 1940, World War II brought an end to production as the factory was engaged on war work, completing crankshafts for Rolls-Royce Merlin engines. After hostilities had ceased there were no suitable engines available so the company was wound up.[3] In 2004, around 1,000 Brough Superior motorcycles still existed.[4]
