News and Events

Forthcoming

Reports

Drayson Racing

Forthcoming

Dudley Coram Lecture 2010

This will be held on Saturday 16th October 2010, at the Barn, Drayton St Leonard.

The lecture will be on the Feltham era of cars, given by David Burgess-Wise.

Reports

Walter Hayes Memorial Lecture - 13th January 2010

To the splendid portals of the Royal Automobile Club on 13 January to hear Chris Porritt, the Programme Manager in charge of the fabulous Aston Martin One-77, give the annual Walter Hayes lecture.

Chris, in an excellently prepared talk about the creation of this latest Aston supercar, left us in no doubt that the first million pounds of our winning the lottery would unquestionably end up in the form of this dazzling car! Interestingly, such is the growing popularity of the Trust's Walter Hayes lecture that all 150 tickets were sold out weeks in advance and over 30 members were on the waiting list.

Roger Carey, in welcoming Members and their guests, paid tribute to the late Walter hayes, Founder Chairman of the Trust, whose extraordinary career embraced journalism - he was Editor of the Sunday Dispatch and top PR appointments with Ford before becoming Vice President of Ford Europe. He was, said Roger, widely credited with creating the massive brand awareness that Ford enjoys today and making the Cosworth racing engine famous in Formula One. Walter always modestly described himself when he became Chairman of Aston Martin, after its acquisition by Ford in 1990, as "keeper of the sacred flame that is Aston Martin".

Members and guests arriving at the RAC were greeted by the sight of A3, the oldest Aston Martin in the world and the Trust's premier exhibit displayed in the rotunda. It looked magnificent and the Trust is hugely indebted to one major Aston Martin collector whose generosity made the restoration possible.

Aston Martin Heritage Trust - Unaudited Financial Statements, Year Ended 31 December 2008

Report (PDF)

Figures (PDF)

Dudley Coram Memorial Lecture - 10th October 2009

The annual Dudley Coram Lecture took place at the Barn on Saturday 10th October 2009 when nearly 90 Members and guests turned out to hear Brian Joscelyne talk about "The David Brown Racing Years 1948-59".

Brian, who has probably been to more Le Mans 24 Hour races than anyone else associated with the Club - and has also competed there - gave a comprehensive précis of the Aston Martin team entries during that decade. Using the brand new audio visual facilities now installed at the Barn, the talk was illustrated with dozens of period photos, many taken by Brian himself and never before seen in public. As an added bonus Brian brought along Ted Cutting, Aston's Chief Racing car designer, who was able to add some technical details and anecdotes which "put the icing on the cake".

Brian's lecture kicked off by his telling the story of Jock Horsfall's Spa special which, famously, won the major race at the renowned French circuit in 1948, co-driven by Leslie Johnson. It was this result it is said, that persuaded David Brown to embark on the Aston Martin racing programme, eventually resulting in the outright win at Le Mans in 1959 and winning the world Sports car championship.

In preparing his talk Brian assembled some 350 photographs and paid tribute to Faye McLeod, the Trust archivist, for sourcing so many of these.

At the conclusion of the talk, and much to Brian's surprise, he was presented with the Trust's Mort Morris-Goodall trophy for his outstanding contribution to the Club and Trust over many years.

Walter Hayes Memorial Lecture - 14^th January 2009

The annual dinner and Lecture in honour of the late Walter Hayes was held on 14 January 2009 at the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall, London and attended by nearly 135 Members of the Trust, AMOC and the Royal Automboile Club. It was hosted by Trust Chairman, Chris Lendrum, who welcomed Club President, Viscountess Downe, and Club Chairman, Richard Jackson.

The speaker was George Howard-Chappell, the Team Principal of Aston Martin Racing at Banbury - the joint operation of Prodrive and AML Ltd.  He also has the role of Technical Director and so was able to give his audience the inside story of the development of the DBR9, the competition version of the DB9.  So successful has this model been that it has twice won the RAC Tourist Trophy race at Silverstone and twice the GT1 class in the Le Mans 24 Hours over the last two years.  As a result of this latest win in 2008 George was asked to receive the Members Trophy from the hands of the Club’s Chairman Richard Jackson.  He was also presented with a model of the 1921 ‘A3’ by Chris Lendrum as a thank you on behalf of the Trust, concluding a successful evening.

Dudley Coram Lecture - 13th September 2008

This year's Dudley Coram lecture, the 30th by our reckoning, attracted a good number of Members and friends to the Barn. David Taylor gave a fascinating account of the Sutherland years at Feltham and of the Sutherland family who kept the firm going, so it was nice to welcome to the event Ian Sutherland, son of the late Gordon Sutherland. It was Ian who discovered his father's files on the attempts to make the cross rotary valved engine work, and who wrote the story in the Trust's publication "Aston", no. 9. The question and answer session afterwards was appreciated, as were the interesting Aston Martins that turned up for the occassion.

Morris-Goodall Cup

Mortimer Morris-Goodall, whose Monte Carlo Rally exploits featured in Aston Issue 9 was AMOC Member No. 1 from its formation back in 1935. It transpired that there was a Morris-Goodall cup going back a long way which in recent years had been in Australia. Following negotiations with the owner, the Trust was able to agree its purchase and decided it could be put to best use as a special award given to someone who has contributed outstanding endeavours on behalf of the Trust.

Recipients:

2009 - Brian Joscelyne

When the Trust was formed in 1998, Brian Joscelyne was one of the first Club members to be appointed to the board of Trustees. He has contributed a huge amount to Club publications, being Deputy Editor of AM Quarterly from 1966 to 1976 and the Editor from 1976 to 1996, and a regular contributor to AM News and the Trust's annual journal Aston. Brian is a highly accomplished photographer and film maker and his works are an integral part of the Trust Archive. His Dudley Coram Memorial Lecture in 2009 was devoted to the early David Brown Aston Martin racing years and was held to be outstanding.

2008 - Neil Nurray

Following the re-appearance of the long-lost Mort Morris-Goodall Trophy, it was unanimously agreed that there was no more deserving recipient for it than Neil Murray. Neil has given a lifetime of unstinting service to the Club and, since its formation, to the Trust. A notable motoring historian and recognised authority of the early Aston Martin motor cars, Neil was also the Registrar responsible for producing the five volume Club Register in 2000, the three volume edition in 2007/2008 and stepped into the Chairmanship of the Trust on the untimely death of Walter Hayes.

Walter Hayes Memorial Lecture - 16^th January 2008

Some 160 Members of the Club, the Trust and the Royal Automobile Club assembled at the Pall Mall Club House on 16 January for the annual dinner and lecture in memory of the late Walter Hayes Trust Chairman Chris Lendrum welcomed everyone, especially the Club Chairman Michael Urban and Club President The Viscountess Downe, as well as Peter Livanos who continues to be a great benefactor of the Trust’s work. It was also nice to see present Gerry Acher and Neil Murray, both former Trust Chairmen.

After a delicious meal of roast lamb Chris Lendrum introduced our speaker Marek Reichman who is design director at Aston Martin, aged 41 and born in Sheffield. Marek graduated at Teeside University with a first class honours degree in Product/Industrial design, then secured a Masters degree with distinction in Automotive Design from the Royal College of Art. After a wide experience with Land Rover, BMW and Rolls Royce he joined Aston Martin in 2005 becoming responsible for all future products.

His talk was entitled “An Emotional Journey” and his many illustrations began with a very informal picture of his small team who are clearly as passionate about design as he is. Marek explained the fundamentals of design in a very clear way using examples from nature and mathematics. His illustrations allowed us to see the importance not only of shape but proportion, surface, line, material and detail, all going together to make up a satisfactory whole. The finished product must satisfy the eye from every angle, create desire and engage the emotions.

Marek certainly engaged everyone’s attention as he fielded a barrage of questions from the audience for at least 20 minutes. In bringing this to an end Chris Lendrum thanked Marek and presented him with a scale model of A3 the Trust’s Aston Martin of 1921 which should be back on the road later this year.

Drayson Racing