Since ancient times, the richer the richer, the poorer the poor, now is the time for car companies to cash out with top efficiency...
If you often use Google words, you can try it, enter most expensive, do not press the enter key, you will see the first two search suggestions popping up below the input bar are "car" and "wristwatch". There has always been an incredible synergy between the express train and the chronograph, and both have basically a boring and tedious use, but the amount of money they extract from the world's super-rich, and even the level of sophistication, is jaw-dropping. Among the many types of cars, the speedster seems to be a new turntable chronograph with a waterproof depth of less than 500 feet.
There are only 12 Bentley Mulliner Bacalars in the world, and all of them are now famous. In order to receive this privilege, each buyer has to pay £1.5 million, plus taxes. Aston Martin's side will produce 88 V12 Speedsters, 35 of which have been approved by buyers when the manufacturer disclosed a very abstract design sketch. Despite the £765,000 price tag each, and the inevitable overhaul of the F/A-18 specifications you'll see here, Aston Martin is confident that as you read this, the Speedster will be sold out by the date of its official launch on 4 March 2020.
In other words, Bentley earned £18 million for a lightly modified but slightly inferior GTC piece from the continental GTC retail price of £176,000. Meanwhile, once Aston Martin closes what Marek Reichman, the company's vice president and chief designer, calls "a secret door that only collectors can pass through", the company can make at least £67 million with this special plan before deducting costs.
It's not fair to compare this rocket-like bathtub to a slimming Vantage. It actually combines the basic hardware of Vantage, DB11 and DBS, and some special equipment is used under the body of the weapon level. But Marek happily admits: "It's like a Lego brick that plugs and plays." In the future, a new model with the shortest wheelbase with the largest engine may be derived as a forerunner, and you may wish to imagine the future use of this combination. "What about the new V12 Vantage?
Since both works use an upgraded version of the factory's active twelve-cylinder twin-turbo engine and a standard automatic transmission, the interior is basically only repainted, and the body is equipped with carbon fiber with relatively low production costs of low-volume steel paneling than the shape, which can be imagined to be a good business, but the two are actually of great significance in business planning.
Aston Martin intends to produce two such special editions a year, delivering four of the 99 Zagato V12 special editions last year. Bacalar is the starting point for Bentley's reinvigorated bodybuilding division, Mulliner, which will spare no effort to use its engineering skills to test the depth of buyers' wallets.
As is customary, I'll greet you with amazing stats first, especially considering that Bacalar's first-rate bentley convertible is fast enough to cost the Aston without a windshield. But Isn't it debatable that Aston knows that its seven-speed manual transmission can't handle it, but it's not questionable about loading this "real soul-destroying driving weapon for our company's most enthusiastic customers" with an engine with a torque of up to 753.2 Nm? As a result, it is not surprising that this top Aston, which is most suitable for driving on a good day, actually uses the eight-speed paddle shifter and paddle gearbox with a bull's head against the horse's mouth in order to accommodate the engine.
Why do they prefer the Speedster? Why is this year's had to be powered by further upgrades, with cockpit design inspired by single-seater racing cars, as if picking a random number from the phonebook as a pricing open-top sports car? Why do all the supercar manufacturers invariably enter this evolutionary end of the road, but the body of the car is crisp and thin than the wafer cake? First of all, please listen to the official explanation of Bacalar body designer JP Gregory.
"These are collectors' searches. Like to show off their collections, every treasure wants to have one. "But he agrees that this does not mean that the buyer will be loyal to a brand." It reflects the zeitgeist of today's super-rich. "A supercar must be taken in response to and practical actions in response to the trend of becoming safer, greener and easier to drive.
Aston Martin's Reichman was very optimistic about his work, believing that this unconventional sports car proved the big mistake of those who ridiculed the One-77 and The Zagato Special Edition. "It's really unusual for [the new speedster] to flock out." "But we're satisfying the appetite of collectors, who are increasingly hungry for more personalized cars," he said. This sports car is exactly the kind of collectible that only drives once or twice a year. ”
Mulliner outlined Bacalar's development goals with "Creating the Ultimate Cockpit Open-Air GT," but this statement seems contradictory. If you ask me what I would drive on a long drive straight into Nice, I would be very grateful if I had a roof on my head. However, Bacalar has at least a windshield, and although the car does not even have an umbrella to protect the rain from going home, tailor-made suitcases are available. So will Aston, who doesn't even have a windshield, face the risk of curved height and lowness? Marek defends his position this way: "This sports car is even less practical than a motorcycle, but has an incredible sense of openness and excitement. ”
But let's face it, apart from Goodwood's manicured lawn, will anyone really use the V12 Speedster to dominate the world? "Our collectors love to collect the most exquisite pieces. The last thing they want is a car with an eye-catching look that's not practical enough to give them great feedback and performance. ”
Revealing one or two design sketches to the unrivaled mega-rich, and then waiting for the other person to arrive at the door in a helicopter full of gold bars, sounds like the easiest errand on a supercar planet at first glance. Mulliner boss Tim Hannig strongly retorts that it's a nightmare-like balance beam, and that the person you bargain with is definitely something you don't want to lose.
"Whenever our customers say no, we start to arrange other alternatives." He told me at the Bacalar press conference, "I hate disappointing people. ”
This raises another question: Mulliner or Aston Martin's Q department, on what basis do these departments that tailor cars for customers allocate their quotas? Will they tend to choose car-savers who won't put their new favourites in their treasure troves? After all, Aston's 150-unit Valkyrie received no less than six hundred orders, and these prospective buyers weren't used to hearing the word "no."
Marek said they don't pick and choose which buyers will actually use the cars until the quota is running out. "Let's face it, 80% of these cars will become hidden collections, but the remaining 20% will be called, must bring users a spiritual experience, must do what is listed on the product packaging."
Mulliner's Tim Hannig knows how to quote IG verbishly. "I'm in the industry of realizing my dreams and don't judge the dreams of others. The sky is boundless. These words were not the opening words of his TED speech, but the answer that came out of his mouth when I asked him what circumstances he would resolutely withdraw from a particularly tedious plan.
Bacalar was the first shot of Mulliner's resurgence, but Bentley would need more of this if it wanted to turn its company accounts from red to black. It should be noted that Bentley lost money in 2017 and 18 years because of the significant slowdown in China's economy and its failure to prepare for the latest scrap law, and the head of the parent company, Volkswagen Group, issued a military order demanding that Bentley turn a profit within two years. So Crewe took the usual tips from Ferrari and Lamborghini and set out to nurture a special masterpiece for billionaires that lived up to the B-word seal. The price is well, in short, welcome to inquire. As for Aston, who has just been rescued from financial difficulties by F1 team owner Lawrence Stroll, of course, he has the same calculation.
So why only 12 Bacalar films were made? Although the left and right wheels are widened, and the new rim, carbon fiber head and tail wings, new head and tail lights and the raised center console, the W12 power output is actually slightly adjusted to 650 horsepower Continental. "If the production is less than this, it will be more difficult for the plan to obtain approval from above." Tim explains, "So we recommend it to more enthusiastic customers and distribute it on a first-come, first-served basis. "If you remember that Ferrari is making 500 SP Monzas and using this limited edition as a ticket to the next generation of LaFerrari, you will understand that this is a very incredible secret of development, and it is not difficult to predict that bentley, Aston and other peers will definitely play this money-making method to the fullest."
Therefore, the source of these works inevitably overlaps. Imagine that speedster is in full swing, and if you go in and out of Monte Carlo without such a line, wouldn't it be embarrassing to die? "We have a wider range of customers than Bentley because Bentley has a much smaller number of special editions." Marek said, "If Bentley's twelve guests were to patronize, there would no doubt be some of those twelve who were going to buy speedsters. ”
Not just buying a car that deliberately doesn't seek practicality, but buying him three or four, and throwing thousands of dollars at a time, this mentality really fascinated me. "We have a group of core customers who want to buy one or two, or one for everything." Marek said, "If you spend thirty-five years collecting Aston, you naturally don't want to miss the rarest model. Some people will say no, because they live where the rain is in a place where there is no day. In the case of this Speedster, we have a younger tier of clients, a group of clients who will be among the collectors on a daily basis, and the price of less than £1 million is actually better than some of its competitors. ”
This is tantamount to a battle book. Assuming Thatton launches the V12 Vantage Roadster in the next decade, it's a matter of opinion how valuable Speedster really is. Bentley's unique selling point is that it is meticulous in terms of materials, and the decorations used will not be seen in the shabby chariots driven by The First League stars to the training ground.
Bentley created a unique button knurled texture for the twelve Bacalars, with a unique quilting that required 144,199 stitches on each seat seam, and the wood used in the trim panels around the carriages came from 5,500-year-old sunken wood unearthed from the peat swamps of East Anglia, England.
Aston Martin will never decorate your Speedster with mummified trees, but will also use specialty materials such as "3D printed rubber" (presumably to help with family planning revolution), and the carbon fiber truss beams that separate the seats on both sides make the social atmosphere in the carriage become like a Davos cocktail party that values social distancing. Maybe luxury enjoyment is very private, provided that this privacy must attract everyone's attention.
Bentley is tight-lipped about Mulliner's next round of plans, and it's not hard to imagine why. Bacalar was successful, but it was only bentley's first step to testing the water temperature, and Reichman was more than happy to talk about what Bezos and Zuckerberg wanted next time.
"Tradition always repeats itself." He said, "Put the roof on the car, and someone will ask if you can take the roof off; after you take the roof off, someone will ask if you can take the windshield." As driving becomes more digital, our customers may be interested in revisiting the flavor of analogy. ”
I think this is not unreasonable, after all, the same situation has happened in the watch.