Automobile Division Yorkshire Centre Technical Lecture - 27 March 2012
Speaker: Ian Minnard
Director Product Development - Aston Martin Lagonda
For the fourth year running, the IMechE’s ADYC and Northern Division is proud to have Ian Minnard – Director of Product Development at Aston Martin Lagonda – returning to his native Yorkshire to present the latest technical lecture on the Aston Martin road car. Surrounded by the full range of Aston Martin Road Cars at the JCT600 Aston Martin Dealership in Leeds (what is now fast becoming a key feature of his lectures in the region), Ian took the 130 strong audience through an informative history of the current Aston Martin Vantage (2003-2012+). Included in the audience were young members of King James’ School Greenpower team, a scheme for secondary schools to design and build their own electric cars.
As always, Ian supplemented the technical lecture with the latest version of the car (2012 Aston Martin Vantage) which he kindly drove up from the factory in Gaydon, Warwickshire. The lecture went through the life of the Vantage from the early design concept, prototype building & testing, production manufacturing, launch of the new vehicle all the way through to racing of the new vehicle. Ian described the process of designing the Aston Martin utilising the V-H (Vertical-Horizontal) architecture of the current Aston Martins, which allows for modular scalability of parts and chassis with the range of Aston Martin road cars. This allows for quicker turnaround of new models and subsequent updates through the product life cycle.
Ian also took the audience through the technical challenges faced with some of the engineering design solutions due to the introduction of legislations worldwide (notably occupancy safety, crash safety and pedestrian safety). Ian, in his typically friendly and engaging manner, was open to questions at the end of the lecture and as a testament to his very high standard; the questions had to be eventually cut short so that he could then make the journey back to Gaydon that evening. The successful evening was rounded off with a raffle to raise funds for King James’ School Greenpower project. The total raised from the event was £120 with the lucky winner of the top prize earning an extended test drive of one of the latest Aston Martin cars, courtesy of JCT600. Many thanks to Ian and all those who attended to make this another memorable lecture and hopefully a fifth consecutive lecture will be arranged in the following year’s events calendar.