Aston Martin Leads To Surprising Find: Agricultural Important Part Of Sports Car Maker DNA

by Bertel Schmitt

Published: November 27th, 2012

aston martin leads to surprising find agricultural important part of sports car

Mahindra Tractor in Ferrari livery

Mumbai tractor moguls Mahindra & Mahindra hope to emerge as owners of Aston Martin by the end of the week, but Italy’s InvestIndustrial shares the same aspirations, reports Reuters from the sidelines of the bidding war for the British sports car maker. While the world waits for the hammer to come down, scientists make a perplexing discovery.

The bidding war itself is not as hot as the current owner, Kuwait’s Investment Dar, hopes. According to Reuters sources, the investment house would like to get back the approximately $1 billion it has sunk into the black hole with the fancy Aston Martin badge. The warring bidders are not THAT insane. The source told Reuters that the total price is unlikely to top $400 million. InvestIndustrial bid between $320 million and $400 million for a stake, a source had told Reuters earlier. The Mahindra brothers are thought to be in the same ballpark.

Lamborghini tractor. Colore rosso naturale.

Other bidders are nowhere to be seen. Reuters can’t suppress the urge to note “an apparent lack of interest among major car makers, such as BMW, Daimler or Toyota.”

Porsche Tractor

To those who think that an Aston Martin looks odd in a tractor maker’s garage, Reuters dedicates a separate article that proves scientifically that tractors and sports cars share a common destiny:

“Porsche once powered German ploughmen through the 1950s and, from Italy, Ferruccio Lamborghini’s name still gleams on thousands of tractors, half a century after he turned a fortune made from agricultural equipment into a passion for road racers.

Should Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd pass to the Mahindras, world No.1 in tractors, it would turn the wheel back to the 1950s and 60s when, owned by Yorkshire tractor magnate David Brown, Astons beat Ferraris to world and Le Mans racing titles and saw the fast but elegant DB5 upstage Sean Connery in early Bond movies.”

David Brown Cropmaster (1947 model)

See? Tractors and sports cars belong together like H and 2O, and the dreaded “agricultural” actually is an important twist in the DNA of a successful sports car maker. The word just has been misused by countless bloggers. Agricultural is awesome.

#AstonMartin #BertelSchmitt #India #Lamborghini #Mahindra #Porsche #UK

Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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2 of 11 comments

Micah on Nov 27, 2012

I'm in the market for a used small diesel tractor. I need to mount a belly mower to mow an acre yard, PTO for brush hogging 2 acres, and ability to mount a front end loader and tiller. Was thinking JD or Kubota, but with this info, do I get a: Lamborghini Porsche Mercedes David Brown? These sound infinitely more sporting.

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Ronnie Schreiber on Nov 28, 2012

Ford Motor Company also made tractors for a long time. Eventually they bought out the New Holland company and about 20 years ago Fiat bought controlling interest in Ford New Holland. New Holland is now part of Fiat Industrial.

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