Aston Martin's AMB 002 is road-legal, and 300 are being built
Brough Superior spent seven years building Astons nobody could register
Aston Martin and Brough Superior have revealed the AMB 002 Roadster, the first motorcycle from their partnership that can be registered, insured and ridden on a public road. It follows the track-only AMB 001 of 2019 and the AMB 001 Pro of 2022, and it shares no parts with either. Order books are open, deliveries begin in the third quarter of 2027, and the run stops at 300.
The AMB 002 runs an all-new 1,083 cc V-twin with 130 hp
The engine is a 1,083 cc four-stroke water-cooled V-twin making 130 hp and 110 Nm, and it is new rather than a reworked Brough unit. It is tuned for low and mid-range pull instead of a peaky top end, which is the sensible choice for a bike meant to be ridden on roads with speed limits. Brough Superior machines the crankcases from solid billet in house, the method it used on the track bikes. Nothing on the AMB 002 is carried over: chassis, engine and running gear were all drawn from a blank sheet for road use.
A 5 kg titanium frame holds the 190 kg AMB 002 to 50:50
The frame is milled from a single titanium billet and weighs 5 kg, forming the structural backbone Brough Superior has built around since its revival. The complete motorcycle comes in at 190 kg, with carbon fibre body panels and a carbon fuel tank pulling the centre of gravity down and the mass towards the middle. Aston Martin says the 50:50 weight distribution was an engineering target from day one rather than a result it discovered later, which is unusual language for a motorcycle and entirely normal language for a car company.
The Fior fork replaces telescopic forks with double wishbones
Up front the AMB 002 uses a Fior fork, a double-wishbone front suspension rather than the telescopic forks fitted to almost every road bike sold. The layout separates steering forces from braking forces and keeps the front geometry constant, so the bike resists diving under braking, including when it is already leaned into a corner. The idea goes back to 1979, when the French engineer Claude Fior first tested it on a race bike, and its best-known mass-produced descendant is the Duolever front end BMW fitted to K-series models from 2008. On the AMB 002 it is an evolution of the system developed for the AMB 001 Pro, so the road bike inherits the track bike's most experimental component.
Vanquish exhaust fins and Valkyrie tail blades, on two wheels
The Aston Martin Design Studio drew the bodywork, and the borrowings are literal rather than suggestive. The side strake pierces the fairing and runs forward to wrap the headlamp, the twin oval exhausts carry the ribbed heat sinks used on the Vanquish, DB12 S and DBX S, and the rear light blades are the same type fitted to the Vulcan, Valkyrie and Valhalla. Keyless operation, a backlit ignition button and hand-crafted saddle leather seat pads finish the transfer. This is a machine designed to be recognised instantly by people who already own the cars.
Brough Superior has been a Toulouse company since 2013
Aston Martin describes this as a partnership between two historic British brands, and the AMB 002 is designed, machined and assembled at Brough Superior's headquarters in Toulouse. The original firm was George Brough's, founded in Nottingham in 1919 and finished by 1940, its reputation resting partly on T. E. Lawrence, who owned a succession of them and died after crashing one in 1935. The name was revived in 2013 by Thierry Henriette of Boxer Design, who took the brand over outright in 2018. The badge is British. The workshop, the engineers and the machining are French.
AutoNext Take
The number to watch is not 130 hp. It is 300. Aston Martin sold 100 AMB 001s and capped the AMB 001 Pro at 88, so the road bike's run is larger than both track bikes combined and then half as much again. That is not a rounding error in a limited-edition strategy, it is a decision to sell to anyone with a licence instead of anyone with a track membership. Aston Martin's own director of brand diversification calls the partnership a long-term driver of brand value, which is the honest description: this is badge revenue on two wheels, at a company that has been cutting car production and that sold branding rights and drew a legal threat from its bondholders.
The claim worth testing is the number itself. Brough Superior has never taken an Aston Martin project past 100 units, and the AMB 002 asks its Toulouse workshop for three times that, hand-built, starting in the third quarter of 2027. It also asks for 300 buyers for a 130 hp roadster when the 225 hp track bike needed only 88, and Aston Martin has published no price to help them decide. Deliver 300 by the end of 2028 and the partnership has become a genuine motorcycle business. Let the run drift into the 2030s or quietly trim it, and 300 was an ambition rather than a limit.
