A thousand lifetimes ago, at EICMA 2019, Aston Martin and Brough Superior teamed up on an eye-popping AMB 001 turbo sportsbike. In the post-apocalyptic wasteland of 2022, this sliver of unobtanium gets a souped-up 225-horsepower Pro stablemate.
These Aston-Broughs would be some of the oddest-looking motorcycles on the road, if they were allowed on the road. They're not; they're design-led special-edition branding indulgences that can only legally be ridden on racetracks, and they're certainly not designed to race.
But they're incredibly eye-catching all the same, particularly the new Pro model with its snakey "Verdant Jade" paint job, "Photon Lime" accents and titillating glimpses of carbon weave peeking out like high-performance undergarments. Marek Reichmann and the Aston design team can be relied upon to do a spectacular job, and here the accent is on high-performance aero shapes, with enough purposeful-looking wings, splitters, spoilers and fins to create a very convincing impression that you could ride the AMB 001 Pro upside down in a tunnel given a big blob of Blu-Tak on the seat.
Such is the presence of all this technical-looking bodywork that you barely notice the interesting girder-forked monoshock front end – or indeed the carbon rims, the rear of which is a solid carbon disc.
It's not just a cosmetic and bodywork makeover, though; the Pro gets an entirely different engine from the 185-horsepower turbo unit in the original AMB 001. Sticking with the liter-capacity 88-degree v-twin theme, Brough has built a new 997cc donk with wet cylinder liners. It's fully CNC-machined from billet aluminum, which Aston Martin claims is a first for a "production" bike.
The new motor – naturally aspirated, this time – is tuned for a very impressive 225 horsepower. With just 175 kg (386 lb) to shift, the power-to-weight ratio here is a very entertaining 1.28 horsepower per kilogram. That'll keep most riders awake. Aston celebrates a 99.4% weight saving here in its branding badges, which are now lacquered-over stickers some 30% thinner than a human hair. Righty-o lads, but you only have to look to the 231 hp, 152 kg (335 lb) Ducati Superleggera from 2020, with its 1.54 hp/kg power to weight figure to see how far the Aston falls short of a truly focused track slayer.
It doesn't matter; people will queue up to gawk at the AMB Pro in a public collection no matter what lap times it pulls. It's a truly remarkable piece of design. And considering how striking this machine is, it's by no means a particularly expensive thing to add to a star-studded garage. Autoevolution is reporting a price tag under US$150,000 for each of the 88 AMB 001 Pro bikes that will be built.
Expensive for a motorcycle, sure, but I doubt buyers are looking at this thing as a motorcycle, it's more of a collector's item and art piece. Ten points to any owner that gets out, gives this thing a bit of gumboot, balls up the slicks and puts in some hot laps.
Enjoy more photos in the gallery.
Source: Aston Martin / Brough Superior
