A Look Back at the Aston Martin One-77

The One-77 was one of the first British Hyper Road Vehicles to bring the concept of using carbon composite for bodywork to life, and partly made a reality by the thermal barrier expertise of Zircotec.
Carbon Fibre itself is a strong, lightweight, man-made material that first made its debut on the road with the McLaren F1, and has since been seen on at least 30 other production vehicles, including the £1.1m Aston Martin One-77 released in 2013.

More and more manufacturers are opting for the lightweight material in a bid to improve aerodynamics, aesthetics, manufacturing processes, and various other reasons. And we will be the first to admit, it certainly doesn’t hurt the eyes!

But carbon composites do come with some downfalls, mainly the degradation limit of 260°C. Meaning that tight packaging spaces, higher exhaust temperatures and hot running engines will cause surrounding composite bodywork to degrade and eventually fail.

Aston Martin One-77 Carbon Composite
Luckily, our technology is adaptable and continues to develop daily here in Abingdon. So our products that were initially developed for the extreme environments of the nuclear industry made their way into Automotive, and we developed our patented ThermoHold® technology to enable our coatings to fully adhere to composite materials.

These coatings not only protect composites from heat delamination, wear and resin melt. But can also provide a thin electrically conductive layer, providing RF and EMC shielding for carbon composite components, or an electrically insulative layer, which are now being highly utilised thanks to Hybrid Vehicle Technology. But that is a story for another time.

Carbon Composite Thermal Barrier Coating
The Aston Martin One-77 project was the first of its kind for us. The first vehicle we worked on where carbon composite was being used for a road vehicle, and a milestone for British manufacturing that we were, and still are proud to have been a part of.

Aston Martin had designed a carbon rear diffuser, but the exhaust gas temperatures they were seeing meant the diffuser would degrade without a thermal barrier. We were brought in to apply our technology to specifically allocated areas of the composite so that the naked material would still be visible, without losing any of the protection elements from the thermal barrier.

Resulting in a coating that for 5 years has stood the test of time.

The One-77 has been highly recognised throughout the industry having been awarded the ‘Concorso d’Eleganza’ Design Award for Concept Cars and Prototypes, the ‘GOOD DESIGN’ award by the Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design in North America and the ‘Best Design’ award by the UK motoring magazine Auto Express, amongst others.

And Aston Martin, well they are still managing to pave the way for British manufacturing excellence. Whether it’s the Vanquish S Red Arrows, or the newly announced ‘Goldfinger’ DB5, we are excited to see the prestigious designs and engineering examples seen so many times before, and hope to continue being a part of the automotive evolution.

To find out more about our patented ThermoHold® technology for carbon composites, or if you have any projects requiring thermal management support;

Please contact us on

T: +44(0)1235 546 050
E: enquiries@zircotec.com