Brough Superior and Aston Martin first street legal motorcycle, the AMB 002

There are motorcycle names. Then there are motorcycle names that seem to have escaped the normal rules of time. Brough Superior is one of them. Now the legendary name sits beneath carbon fibre, titanium and a sculpted Aston Martin body. The result is the Aston Martin AMB 002, a 130hp road legal motorcycle limited to just 300 hand built examples. It is expensive, technically unusual and almost comically exclusive. But the real question is not whether the Aston Martin badge attracts attention. Of course it does. The question is whether the engineering underneath is worthy of the Brough Superior name.

Brough Superior: The Original “Rolls Royce of Motorcycles”

When George Brough founded Brough Superior in Nottingham in 1919, he had no interest in building motorcycles for the masses. His machines were fast, expensive, beautifully finished and individually assembled. Fewer than 3,100 motorcycles were produced between 1919 and 1940, but the company’s reputation became far larger than its production figures. The Motor Cycle magazine’s H.D. Teague famously described Brough Superior as the “Rolls-Royce of Motorcycles.” T.E. Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia, owned seven of them, with an eighth one on order at the time of his untimely demise.

Then the lights went out.

The Long Way Back

The Second World War brought civilian motorcycle production to an end in 1940. Brough Superior’s factory turned to wartime work, including aircraft engine components, and the company never returned to motorcycle production after the war. The name survived through the motorcycles that remained and the increasingly mythical reputation surrounding them. For decades, Brough Superior existed more as legend than manufacturer.

That changed in 2008, when motorcycle enthusiast Mark Upham acquired the rights to the name. In 2013, he teamed up with French designer and engineer Thierry Henriette, who produced the modern SS100 prototype unveiled at EICMA in Milan. Production followed in Toulouse. Henriette eventually acquired the brand itself around 2018/2019. And that last part matters.

Modern Brough Superior is not simply a workshop buying an engine from another manufacturer, bolting it into a generic chassis and applying an expensive badge to the fuel tank. It is a very small, highly specialised motorcycle manufacturer operating from Toulouse, where its machines are hand built in limited numbers. The modern range includes the SS100, Lawrence and Pendine, alongside collaborative projects such as the Richard Mille RMB01 and Aston Martin AMB series.

Brough Superior says its motorcycles are individually built and can be customised, with production deliberately kept low. That does not mean every nut and bolt is made in France. Like many specialist manufacturers, and, historically, like the original Brough Superior, the company uses specialist suppliers where appropriate.

But the important engineering is not simply outsourced. For the AMB 002, Brough Superior says its 1,083 cc engine is designed, CNC machined and assembled in house at the company’s Toulouse headquarters.

That makes the modern company considerably more interesting than a heritage badge operation

Aston Martin’s First Road Legal Motorcycle

Aston Martin and Brough Superior began working together in 2019 with the AMB 001, followed by the track only AMB 001 Pro in 2022. Both were exotic motorcycle sculptures with serious engineering underneath. The Aston Martin AMB 002 changes the brief.

It is the first road legal motorcycle created through the Aston Martin and Brough Superior collaboration. Unlike its track only predecessors, it is designed for use on public roads. Aston Martin’s design studio shaped the bodywork, while Brough Superior supplied the motorcycle engineering and low volume manufacturing expertise. The result looks exactly like something that might emerge if an Aston Martin designer and a Brough Superior engineer were locked in a room and told neither could leave until they had created something unreasonable.

The carbon fibre fuel tank and side fairings have the smooth, sculptural form expected from Aston Martin. Crescent shaped cooling gills cut into the bodywork. The familiar Aston Martin side strake runs through the fairing. At the sides, twin oval exhausts feature ribbed detailing inspired by the Vanquish, DB12 S and DBX S. At the rear, the light blades reference Aston Martin’s Vulcan, Valkyrie and Valhalla.

It is not subtle.

But then again, neither is a Brough Superior.

Aston Martin AMB 002 Specs at a Glance

There Is a Serious Motorcycle Underneath

The AMB 002’s 1,083 cc engine does not sound enormous by modern superbike standards. The more interesting number appears when you consider what it has to move: a claimed 190 kg. On paper, that works out to roughly 684 horsepower per tonne before the rider climbs aboard. That is not a direct prediction of acceleration or real world performance, but it does underline how serious the power to weight ratio could be.

More important than the headline figure, however, is the way Brough Superior says the engine has been tuned. Rather than chasing peak power at the top of the rev range, the company says the V twin is designed to deliver strong low and mid range torque. That should suit a road going motorcycle better than a peaky track special, particularly one intended to combine exotic design with usable performance. The engine is not a borrowed off the shelf unit. Brough Superior says it is designed, machined and assembled in house, using CNC machined billet engine cases.

Then there is the frame. The AMB 002 uses a titanium structural spine milled from solid billet. It weighs approximately 5 kg and contributes to the claimed 50:50 weight distribution. Carbon-fibre bodywork and the fuel tank help keep weight central, while the layout is intended to maintain a low centre of gravity. It is the kind of engineering detail that is easy to miss beneath the dramatic bodywork. It is also the detail that separates a genuine specialist motorcycle from a styling exercise.

Forget the Normal Forks

Perhaps the most distinctive Brough Superior component is hidden at the front. The AMB 002 uses Brough Superior’s Fior front suspension system. Instead of conventional telescopic forks, the double wishbone arrangement separates steering and braking forces. The design is intended to maintain more consistent front end geometry during braking and cornering. On the AMB 002, it incorporates anti dive characteristics and adjustable suspension.

The system is an evolution of the arrangement used on the track only AMB 001 Pro. In simple terms, this is not an Aston Martin styling exercise wrapped around somebody else’s superbike. There is genuine Brough Superior engineering beneath the carbon fibre. The rest of the specification is equally serious:

• Six-speed cassette gearbox

• CNC machined aluminium swingarm

• Adjustable front and rear suspension

• Twin 320 mm front brake discs

• Four piston radial calipers

• 17 inch machined aluminium wheels

• 190 section rear tyre

• Titanium structural spine

• Carbon fibre fuel tank and bodywork

The visual drama may attract the first glance, but the hardware is what gives the AMB 002 its credibility.

What Does the AMB 002 Actually Sound Like?

Nobody  yet has the full road riding experience, and first customer deliveries are not scheduled until the third quarter of 2027. But the ingredients are clear.

This is a compact, high performance V twin in a lightweight chassis, rather than a muted electric grand tourer or a mass produced four cylinder superbike. The likely character is mechanical, physical and immediate: the kind of motorcycle where the engine’s pulse, the intake noise and the exhaust note form part of the experience. That matters because the AMB 002 is not only being sold as transport. It is being sold as an object of desire.

The carbon fibre, titanium, billet machined components and hand built production all exist to make the motorcycle feel special before it even moves. The engine and Fior suspension are there to ensure that the experience does not end when the photography does.

So What Exactly Is It?

That is the interesting question. The Aston Martin AMB 002 is not really an Aston Martin motorcycle in the same way a Ducati is a Ducati or a BMW is a BMW. Aston Martin is not suddenly opening a conventional motorcycle factory. Nor is Brough Superior simply acting as a boutique badge supplier. This is a collaboration between two specialist brands whose strengths fit together remarkably well:

• Aston Martin brings the visual language, design and luxury car detailing.

• Brough Superior brings the motorcycle engineering, low volume manufacturing and unusual technical solutions.

• The AMB 002 combines both into a road legal collector motorcycle.

There is also a delicious historical symmetry here. The original Brough Superior became famous partly because George Brough was not afraid to use the best components available to create the motorcycle he wanted. Modern Brough Superior follows a similar philosophy, except that it now has the engineering capability to design and manufacture much more of the machine itself. The AMB 002 is therefore not trying to resurrect the 1920s. It is attempting something more difficult: making the Brough Superior idea relevant in 2026.

Only 300 Will Be Built

Production of the Aston Martin AMB 002 is limited to 300 motorcycles worldwide. Each will be hand built, and initial orders are already being taken. The price has not yet been announced. However, the previous AMB models occupied firmly six figure territory, and the AMB 002 combines an Aston Martin design, a titanium frame, carbon-fibre construction, in house engine work and extremely limited production.

It is safe to say this will not be an impulse purchase. For most people, the AMB 002 will remain a motorcycle to admire through photographs, launch videos and showroom glass. That may be part of its appeal. Like the original Brough Superiors, it is designed to be discussed, remembered and coveted by people who may never own one.

And scarcity is important here. Brough Superior was never about making thousands of motorcycles. George Brough built a little over 3,000 in 21 years. The modern company is continuing that philosophy from a workshop in Toulouse rather than Nottingham. Different country. Different century. Different technology. The same slightly unreasonable idea remains: Build something few people can afford, fewer people will ever own, and make sure those who do receive something that is not remotely ordinary.

For the AMB 002, the Aston Martin badge certainly gets attention. But underneath it, the Brough Superior badge still has to earn its keep. Judging by what lies beneath the carbon fibre, it probably does.