Not bad for a company that lost $226 million last year. With the introduction of the new DB11 with a new entry-level V8 at one end and high-profit special edition models at the other, there has never been better demand for the storied brand. Broken down, total revenue was a new record for the brand at over $1.2 billion, as was fourth quarter profit of $90 million, and for those business-y people that care, EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortization) was $287-million and they ended the year with 233-million of cash in the bank.

It hasn't been a big year just in terms of selling cars either. Aston is in the midst of building a new plant in St Athan in Wales, while building special models in Newport Pagnell, and it brought AM Brands in-house in December, consolidating the Group's licensing and luxury design activities with the rest of its business. From a product perspective, it only stands to get better, with a full year of the DB11 sales ahead, and the upcoming launch of the DB11 Volante convertible and Vantage and Vanquish replacements on the horizon, and limited-run retro models like the DB4 GT Continuation.

Fans of the brand and of beautiful cars can celebrate as the business success will drive more investment in products and racing, no doubt. Dr Andy Palmer, Aston Martin President and Chief Executive Officer, said: "In 2017, we delivered record revenue, full-year profitability and positive free cash flow. The financial turnaround of Aston Martin is now complete, which enables us to drive further improvements across the business as we maintain our new launch schedule and continue delivering on the Second Century Plan. The outstandingly positive reaction to our new models gives us confidence that we will deliver further performance improvement in 2018."

And finally, Mark Wilson, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, mentioned the the "potential for an IPO," which would no doubt bring a new level of investment and inject enough cash for development of more models in the range and continued and sustained profits. I guess this also means they can lock Tom Brady down for a long-term contract.