Get Marek Reichman talking about airplanes and you probably can’t get a word in edgewise. “The first thing I do when I get into the office is to complain to my colleagues about the airlines,” says the chief creative officer and design director of Aston Martin Lagonda jokingly.

Or is he?

When he’s on a plane—business and economy class alike—he habitually finds himself nit-picking about everything, from the seat and storage spaces, to the food and headphones. Why can’t the bed fully recline? Why aren’t there more cubbyholes to store his book, earphones and water bottle? How can the sound quality of the headphones be so poor? The frustration is clear in his tone, and it stems from his own pursuit of perfection as a car designer.

“It’s better to make one exceptional product than several mediocre ones.”

Since 2005, the Englishman has been projecting the elegant, understated designs he and his team dream about for Aston Martin onto paper and later carbon fibre, metal, leather, glass and rubber. A regular judge at design awards and a sought-after speaker at conferences, Reichman has also designed for other marques. *Cough* Land Rover and Rolls-Royce.

The latest machine to materialise under his charge is a crazy one, codenamed AM-RB 001. Limited to 150 production units, the V12 mid-engine hypercar was a collaboration with Red Bull Racing after what Reichman says was an alignment of the stars by Aston Martin Lagonda CEO Andy Palmer. He tells us more after the jump.

How did the Aston Martin x Red Bull Racing collaboration come about?

Marek Reichman When Andy joined us in 2014, he already had connections with the Red Bull Racing team. I had been thinking about designing a mid-engine car for a few years, while Red Bull technical head, Adrian Newey had been dreaming of building one since he was six. So when Andy noticed all of this, he brought our two companies together. From there, we fostered a technical relationship from a Formula One perspective. This resulted in the birth of the AM-RB 001, a car that has both road and track editions.

If you could have the hypercar for a day, what would you do with it?

MR Can I fantasise? I’d get into it with a friend—anyone who’s in town, because I’d like to share the experience—and drive to Le Mans in France. If it were the week of the 24 Hours of Le Mans race, I’d ask if I could go for a spin around the circuit. After, I’d get back on the road and stop at a nice restaurant somewhere north of Paris before heading back to England. I’d stop for another meal, this time at Belmond Le Manoir in Oxfordshire, and then drive home. I’d park the car in my living room (because I can), get out, pour myself a glass of wine, sit down in my chair in front of the car, and look at it all night as if it were a sculpture.

What is your approach to design?

MR My mind is always searching for ways to improve our cars. I want to add new features, and eradicate any inadequacies and problems. Being able to reassess my designs again and again, too, is crucial to me.

How do you do that?

Before I leave the studio every evening, I’d ask for the clay models of our cars to be covered with a sheet, so I leave with a certain impression of them in my subconscious. The next morning, when I do my daily walk-through at the studio and remove the sheets off the models, it’d feel as though I’m seeing them for the first time. I spend at least an hour analysing them again, to find out how far we are into the design process, what features needs to be changed and if the design still excites me.

What drives your creativity?

MR Architecture, ballet, theatre, nature… also, if it’s new to me and evokes an emotion, it can inspire me. Music is a great example. At Aston Martin, we’re actually currently working with a couple of musicians, who I can’t name yet, to create a sculpture for an exhibition in London next year.

After design, what is your second love?

MR Cooking. Friends, former girlfriends and even my brother have told me I’m not that bad a chef! When I get home, regardless of the time or if I’ve eaten, I’ll cook something. I’ve attended cooking classes at Belmond Le Manoir. I once spent six weeks in Tokyo learning about the finer points of a sharp knife. Cooking is similar to design because it also has the technical aspect of temperature, cooking time and technique. I like to understand the science of things.  

Describe the Aston Martin philosophy.

MR We make a product that people fall in love with and that are also rare. To put this in perspective, we’re 103 years old and make 4,000 sports cars a year. In two to three years, we will be producing up to 7,000 cars. We have produced about 80,000 cars in total since we opened shop. Compare this to more mass-market brands such as Toyota, who has possibly made 6 million cars in nine months, and you’ll realise what we’re producing is rather exclusive. Each car is handmade—that’s what we’re all about. It takes 2,500 man-hours, for instance, to make the AM-RB 001 and 200 man-hours for a DB11.

Do car designers of different marques hang out?  

MR We do. I’ve met a lot of other car designers from around the world through motor shows, where there’s typically a “designers” night with drinks. One of my closest friends from the industry is Thomas Ingenlath, senior vice president of design at Volvo. I’ve known him for 25 years—we went to college together. And there’s also Julian [Thomson], advanced design director at Jaguar Land Rover as well as a couple of my mentors such as Gerry McGovern, design director at Land Rover.

Are you guys close?

I’ve been to some of their weddings, their kids’ birthdays, the funerals of their family members… When I’m travelling, I’d send text messages asking if anyone is in the same country as I am or if they’re nearby as I would love to catch up.