Victor joined the RAF upon leaving school to train as a pilot, and served a short commission. On leaving the RAF he joined BP, moving later to join Total S.A., a French petroleum company. In 1972 he founded his own company Hays Petroleum Services, which traded as the well-known Pace Petroleum. By the 1980s Victor had created one of the country’s largest independent petrol suppliers, with a customer base of some 450 or so garages. In 1983 he sold a share of his company to the Kuwait Investment Authority, which then went on to purchase the balance of the company in 1986. Of greater interest to readers of this magazine, of course, is his Aston Martin involvement. Victor loved classic cars, particularly Bentleys and Aston Martins. I think it is no secret that Victor was a quintessential, ebullient Englishman. I make no apologies to the Celts of this island for describing him as English and not British. Having said that I should state that Victor’s mother was Scottish, although Victor is quoted as saying she was a ‘Chelsea Scot’. Let us hope this slight acquiescence will stop the Scots invading England.
Victor first came into contact with Aston Martin executives at a Pace-sponsored event at Brands Hatch. At this event he met fellow Farnham resident Alan Curtis who along with Peter Sprague and George Minden had pulled Aston back from the brink.
In 1980 Victor bought a 10% share in Aston Martin for £500,000 via Pace Petroleum, with Tim Hearley of CH Industrials taking a similar share. The two men took over as joint 50/50 owners at the beginning of 1981 with Victor as Executive Chairman and also leading the sales team. I think Victor could be described as a super salesman, as he even sold nine new cars all to one man and all painted green. You have to be pretty sharp to be able to pull off a deal like that. More importantly Victor understood marketing and heritage, perhaps long before the big manufacturers appreciated their own heritage. In this respect he created the Sanction ll Zagato DB4 GTs as well as the Vantage Zagatos, and achieved huge publicity for the company following their manufacture, not to mention a significant profit. Because of his Middle East contacts Aston Martin were able to make some strong inroads into this lucrative market, which have continued to this day with Kuwaiti investors now owning the company.
Going back to his early days at Aston, Victor understood only too well the long development periods associated with new Aston Martins, and bought Tickford. Tickford was a name long associated with Aston Martin, particularly for their body production of DB2/4 Mk II and Mk III bodies. Through Tickford they were able to develop a couple of cars quickly. The Tickford Austin Metro and Tickford Ford Capri had superior performance and lush interiors compared with the standard product, and they soon became sought-after vehicles much as they are today.
Pace, Victor’s holding company of Aston Martin, was a prolific sponsor of motorsport in the UK, including supporting AMOC events as well as sponsoring the late Viscount Downe’s privately entered Nimrod Group C cars. So even the Club benefited from Victor’s direct involvement. He no doubt felt existing owners were future owners and should be treated with respect and reverence.
As Aston Martin required greater investment Victor was able to sell a shareholding to Peter Livanos, who invested greatly in both road cars and the company’s racing efforts, finally helping AML into the safe hands of Ford Motor Company. Victor remained as Chairman of this joint venture. In 1986 Victor was again able to pull off another marketing coup by negotiating with the well-known Cubby Brocolli to supply an Aston Martin for the new James Bond film starring actor Timothy Dalton.
Although Aston Martin were back on a more sound financial footing Victor recognised that for the company to advance further substantial financial investment was needed. In business chance and luck play a part, and I should qualify this by saying that the harder you work the luckier you get. That chance for Victor and Peter Livanos came when they were staying at the home of Contessa Maggi, wife of one of the founders of the original Mille Miglia. One of the other guests staying at the same time was Walter Hayes, Vice President of Ford Europe. Walter Hayes was another fine marketing man and was able years earlier to see the potential of Cosworth. He invested £100,000 of Ford money to create the most successful F1 engine of all time, the Ford Cosworth Double Four Valve, perhaps better known by the nomenclature DFV. Walter Hayes saw a similar potential of brand imaging in Aston Martin and so a discussion ensued that resulted in Ford taking a shareholding in 1987. Victor was to remain as Chairman for a further 2 years, even taking Aston back to racing in sport cars with a new group C car in 1989, which was sadly curtailed by a major regulation change. Victor finally handed his remaining shareholding to Ford in 1991 and his chairmanship to Walter Hayes.
Aston Martin have much to be grateful to Malcolm Victor Gauntlett for, as without his involvement I think there can be no doubt that the company would have failed. Due to his foresight we have the very modern company that is Aston Martin today.
The trophy was commissioned by Victor’s family from the family jewellers in Cheltenham, and no doubt holds a special significance for them and hopefully now for future and past recipients of this fine memorial trophy.