Why we still beat aluminium by hand

Every Corsa Nero body passes through the hands of four people. None of them are in a hurry, and that is the point.

The buck

It begins with a wooden buck, cut from the same surface data the robots use, and it ends with an English wheel that has been in this building since 1971. In between, an aluminium sheet is persuaded rather than forced into a compound curve that no press could form without leaving a witness line.

Hand-beaten panels are not more accurate than pressed ones. They are, however, more consistent in their imperfection, and the eye reads that as craft rather than error.

Nine days of paint

Because the Corsa Nero is delivered in bare carbon, the paint hall sees it only for its clear coat. The Aurea GT is another matter: nine days, seven layers, and two full hand-sanding passes between them.