With an announcement that is bound to send shivers down the spines of the British car company’s loyal client base while increasing the pressure on its Italian and German supercar competition, Aston Martin has revealed that its next-generation vehicles will be powered by AMG engines.

If all supercar contests were based simply on looks, rather than top speed, acceleration and cutting-edge technological features, Aston Martin would win. The somewhat eccentric British car maker more than any other seems to understand the strength and beauty of a sweeping line and how to use just the right amount of chrome to create a look that is both imposing and attractive.

Unfortunately, in recent years the company has been slowly falling behind the competition when it comes to what’s under the hood and inside the cabin. Its Cosworth engines pale in comparison to the latest Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche and Mercedes powerplants. This inability to keep up is due to the fact that the company is no longer under the stewardship of Ford and so no longer has access to the US company’s research and development, technical partnerships or deep pockets.

For those that don’t know, AMG is a German engineering company that hand-builds engines with ridiculous performance. Moreover, it also likes to take existing cars and give them the AMG treatment. Fast cars become supercars and supercars become hypercars, such is its magic touch.

AMG currently builds engines for Pagani but it is the company’s incredible work with Mercedes-Benz that has cemented its reputation and that in 2005 led to Mercedes buying the firm outright. As a result, all of Mercedes’ world-beating vehicles have AMG at their heart and very soon, Astons will also be beating to the same rhythm.

Still, in a typically reserved British manner, Aston Martin Product Development Director Ian Minards said of the agreement: “The opportunity to include content from Mercedes-AMG GmbH in our next generation sports cars is, clearly, good news.” Indeed.