FOR over three decades, Singaporean Derek McCully has been able to mix business with pleasure. His passion: Cars. His business: Selling cars.

And business has been good, says the 59-year-old managing director of Aston Martin Lagonda, the local distributor for the British sports car Aston Martin.

Mr McCully's life in the fast lane, so to speak, began in 1973 when he joined the American car giant General Motors as a merchandising specialist. In 1993, he left to concentrate on his family's child development business in Singapore and Malaysia.

But his love for cars lured him back to the road. Together with his friends and fellow car fanatics - among them orthodontist S.K. Djeng and property developers S.E. Cheong and his brother S.L. Cheong - they ventured into the car business, beginning with the dealership of German brand Ruf.

They went on to secure the franchises for Aston Martin and General Motor's Cadillac.

Today, Aston Martin is the company's primary focus, with two models on the road - the V8 Vantage, ranging from $514,000 to $582,000, and the DB9, from $714,000 to $758,000. Each offers two variants, the Coupe and Cabrio.

Since the DB9 was introduced in 2005 and the V8 last year, a total of 52 cars have been ordered for the Singapore market. As of last month, 10 Astons have been sold this year and the figure is expected to at least double by year-end.

This is a far cry from the bleak times of 1995 to 2004 - the 1997 currency crisis was a big factor - when only 36 were sold.

And while buyers used to be mostly in their 50s and 60s, today's customers include professionals in their 30s.

As for this boom period, he recommends caution: "The word 'boom' is a little dangerous because it's often associated with 'ka-boom'."

To cushion such a traumatic impact, he says "the economy needs to moderate its growth".

And if the slide does occur again?

"It'll be a challenge," he says confidently. "I never consider it as a problem."