You may have seen some of these before. Rich guys like to show off you know. Regardless, these ultimate garages still stir the soul in a way only serious car enthusiasts can truly appreciate. There's a 25 page string on Luxury4play.com if you want to see more.
You can tell this video is promotional in nature as soon as you hear the music, but there are some nice views of the 2010 Aston Martin Rapide apparently undergoing development testing on the Nurburgring and in the Italian Alps. Of course, the test drivers keep it well under control -- no attitude or tire smoke in this video.
Elio Zagato of the once famous Italian coachbuilder, Zagato, died this week at age 88. Zagato was the son of Ugo Zagato who started his own design house in 1919. The Zagato house's time has come and gone, as it has nowhere near the prominence of designers like Pininfarina and Giugiaro.
By far the most famous car to come out of Zagato is the Aston Martin DB4GT Zagato, also the most collectible Aston of all time. Elio Zagato participated in the development of this car, along with many other GTs of the 1950s. This is also one of the cars he raced on weekends. We drove a DB4 Zagato, too, last year.
Elio Zagato's favorite car of all time, though, was apparently the Fiat 8V Zagato pictured below in yellow and in sepia at the Mille Miglia. The green car is the Aston, of course.
IL Feature: Track-Testing a $4,000,000 Aston Martin DB4GT Zagato
You know that whole four-door coupe thing that's been going around? Well, most of them have been nothing of the sort. They were full-size sedans with a couple inches taken out of their roofs.
If there is such a thing as a four-door coupe, the 2010 Aston Martin Rapide is it. There are rear seats, but they're of the barely inhabitable type you might typically find in a true two-door. Of course, the Rapide has rear doors, too, but they, too, are a bit on the small side. Watching full-size adults crumple themselves into the backseats is almost comical and once they get in they are clearly not pleased to be there.
Continue reading 2009 Frankfurt Auto Show: The 2010 Aston Martin Rapide.
As if there weren't already enough reasons to desire an Aston Martin, Galpin Motors in Van Nuys, California, provides yet another. When you purchase a new DB9, Vantage or DBS, you also get an electronic access card to Galpin's Club Aston.
While all Aston Martin dealerships provide such an owners lounge where you can stop by at any time to hang out with other owners, Galpin has gone several steps further by turning its lounge into a Bond villain's avant garde hide away. There's a hidden entrance, a bar, quasi-futuristic furniture, a small library, giant metal vault doors and a turn table in the middle of it all where new Astons are unveiled to their owners under an oh-so-cool Bond-like gun barrel design.
What better place, then, for Aston Martin to showcase its magnificent One-77 super car, fresh from its grand unveiling at Pebble Beach?
Continue reading Aston Martin One-77 Revealed at Galpin's Club Aston.
What? This seems odd to you? A British luxury sports car builder embarking on a program to develop a small, awkward looking city car?
Well, welcome to the world of corporate average fuel economy (CAFE), a U.S. regulation that now says cars and trucks must meet a combined average of 35.5mpg by 2016. Given that the most fuel efficient model in Aston's lineup doesn't even get 20mpg on the highway, the company is clearly going to need some help to prop up its average.
Enter the Toyota iQ citycar, a pint-sized two-seater (there are rear "seats", but few humans could use them as such) that boasts mileage in the 55-60mpg range. Aston Martin intends to use the iQ as the basis for what it will call the Cygnet. Aston Martin CEO Ulrich Bez says now is the time for Aston to embark on such a project.
"Much work is still required, but I am confident that this project could become reality in the not too distant future. This concept - akin to an exclusive tender to a luxury yacht - will allow us to apply Aston Martin design language, craftsmanship and brand values to a completely new segment of the market," said Bez.
According to a Aston Martin spokesperson, the Cygnet won't be sold on the open market. Instead, only those who already own an Aston Martin will be able to purchase the vehicle, sort of like an errand car to use when you want to downplay your conspicuous consumption.
Guess it's only a matter of time until we see a Porsche version of the Volkwagen Up! too.
Some 60 years after Aston Martin won the 1959 24 hours of Le Mans, the company is once again headed to the famous French endurance race, although this time Carroll Shelby won't be with them.
After winning the GT1 sports car class at Le Mans the past two years, Aston Martin has entered the LMP1 class this year, competing against the two favorites for overall victory, the Audi R15 TDI and the Peugeot 908 HDi FAP. While the German and French cars are powered by specially constructed, 650-hp diesel engines, Aston Martin's rebodied Lola coupe features a 650-hp version of the Aston Martin DB9's 5.9-liter V12. The car is being fielded by Prodrive, the racing company established by David Richards, who is one of the principals in the Kuwaiti-backed company that now owns Aston Martin.
Richards notes that the two-car team's chances in the 24-hour classic are slim, but he is also encouraged by the new rules, which he reckons narrows the performance gap between diesel- and gas-powered cars to about seven percent this year, half the performance disparity that existed in 2008.
Aston Martin famously won the 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans with its DBR1 sports car driven by Carroll Shelby and Roy Salvadori. Shelby recently recalled his adventures that year:
Continue reading Carroll Shelby and Aston Martin at Le Mans: 1959 - 2009.
The Aston Martin One-77 has finally come together in production form after showing up at several auto shows in bits and pieces. This video from Autocar in the U.K. features Aston CEO Ulrich Bez explaining the idea behind the $2.1M supercar. Even better, he gets in and fires it up so you can hear the 7.3-liter V12 roar to life. It's worth a listen.
Autocar Video: Aston Martin One-77
A bit overkill? Sure, yeah, whatever. that's what the 2010 Aston Martin V12 Vantage is all about.
It's the classic American muscle car formula -- stuff the biggest engine available into the smallest car in the lineup. It rarely fails.
In this case, the results are predictable. The car is an absolute missile and Aston even saw fit to make it look like one. But as European Editor Alistair Weaver points out, it comes with a price. A big, huge price that make you wonder if it's all worth it. That's a muscle car for ya.
First Drive: 2010 Aston Martin V12 Vantage
After far too many "teasers" of its upcoming supercar, Aston Martin will finally unveil a complete One-77 Concept at the Concorso d'Eleganza on the shores of Lake Como, Italy.
The all-aluminum sports car most recently appeared at the 2009 Geneva Auto Show, but only its stripped-down chassis and an exterior styling buck were on display. Aston Martin promises a complete interior and running drivetrain this time around.
Power will come from a 7.3-liter V12 with at least 700 horsepower, says Aston Martin. A paddle-shifted sequential transmission will handle the shifting. Aston expects a 0-60-mph time of around 3.5 seconds and a top speed over 200 mph.
U.S. Attorneys have charged the owners of a New York Bentley and Aston Martin dealership with corporate espionage after discovering they had tapped into the email network of a rival Ferrari and Maserati dealership.
According to Bloomberg, Giacomo Ciaccia and Leka Vuksanaj, the co-owners of Universal Autosports LLC,were former employees of the Ferrari dealership. A third man, Michael Lussos, listed as the Creative Director of Universal Autosports, helped to set up the email system for the Ferrari dealership.
Investigators discovered that the Ferrari dealership's email were being forwarded to an outside account. In some instances, Universal Auto sport attempted to use the information to thwart potential sales by contacting customers directly. The three men each face up to five years in jail and a fine of $250,000.
Bloomberg: Aston Martin Dealer Is Charged With Spying on Rival
Poor Bernie. It's bad enough they sent him to jail and took his Manhattan penthouse away, but now trustees are going after a vintage Aston Martin purchased last year. According to the New York Times, the car in question is a 1964 Aston Martin DB2/4 (stock photo above).
Of course, if you ask anybody who knows Astons, such a car does not exist as the DB2/4 was built between October of 1953 and October of 1955. We suspect the folks liquidating Mr. Madoff's assets incorrectly labeled it a '64 instead of say, a '54.
This is the first official image of the 2010 Aston Martin Rapide. Now set for a debut at the 2009 Frankfurt Auto Show in September, the four-door Aston Martin is expected to go on sale early next year.
The Rapide will be powered by Aston's 6.0-liter V12, delivering 470 horsepower and 443 pound-feet of torque and mated to a Touchtronic automatic gearbox.
IL News: Production Version of Aston Martin Rapide Unveiled
Muslims have Mecca. Cheeseheads have Lambeau. Elvis wackos have Graceland. These are varying degrees of devotion to be sure, but each group has a place where they must make a pilgrimage to at least once in their lifetime. For James Bond fans, their place of pilgrimage is now Keswick in the north of England.
The Bond Museum opens this Sunday, April 5, featuring the world's largest collection of items used in the 22 James Bond films. It's been gathered over the years by Peter Nelson through personal purchases and donations from other fans as well as actors and crew.
While golden guns and jet packs are all well and good, it is the absurdly thorough car collection that should make the pilgrimage to Keswick worth it not just for Bond aficionados but any car enthusiast. The full list of vehicles can be found after the jump, but in short, the collection is so complete, there are fewer Bond cars not present.
Highlights include the Aston Martin DB5 used in the Brosnan movies (the original Goldfinger car was stolen), the Lotus Esprit from The Spy Who Loved Me (in regular and submarine guises), one of two Toyota 2000GT roadsters in the world used for You Only Live Twice, the two-wheeling Mustang from Diamonds Are Forever, the Glastron speedboat from Live And Let Die, and the Russian T55 main battle tank from GoldenEye. That's right, they have a tank.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm heading to LAX to catch a flight to Manchester. -- James Riswick, Automotive Editor
Continue reading James Bond Car Museum Opens in England.
We never really understood why Porsche would build a convertible version of the 911 Turbo. The convertible is the soft car and the Turbo is the intense car. Why would you cross those two things?
Well, that was before Porsche went ahead and did it, and now the convertible Turbo outsells the coupe Turbo more than 2-to-1. So, here we have the new Aston Martin DBS Volante (that's Aston-speak for convertible).
The brand's top model gets its head chopped off. Same performance. Same V12. But now you can have it with a bit of sun. The fabric top goes down in 14 seconds, says the company. And the thing looks good, even if it takes a minute to recognize it as something different from the V8 Vantage drop top. -- Daniel Pund, Senior Editor, Detroit
Read Inside Line's story about the Aston Martin DBS Volante.
Blackline GPS and Escort Team Up at SEMA
November 5, 2009 5:44 PM
An Airbag? A Seatbelt? No, It's the Ford Inflatable Seatbelt
November 5, 2009 8:34 AM
Ford collision warning testing
October 13, 2009 11:15 AM
New iPhone App Allows Remote Starting of Your Car
October 13, 2009 10:23 AM
2010 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor: Suspension Walkaround
October 7, 2009 8:45 AM