Archive for Aston Martin

Two more photos of the upcoming ultra expensive Aston Martin One-77 have been released, depicting the car in a front 3/4 and rear 3/4 view.

It looks like an Aston Martin alright, but alot more aggressive thanks to the nice bodywork they’ve done on the side of the car. Like its namesake, if you manage to be one of the lucky buyers, you will own one of 77 units of the limited edition Aston Martin One-77.

Word is that the car’s V12 engine will be front mid-mounted and will have 7.3 liters of displacement, putting out a targeted 700 horsepower. This will be mated to a twin clutch transmission mounted at the rear for optimum weight distribution.

Look after the jump for the rear 3/4 view and a previously released side view.

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Aston Martin One-77: more details revealed

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Those who have been eyeing the Aston Martin DBS but didn’t really want to bother with the fuss of the sole 6-speed manual transmission option it has can now rejoice as Aston Martin has just added a ZF 6-speed automatic transmission to the DBS, mating it to the hand-built 517 PS 6.0 liter V12 engine.

Aston Martin calls its slushbox the “Touchtronic 2″, and the version in the DBS is based on the transaxle unit in the DB9 but re-engineered to accommodate the power and other characteristics of the DBS. You can either leave it in auto mode or shift via the leather-trimmed magnesium alloy paddles mounted on the steering column.

The Touchtronic 2 is a £3,000 option over the 6-speed manual.

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More details have been unveiled of the upcoming Aston Martin One-77, though there are no new photos of the car. Aston Martin says the One-77 project started 15 months ago and is just a codename and is not the final name of the car. Each of the One-77 will be completely tailored to the individual who bought it.

Once you’ve booked one, you will have access to the company’s top engineers and designers in Aston Martin’s Gaydon plant, who will work with you to develop the car to your exact specifications. No further details have been unveiled as to how far your specifications can go. You’ll likely not be able to touch things like the shape of the car as well as the engine, but likely you will be able to customise things like the interior trim, exterior colour, seats, and wheel design.

Imagine, if Aston Martin decides to take the individuality (and 1.2 million pound price) even further you could be able to pick your own exhaust note and design cues, since the car’s aluminium body panels will be hand-knocked!

The 354km/h top speed and 3.5 second 0 to 100km/h acceleration time is thanks to a 7.0 liter V12 producing 650 horsepower and a lightweight carbon fiber chassis covered in aluminium panels.

Aston Martin has identified over 500 potential customers and will bring a demo car personally to their homes to gauge interest and pitch the sale.

Money can’t buy you happiness, or at least not for British businessman Gerald Mellin, who killed himself with the help of his Aston Martin DB7 roadster.

Mellin, who had been talking about suicide for sometime now, tied one end of a long rope to a tree in a parking lot and the other end of the rope around his neck. He then got into his open top DB7 and drove away. You can probably guess what happened next.

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Aston Martin has jumped onto the ultra exclusive supercar bandwagon, and this Aston Martin One-77 you see above like its namesake is one of 77 that will be built. I trust that Aston Martin will have no problems making it look extremely sexy as with all of their existing products, so let’s have a look at its other features.

The One-77 will have a body hand-made with aluminium, and a carbon fiber chassis underneath it. This means it will likely be very light and nimble, and propelling it to 100km/h in roughly 3.5 seconds will be a monstrous 7.0 liter V12 engine.

Now if any premium car manufacturer wants to create a supercar I highly recommend they take this path instead of the overweight giant that is the Bugatti Veyron, no matter how many turbochargers that thing has. Something like the One-77 feels so much more special. Aston Martin’s press release did not state a price but with only 77 units available, some are quoting prices of about 1 million pounds.

Aston Martin has updated its Aston Martin V8 Vantage that was unveiled back in 2005 for the new model year. The facelifted V8 Vantage features numerous improvements, with the most noticable being the increased engine displacement up to 4.7 liters, while retaining the V8 cylinder configuration. Peak power is now at 420 horses at 7,000rpm, an 11% increase over the 4.3 liter unit, and peak torque is now 470Nm at 5,750rpm, up by 15% over the previous engine. 0 to 100km/h takes 4.7 seconds, and the car goes on to a top speed of 288km/h.

The increased displacement is achieved by an increase of bore from 89mm to 91mm, and stroke from 86mm to 91mm. The result is a “square” cylinder. The new longer stroke is achieved via a new forged steel crank with new holes in the counterweights for reduced rotating mass. Conrods are also forged steel, and pistons are cast aluminium. Intake valves are now larger - 35.9mm versus 34.9mm on the previous engine. The dry sump has also been improved with a new sump casting featuring oil pick-up points moved from the front and rear to the sides.

The car’s optional Sportshift 6-speed automated manual transmission with LSD differential has revised shifting intelligence, and mechanically it, together with the pure manual gearbox has a modified clutch and flywheel resulting in less effort required to operate the clutch. These improvements also save 0.5kg over the previous gearbox. Throttle inputs now have two modes - a Comfort mode with a more progressive and smooth operation and a Sport mode that is more snappy and aggressive.

The Aston Martin V8 Vantage gets an updated interior featuring a new center console design and a revised switchgear. The navigation system has been updated to use a Hard Disk Drive for faster map loading and route processing. More space also allows better graphics to be stored. The exterior remains largely unchanged except for new standard 20-spoke 19 inch wheels, finished in either silver or graphite. The Sports pack uses a lighter 5-spoke aluminium wheel.

Aston Martin has unveiled the first photos of its Aston Martin Vantage GT2 racer, which finally completes Aston Martin’s portfolio of GT race cars in each of the four GT categories - GT1, GT2, GT3 and GT4.

GT2 is the Series Grand Touring Cars category. GT2 cars are generally much closer to a production car than GT1 cars which typically use exotic materials in their construction, but GT2 cars are still generally significantly upgraded compared to a GT3 car.

Not much specifications have been revealed on the Vantage GT except that its engine can be run on both normal gasoline and E85.

Click here to read the rest of Aston Martin Vantage GT2

Future Aston Martins could use Mercedes Benz technologies, as the luxury carmaker has had talks with the Daimler AG luxury automobile arm. It also wants to increase its production up to 8,000 cars in 2008 to 2009, up from 7,000 a year in 2007, which would creep very near its Gaydon plant maximum capacity of 9,000 units a year.

The British luxury carmaker is also in talks with LVMH’s Louis Vuitton and PPR’s Gucci on an overhaul of Aston Martin’s merchandise business. The company plans to increase merchandising revenue to US$300 million by 2009, from about US$100 million in 2006.

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We spotted this beautiful car at the recent Porsche Cayenne facelift launch at Bukit Kiara Equestrian Country Club. Aston Martins are generally not known for much of their technical specification. Not exactly a car for geeks to drool over the latest in technology, unlike cars like the Porsche 911 Turbo with turbines made of space age material and what not. Yet there’s just something special about Aston Martins and their design language that turns heads.

If I’m not mistaken, there are only two Aston Martin DB9s in KL. This is the second one, and I do not know who owns it. The first DB9 belongs to J.P. Chin, and has the number plate “DB9″. UPDATE: Reader Daniel Tin wrote in to inform that there is a third Aston Martin DB9 in the country with number plate MAY18.

Three lucky owners, are there any more?

Check out more photos after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Aston Martin DB9 in KL

Aston Martin will be procuring Volvo’s help to develop the Aston Martin Rapide 4-door sedan’s safety system. Volvo’s safety engineering expertise was also used previously on the DB9 and V8 Vantage models. Volvo will develop a stiff aluminium structure for the Aston Martin Rapide. This includes designing the B-pillar and side-members to optimise occupant safety during side impact collisions.

Aston Martin hopes the new Rapide will add on about 1,000 to 2,000 units to the niche carmaker’s current production levels, helping with economies of scale as well as sales. It intends to launch the new Aston Martin Rapide in late 2008, hopefully before Porsche launches it’s competitors the Porsche Panamera.

Click here for more details on the Aston Martin Rapide concept.