Aston Martin’s primary shareholder, Kuwaiti firm Investment Dar, is planning to take advantage of Aston Martin’s cachet by expanding the brand to include everything from apparel and owners events to track days and real estate.
By teaming with Mercedes on ventures for new engines and even new models, Aston Martin can leverage the experience and manufacturing expertise of the German company to help it grow.
The Aston Martin V12 Vantage RS is a 600 hp supercar powered by a 6.0 liters V12 engine recently used in the DBS. It can make the 0 to 60 mph sprint in just 4 seconds and can hit a top speed of 186 mph.
Aston Martin Racing has revealed the first impressions of its new GT2 racing car. Known as the Vantage GT2, the new car is based on the V8 engined Aston Martin Vantage road car.
The long awaited four-door Aston Martin Rapide has been spotted, almost completely undisguised, doing laps of the Nurburgring. This latest video of the prototype includes some close-up shots of the car as it enters and exits a trackside testing facility as well as some high speed runs around the popular circuit. We also for the first time can hear the rumble of the V12 mill at full tilt as the svelte sedan barrels past the camera’s microphone.
Aston Martin is prepping an updated V8 Vantage that hopes to be more well suited to take on the Porsche 911.
Performance is being boosted by increasing the V8 Vantage’s displacement from the standard 4.3L engine to a beefier 4.7L. The accompanying torque and power boost (as yet undisclosed) should give the Aston that little bit of oomph it was missing. The already well-sorted chassis should remain untouched.
In a recent interview with AutoCar, Bez said that Aston Martin is considering building the Rapide in Italy with a third-party manufacturer and that sports car specialist Pininfarina is one of the potential third party production experts on the table.
Italian design house Zagato has developed a unique coachbuilt body for Bentley’s new Continental GT Speed, which it plans to unveil at next week’s Geneva Motor Show. Labeled the ‘GTZ’, the modified Bentley is just the latest in a long history of coachbuilt cars from Zagato including last year’s Diatto Ottovù and previous works from Ferrari, Aston Martin, Jaguar, Rolls Royce and MG.