Aston Martin owners will be able to purchase the company's upcoming pint-sized model, according to Works Service, the brand's magazine. A blog written for the New York Times quotes Aston Martin chief Ulrich Bez as saying, "This concept is akin to an exclusive tender for a luxury yacht."
The Aston Martin Cygnet, a luxuriously-designed version of the Toyota iQ, will not get a spruced up engine. Each Cygnet uses the iQ's 97-horsepower, 1.33-liter engine that produces up to 91 ft-lb of torque. Top speed is listed at 105 mph.
Photos of the car's interior shows an audacious amount of red and quilted black leather, along with premium gloss trim, infotainment screen, and an iPhone dock. Exterior photos show exclusive paint work, with chrome and carbon fiber details. Needless hood venting is remnant of the Vantage, while rear LED lighting is sourced from the Rapide. Multi-spoke alloy wheels remind one of the DBS thanks to the graphite finish.
Astonishingly, the modified iQ will cost between £20,000 and £30,000. The company will produce 2,000 Aston Martin Cygnet units.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Aston Martin Cygnet reserved only for Aston owners
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Aston Martin DBS and V12 Vantage Carbon Black
Aston Martin has unveiled a pair of Carbon Black special edition of the DBS and the V12 Vantage featuring bespoke Carbon Black metallic paint.
Each of the sports car will go through 50-manhour of hand painting followed by stringent quality checks.
For the Aston Martin V12 Vantage Carbon Black, the car features real carbon fiber side strake backed by a black mesh, gloss black 10 spoke diamond turned alloy wheels, a bright finished grille and front parking sensors.
Inside, the V12 Vantage Carbon Black features Obsidian Black leather highlighted with a contrast silver coarse, all hand stitched by the craftspeople at Aston Martin’s global headquarters at Gaydon.
The V12 Vantage is fitted with lightweight cabon fiber and Kevlar seats which are 27 kg ighter than the standard seats. Other features inside the Vantage are piano black facia trim, center stack and center console, anodised black thread plates, unique sill plaques build on the carbon fiber theme and 700w Premium Audio System. The Aston Martin DBS Carbon Black meanwhile is equipped with Bang & Olufsen Beosound DBS audio system as standard.
The owners of the Carbon Black Edition will have the opportunity to attend the Aston Martin Performance Driving Course (UK and Europe only) free of charge. The Aston Martin Carbon Black Editions is expected to be priced 5% higher than the base price.
Both the Aston Martin DBS and V12 Vantage Carbon Black are still powered by the hand-built 6.0-liter V12 engine that produces 510 bhp (380 kW).
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Aston Martin One-77 Records 220mph for Top Speed
Aston Martin is accelerating development on the upcoming One-77 supercar. During top secret high-speed testing in the south of France the car comfortably achieved a top speed of 220.007mph (354.86 km/h) under dry but windy conditions. More tests will be conducted in the new year, including dynamic testing.
The One-77 is powered by a 7.3-litre V12 engine and will be Aston's most powerful and of course expensive road car ever. It is a two-door, two-seat coupe with a carbon fibre monocoque body structure.
A limited production run of only 77 will be produced and sales are scheduled to start in the middle of 2010.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Wheelsandmore Aston Martin DB9 Volante
Wheelandmore, a well known tuner from Germany has some ideas of its own for the Aston Martin DB9 convertible.
First up is a performance upgrade for the 6.0 liter V12 engine with 476 hp and 600 Nm (442 lb-ft) of torque that comes with the production version. Wheelsandmore boosts that by 60 hp while adding 68 Nm (50 lb-ft) of torque too. They've done so by tinkering with the ECU and adding a stainless-steel sport exhaust system with 200-cell sport catalysts and noise-volume valve control. Suspension-lowering is part of the package with the DB9 sitting 25 mm lower.
The DB9 also gets a new body kit made of polyurethane along with side skirts, front and rear aprons and a rear lid spoiler. The convertible gets fitted with Kahn RS-V 20-inch wheels with Dunlop Sport Maxx performance tires - 255/35/20 for the front 9.0x20 rims and 285/30/20 for the 11.0×20 rear rims.
Prices are €5,999 for the wheel set, €9,000 for the body kit, €8,800 for the exhaust system, €3,400 for the ECU upgrade and €1,150 for the lowering springs.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Elite LMV/R based on 2010 Aston Martin Vantage
Elite a well known tuner from U.S has come up with a Bond car (as in James Bond in a LeMans racer) inspired by the Ferrari Scuderia and Ferrari Stradale as well as the Lamborghini Superleggera. They call it the 2010 Aston Martin LMV/R (Le Mans Vantage Racer).
Elite claims the car will be lighter than the production model through extensive use of carbon fiber parts. And one has to assume that performance is, at least, marginally improved by way of the weight reduction as well the aerodynamic/body kit, a sport exhaust system and lowering springs. A big brake kit hints at increased performance too but Elite does not provide any info on that front.
Also included in the package is a an Alcantara interior along with carbon fiber paneling in the cabin and 20-inch wheels to fit the wide body kit. But this package really seems to be about that carbon fiber body paneling which, along with the usual skirts, wings and rear diffuser, also comes with rear quarter panel extensions that are 2-inches (5 cm) wider.
Only 30 of these Aston Martin LMV/R's will be made. They will be distributed through Aston Martin dealers in the United States. The price is a tad...no, it's an outright million miles beyond reasonable at 173,000 U.S. dollars, not including the original Aston Martin Vantage. But it does include transport to Elite for the installation job and back to the dealer purchase point where one buys the car.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Aston Martin Lagonda SUV indefinitely suspended
Aston Martin announced that the Lagonda brand has hit a roadblock, as the company has apparently put production of the Lagonda SUV Concept on hold. In an interview with Edmund's InsideLine, Aston Martin's CEO, Ulrich Bez, said the concept was "indefinite hold" due to the difficult economic climate despite "...several sources ready to invest upward(s) of a quarter-billion pounds." He added that, "...the timing right now is simply wrong. We have some work to do yet, and it takes a lot of investment."
The highly anticipated concept, which briefly appeared at Geneva Motor Show, was quietly pulled from the Aston Martin display after a serious lambasting by the automotive press. This fuels speculation that the project's cancelation was less about economics and more about euthanizing a hideous vehicle.
Source: Edmunds.com
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Aston Martin One-77
Aston Martin’s European operations chief Marcel Beci revealed in March that the first actual customer car will roll out of the company’s Gaydon factory later this year and that the limited production run of just 77 cars will be complete by the end of 2010. Beci also explained that Aston Martin keeps in close contact with all its One-77 customers, and that every effort is being made to ensure the car does not fall prey to resellers who may attempt to profit from it. After all, the One-77 is being built not just as a halo car, but as an ultra-halo car, a sort of rekindling of the legacy of Aston Martin, plus a projection of the brand into the future. It's designed to be the most quintessential Aston Martin ever, and the most perfectly personalized car available.
The structural core of the One-77 is a lightweight and immensely rigid carbon-fiber monocoque. Conceived and designed at Aston Martin's Gaydon HQ, the monocoque, or 'tub', has been built in partnership with Multimatic (MTC) – a world leader in carbon composite technology. Attached to this tub is a set of double wishbones at each corner, with pushrods employed to transfer vertical suspension movements to the horizontally mounted spring/damper units.
The dampers are fully adjustable and feature advanced Dynamic Suspension Spool Valve (DSSV) technology - a world-first for a road car application. These special valves use high-precision machined components to enable the shock-absorbing characteristics of the damper to be changed without having to remove them from the car. Underlining the truly bespoke nature of the One-77, the car's suspension characteristics will be precisely set-up by Aston Martin engineers to suit the owner’s exact requirements.
The One-77's power unit is an extreme evolution of the 6.0L V12 engines fitted to the DBS, DB9 and new V12 Vantage models. The brief for engine team was to take the 6.0L V12 as far as it could go, both in terms of output and weight reduction. The targets were a power output of no less than 700hp (522kW) with a 10% reduction in engine mass. Incredibly, the Aston Martin and Cosworth engineers who worked on the powertrain achieved a mass reduction of some 25% while increasing displacement to 7.3L.
Wearing Pirelli P Zero Corsa tires (255mm up front and 335mm up back) developed specifically for it, all 700hp is transmitted to the road through the rear wheels via a new six-speed gearbox. Controlled via column-mounted paddles behind the steering wheel, this robotised sequential manual is a new generation of Aston Martin's familiar automatic. Stopping power comes from a set of carbon-ceramic discs and uprated calipers designed to transmit less heat from the brake pads into the brake fluid.
With a projected weight of 1,500kg the One-77 will occupy the very highest echelons of road car performance. Top speed is predicted to be in excess of 200mph, with a 0-60mph time in approximately 3.5 seconds. The custom-built nature of the One-77 echoes personalization programs recently undertaken by Lamborghini and Ferrari. Buyers will be able to customize every single part of the car, from the gearbox to the interior trim elements. Even the seats will be tailored to fit the driver and passenger’s individual curves. As the company CEO Ulrich Bez explains, the car should fit the owner like a tailored suit.
