Rarity is a wonderful thing. It makes paintings priceless and classic Ferraris worth £15m. The same applies when a company like Aston Martin, already famous for its gloriously beautiful supercars, announces that it is building a £1.2m, 700bhp Hypercar, of which only 77 will be made. Utterly beautiful, the first car has been spotted out and about in London for the first time (cunningly someone with a HD camera was nearby… we’re guessing someone with an Aston branded polo shirt on).

The car looks and sounds incredible on the streets, and is sure to be a hit. This is especially the case as one mysterious customer has ordered TEN cars. Personally anything that keeps a British marque like Aston Martin alive is fine by us…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7GcVq0tEzM

The Aston Martin Cygnet — a new “luxury commuter concept” car, according to its marketeers — is to be built on the base of Toyota’s existing iQ city car and is likely to be available for less than £20,000.

“Small is beautiful these days,” Ulrich Bez, Aston Martin’s chief executive, said yesterday. “We have to move on from the preconceived ideas regarding what Aston Martin is about.”

Mr Bez said that Aston Martin needed to diversify to cope with a sharp fall in demand for its sports cars. “For decades we have seen the big US car manufacturers stick to what they have always done and now they’re on the brink of extinction,” he said.

“This concept will allow us to apply Aston Martin design language, craftsmanship and brand values to a completely new segment of the market.”

It is thought that between 4,000 and 5,000 Cygnets will be built each year. Toyota, attracted by the cachet of Aston Martin, said that it would be the only car that it would make for another manufacturer.

The two companies began their unlikely friendship at the Nurburgring 24-hour race, where they shared garage facilities.

Akio Toyoda, the new president of Toyota and the grandson of the company founder, had raced a Lexus while Dr Bez was behind the wheel of an Aston Martin. Dr Bez said that their friendship grew into a business opportunity.

“When I saw the iQ,” Dr Bez said, “I immediately saw potential for our two companies to work together. Two days after I called Akio Toyoda to discuss this, Toyota’s people were visiting our factory at Gaydon. Just a few months later and we are making public our intentions.”

The chief executive said that he had initially encountered great resistance in his attempts to reform the luxury carmaker when he took over the helm in July 2000. The company, then owned by Ford, was sold in 2007 to a consortium of Kuwaiti and British investors.

Beautifully styled, the DB9 never fails to stir the soul with its unique sound, power and performance. This purebred sports car is also a technical triumph, its beauty signifying aerodynamic efficiency, its power unencumbered by weight, its devastating straight-line performance paired with exquisite handling. All great sports cars strive to balance these qualities, and the DB9 creates an experience that is both unique and unforgettable. What the driver sees, hears and feels is in harmony. The reward is total involvement: a level of engagement that truly stimulates the senses, that re-ignites a passion for driving.

But an Aston Martin is also about luxury, indulgence and enjoyment – it is a feast for the senses. Sure enough, the magnificent exterior styling of the DB9 gives way to a sumptuous, comprehensively equipped cabin, trimmed in the finest materials. Every element is perfectly conceived, from the 6.0-litre V12, to the hand-stitched seats and carefully selected interior woods. Nothing is out of place.

No sports car manufacturer has a greater design heritage than Aston Martin. Responsible for some of the most beautiful sports cars ever made, Aston Martin imbues every model with understated elegance and graceful styling, achieved through harmonious proportions, taut surfacing, a ground-hugging stance and thorough attention to detail.

An Aston Martin is subtle, not attention-seeking. The coupe’s side profile is clean and distinctive, with a single-sweep roofline that flows through to a distinctive tail. Key Aston Martin design elements include the distinctive grille, metal side strakes, signature rear window shape and wide, curvaceous haunches.

December’s supercar competition has now closed, somebody won one of the cars below:

Ferrari F430 Coupe
Lamborghini LP560-4 Coupe
Audi R8 and Range Rover Sport 3.0 TDV6 SE
Porsche Panamera Turbo + £15,000
Ferrari California
Artega GT + £20,000
Aston Martin DB9 Coupe
Mercedes CL63 AMG
KTM X BOW + £50,000
or of course take just the cash £90,000

The winner can choose any one of them. We have had over 300 winners over the last 10 years and time and again feedback has been: it takes only 2 minutes to buy a ticket but much longer to decide which car to have!

To view this month’s line up and enter January’s supercar competition click below:

Aston Martin Rapide’s rear environment has been intelligently packaged to create a space where passengers feel a part of the driving experience with clear views to the front and sides. Comfort and support is supplied in the form of two hand trimmed individual seats and a personal face-level heating and air conditioning system. Aiding the practicalities of everyday use, the luggage compartment features a movable bulkhead to permit access from the rear cabin while the rear seats fold flat at the touch of a button to create a flat loading space increasing the luggage compartment from 301 litres to 750 litres.

Broadening the DBS’s character, the Aston Martin DBS Volante will appeal to drivers who wish to combine the excitement of driving a finely-tuned sports car with the invigorating feeling of being open to the elements.

Featuring a motorised retractable fabric roof, the DBS’s beautiful profile is preserved whether up or down. When the roof is closed, it provides a warm comfortable ambience and when open, it neatly disappears behind the new tonneau cover at the touch of a button. It looks part of the car, rather than a cheap afterthought.

The DBS Volante is powered by the same 6.0L V12 engine rated at 510hp (380kW) and 420lb-ft (570Nm) of torque as the hard-top DBS. Top speed in the convertible variant is 191mph (307km/h) and it sprints to 62mph (100km/h) in just 4.3 seconds. Shaken and stirred, then!

A six-speed manual is fitted as standard to the DBS in a transaxle position to balance the mass better.There is a six-speed Touchtronic auto option that’s also available in the coupe. Whichever gearbox you spec, they drive the rear wheels through a limited slip diff.

Despite it’s effortless good looks however, the DBS Volante is still a big tourer, with a curb weight of 3,990lb (1,810kg). An Active Damping System (ADS) keeps the big car’s roll under control, however, and can be tuned for comfort or speed.

Aston’s partnership with Bang & Olufsen bears more fruit in the DBS Volante, with the BeoSound DBS in-car entertainment system’s 13-speaker symphony part of the standard equipment package as well.
Most of the rest of the running gear is shared with the coupe, making the DBS Volante not just attractive but eminently capable on the road, the track or cruising the strip.

Aston Martin Chief Executive Officer, Dr Ulrich Bez said: “This is the ultimate performance interpretation of the Vantage range, combining our most agile model with our most powerful engine. It represents the definitive driving package; providing spectacular performance to ensure a dynamically thrilling and everyday useable driving experience.



“The Aston Martin V12 Vantage has a unique character, one unlike our other cars. This will appeal to different people with different tastes, allowing more people to enjoy the Aston Martin experience.

Designed for the focused driver, every component of the Aston Martin V12 Vantage has been honed with pure driving enjoyment in mind. Benefitting from race-developed materials and components, and featuring lightweight carbon fibre; performance and agility have been tuned to perfection.

Visually enticing, the Aston Martin V12 Vantage expresses its performance potential through its purposeful stance created by enhanced aerodynamic and cooling aids optically widening the car, while retaining traditional understated Aston Martin design. Equally inviting, the cosseting interior permits the driver to extract maximum performance ability from the car while also enjoying customary levels of Aston Martin comfort on longer journeys. High levels of power and torque are available at all engine speeds making the Aston Martin V12 Vantage responsive and tractable in any driving situation.

The V12 Vantage will be built at Aston Martin’s global headquarters in Gaydon, Warwickshire joining the DBS, DB9 and V8 Vantage model lines which are built in the state-of-the-art production facility combining hi-tech manufacturing processes with traditional hand-craftsmanship. Production will be limited up to 1,000 examples over the life span of the car, making the Aston Martin V12 Vantage a truly exclusive driver’s car.

Aston Martin V12 Vantage: Performance

Agility and outright performance formed the basis of design for the Aston Martin V12 Vantage to produce the most exciting incarnation of the Vantage model line-up to date. Aston Martin’s most powerful engine is fused with its most agile model to produce a truly exhilarating sports car.

The V12 power plant has been intelligently packaged into the Vantage’s compact form preserving its perfect proportions. While the external dimensions of the V8 Vantage remain unchanged, the internal front structure has been extensively revised forward of the suspension towers to house the larger engine, brake cooling system, and twin air intake system.

Superb handling characteristics are at the heart of the Aston Martin V12 Vantage; the rear suspension has been modified, with a more compact dual-rate spring design, in order to accommodate a wider wheel and tyre combination, improving grip and traction. The ride height of the Aston Martin V12 Vantage has also been lowered by 15 mm, while the spring rates have been stiffened by 45% and the anti-roll bars are 15% (front) and 75% (rear) stiffer than the standard car. These measures serve to lower the car’s centre of gravity and reduce the amount of roll experienced during cornering, further increasing the Aston Martin V12 Vantage’s dynamic capabilities.

Aston Martin V12 Vantage: Design

Based on the stunning V8 Vantage originally launched in 2005, the Aston Martin V12 Vantage subtly hints at its sporting intent with its controlled aggression and lower, purposeful stance. It is manufactured at Aston Martin’s global headquarters in Gaydon, Warwickshire where all Aston Martins benefit from class leading levels of craftsmanship fused with cutting-edge technology.

The modern Lagonda marries functionalism with luxury, through organic forms, rich materials and complex surfaces. The car is based on an advanced platform that is tailored to accommodate a broad range of future powertrains, including flexfuel, low emission diesel and hybrid systems.

The Aston Martin Lagonda Concept is a four-seat international tourer, an avant-garde luxury car that draws inspiration from the brand’s illustrious past as well as the visual language of speedboat design, the spacious individualist environment of the upper class cabin and the bespoke feel of contemporary modern furniture. Inside, the four generous seats are divided into two zones, front and rear. The result is a relaxed, rich environment that envelops you in warm, tactile materials.

Marek Reichman, Aston Martin’s Director of Design, describes the Aston Martin Lagonda Concept’s design language as a fusion of fluid shapes mixed with hard, constructed lines. This organic, emotional approach eschews upright surfaces in favour of broad, flowing bodywork around the spacious passenger cabin.

Lagonda’s return signals a major expansion of Aston Martin’s product line, taking the company into new and emerging markets around the world. To demonstrate the Lagonda vision, the Aston Martin Lagonda Concept has been created, a car that epitomises the intersection of craft, design and technology with Aston Martin’s established high performance expertise.

The Aston Martin Lagonda Concept is an avant-garde luxury vehicle; with powerful four-wheel drive, a four-seater car that will satisfy the most discerning and demanding owner. The concept demonstrates a commitment to innovative new propulsion technologies, new materials and elegant forms.

“The Lagonda is the luxury car of the future,” says Aston Martin Chief Executive, Dr Ulrich Bez, “a combination of total usability, a new form and innovative new technology and materials.”

The return of Lagonda fulfils a long-term vision. Aston Martin’s modern era began in 2001 with the launch of the V12 Vanquish and the construction of the award-winning headquarters at Gaydon, Warwickshire in 2003. In the years that followed, Aston Martin has launched four class-leading new products, revitalising the performance GT category and redefining automotive beauty.

Performance like this comes at a price, of course. Aston Martin quotes £1.05m but has confirmed that once you have added tax and put the car on the road, the final bill will be a Bugatti-busting £1.3m.

What is your money buying, save the ability to travel from one place to another faster than a light aircraft? Exclusivity for one: as the name suggests, just 77 will be built, of which Aston Martin has already sold more than 50 before anyone outside the company has driven it. Mechanically, while the engine can trace its origins to the 6-litre V12 used in other Astons, the timing chain is the only component in common, so it can be considered as new.

And although the One-77 is emphatically a road car, its configuration appears to owe more to lessons learnt on the track. It has pushrod suspension like all top racing cars,

dry-sump lubrication to lower the engine in the car and prevent oil surge and, perhaps most importantly, a full carbon-fibre monocoque, a first for Aston Martin. Indeed, the only concession to Aston tradition is the bodywork, which, like almost all Aston Martins, is crafted from aluminium.

The One-77 is more than the ultimate Aston: it is the company’s claim to a place at the supercar top table alongside Bugatti, Ferrari and McLaren. And if Daniel Craig is not behind the wheel of one come next year’s 23rd Bond outing we will all feel rightly robbed.

As produced in The Times January 10, 2010

The juxtaposition of ultimate performance and openness stirs the senses on any drive whether an exhilarating jaunt on favoured roads or cruising on lengthy journeys. ‘Volante’, meaning ‘moving with light rapidity’, perfectly defines the performance potential and the dynamic characteristics of the Aston Martin DBS Volante.

Featuring a motorised retractable fabric roof, the DBS’s beautiful profile is preserved whether up or down. When the roof is closed, it provides a warm comfortable ambience and when open, it neatly disappears behind the new tonneau cover at the touch of a button.

Conceived as a Volante from the outset, Aston Martin engineers opted for a fabric hood to closely follow the silhouette of the DBS coupe and due to its lightweight properties, minimise overall weight gain. Fully retractable in only 14 seconds and at up to speeds of 30 mph (48 km/h), the roof will automatically stow under the newly sculpted tonneau, maintaining the Aston Martin DBS Volante’s perfect form – hood up or down.

Power is provided by Aston Martin’s hand-built all alloy 6.0-litre V12 engine producing 510 bhp (380 kW / 517 PS), and 570 Nm (420 lb ft) of torque with a top speed of 191 mph (307 km/h) and 0-62 mph (0-100 km/h) time of 4.3 seconds. The nature of the V12, and in particular the torque available at all engine speeds, serves to provide effortless driving in all situations.

Aston Martin’s 16th convertible in 95 years, the Aston Martin DBS Volante draws on the marque’s extensive experience in designing iconic ‘Volantes’ and is a 2+2 featuring two occasional rear seats, ideal for young people or extra luggage. In standard specification, the DBS has a rear-mounted six-speed manual gearbox, while an automatic six-speed ‘Touchtronic’ option is also available. As with the coupe, the Volante is offered with carbon ceramic brakes as standard providing exceptional stopping power. Benefitting from materials derived from the motorsport and aerospace industries, the bonnet, front wings and boot lid are made from carbon fibre all helping to reduce weight.

The need for high-performance stability, handling ability and low kerb weight defined the DBS’s form and construction. The Aston Martin DBS Volante is powered by the same 6.0-litre V12 engine at the heart of the DBS which was launched in 2007. Producing 510 bhp (517 PS / 380 kW), peak power is delivered at 6500 rpm and the 570 Nm (420 lb ft) of torque is delivered at 5750 rpm. Tractable at any time, the DBS possesses a ‘flat’ torque curve providing 85% of the torque from 1500 rpm.

Adding to the sonorous V12 enhances the aural soundtrack. Special by-pass valves in the exhaust allow a quieter exhaust note at low speeds; at 4000 rpm these open to reduce the pressure in the exhaust system, raising the power output as well as generating a rousing aural accompaniment.

The Aston Martin DBS Volante is available as standard with a rear-mounted 6-speed manual gearbox with gear ratios optimised to extract the very best from the 6.0-litre engine. Providing customers with even greater personalisation capabilities, a ‘Touchtronic’ 6- speed automatic featuring a torque converter is also available as an option.