Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 16 i Vantage

ASTON MARTIN HAS OPENED its latestnew dealership in the UK. Aston MartinBristol, part of the Dick Lovett group,launched in September and will serve theSouth West and Wales. The purpose-built 2500-square-metrefacility, located close to Junction 17 of theM5, features a 25-car showroom for newand pre-owned Astons and a separatelounge where customers can tailor theirnew car with ‘Q by Aston Martin’. Thedealership also has a dedicated aftersalesteam and a ten-bay workshop staffed byGaydon-trained technicians. The showroom opening was attendedby over 400 owners and enthusiasts,along with key members of the AstonMartin senior executive team. Presidentand CEO Dr Andy Palmer performed theopening ceremony. ‘We are excited to beworking with new partner Dick Lovett,who share our passion for Aston Martin,’Palmer told the assembled throng. It’s been an exciting year for the DickLovett group, which is…

THE GOODWOOD REVIVAL continues to cast its spell, the quality of the cars and the racing as high as ever. This year, the Kinrara Trophy was a Friday evening innovation, setting the tone for the whole weekend with a terrific grid and intense racing at seemingly ten-tenths throughout. Such was the intensity that three of the five DB4 GTs entered suffered damage in the race, but Tom Alexander’s car, driven by Adrian Willmott, led the field before coming unstuck at Woodcote corner, eventually finishing in 9th place. The star for many was the Zagato-bodied DB4 GT (the car started life as a GT, not a Zagato) of Rob Huff and Richard Meins, which finished a fine 5th. The Freddie March Memorial Trophy race witnessed a very tight scrap between Rob…

Aston Martin DB4 GT by Stephen Archer & Richard A Candee From £750 palawan.co.uk Peter Sutcliffe’s foreword bills this as ‘without doubt the definitive work on these cars’, so the bar for success is set pretty high. Archer and Candee clear it, covering the GT’s development, engineering and racing exploits in impressive detail – and cataloguing every GT chassis, too. It’s certainly more reference than light reading (not least because it weighs 5kg), but the recollections of inimitable racing team manager John Wyer and others add colour throughout. Aston Martin experience at Millbrook Proving Ground £1500 astonmartinartofliving.com For a price, Aston’s ‘Art of Living’ operation will take you to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, or to Colorado for a spot of ice driving, or to a proving ground just…

When I first heard about the AM37, I was more than a little sceptical. Surprised, too. Hadn’t Aston Martin already got enough on its plate, what with the launch of the DB11, the development of the V8 Vantage replacement, the building of a new factory and a radical overhaul of the entire automotive business without entering the ‘aquamotive’ arena as well? But then the invitation to sample this new ‘Aston’ arrived, and, well, it would have been rude not to. When I delved a little more deeply into the specification of the AM37S, the model I’d be piloting in Monaco, I became genuinely intrigued. For starters, the ‘S’ is powered by two monstrous, 8.6-litre, race-spec, Mercury V8 petrol engines, each pumping out a rousing 520bhp, making 1040bhp in total, which…

You’d have to say that, as CVs go, Ian ‘Smithy’ Smith’s isn’t too shabby: RAF fighter pilot, rising to squadron leader; operations over Iraq and Bosnia; member of the Red Arrows; commanding officer of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight; display pilot with The Blades aerobatic team; awarded the MBE… If that’s pretty cool, not only does he own a DBS just like the one 007 drove, he also flies the Spitfire parked next to it in these pictures. On top of all this, Smithy (‘Only my mother ever called me Ian’) also appears to be a thoroughly good bloke. I know, infuriating isn’t it? We meet him at Humberside Airport in North Lincolnshire, where his current day job is flight safety officer for Eastern Airways. He’s busy washing the…

VANTAGE. It’s the name of this magazine, but what is the first image that the word conjures up in your mind? A DB4/5/6 with the go-faster engine option? The current ‘small’ Aston Martin? Or the one in-between, the 1970s up-muscling of the William Towns-designed machine launched as the DBS? For most of us of a certain age, that’s probably the one. Britain’s first supercar, some called it. That particular definition of ‘supercar’ didn’t include a mid-mounted engine, just a lot of cylinders, a lot of power and a sub-sixsecond time for the standing-start squirt to 60mph. The tag is irrelevant, anyway; what matters is that this Vantage was a muscle-car in every sense of the word. In typical Aston Martin fashion of the time, the car that the motoring press…

WITH THE DB11, AM-RB 001 and a braceof Zagato-bodied specials grabbingattention and headlines, news of theVanquish S has rather crept up on us. Direct replacement for the outgoingVanquish, the Vanquish S effortlesslysteps into the role of Aston’s seriesproductionflagship. A boost in power,sharper front and rear-end treatments forimproved aerodynamics, revised chassissettings and a host of distinguishingdetails make for the most comprehensiverefresh since the second-generationVanquish was introduced in 2012. Though it has always looked the part,the Vanquish has been something of aslow-burn success. It took a big stepforward when it received the latestgenerationeight-speed Touchtronicgearbox, but with the Vantage rangebecoming faster and increasingly focused– most notably the ferocious V12 VantageS – and the new DB11 combining higherheadline power outputs with superior GTcredentials, Aston’s ‘super-GT‘ was indanger of falling between the cracks. Now, thanks…

IN MARCH 1976, at the age of just 23, I started a journey into the unknown. I’d spent the previous 18 months selling luxury cars at HR Owen in South Kensington, under the management of a rather large and domineering ‘gentleman of the motor trade’ called Tony Nugent – ‘Huge Nuge’, as he was known. Then, in January 1976, Tony was approached by the new owners of Aston Martin Lagonda to establish and manage Aston Martin Sales Ltd, a newly formed subsidiary that would be opening showrooms in Sloane Street, Knightsbridge, and Tony recruited me as the one and only sales executive. This was just three months after AML had been rescued from receivership. Aston Martin Sales would be the London distributor, selling new and pre-owned Astons as well as…

If you’re a purist, it’s easy to be cynical about the Vulcan. As with McLaren’s P1 GTR and Ferrari’s FXXK, Aston Martin’s ultimate indulgence is ineligible to race, yet illegal on the road. Unless, that is, you pay RML a further (small) fortune to reengineer it to comply with road regulations, at which point its outright track capabilities are compromised... The cynic in you could be forgiven for concluding that the Vulcan serves no purpose other than relieving super-high-net-worth collectors of vast amounts of money. And yet, when you witness the raw drama of its design, appreciate the exemplary quality of its execution and – if you’re extremely fortunate – get to experience it from the driver’s seat, you feel all your scepticism being drawn from you as though…

Writing a Heroes story is normally quite straightforward. If the subject is still with us, talk to him (it has, so far, always been a him). If not, then scour books, archives, the internet, and if possible talk to those who knew him. A Hero is someone legendary in the Aston Martin world, but with legends there sometimes come myths. And other times the myth seems almost all we have. Federico Formenti styled the DB4, the car that set the tone for the Aston Martin look we have today, the first Aston to be thoroughly, beautifully, lovingly styled by someone whose imagination could roam free and not be constrained by tradition. Or indeed anything that had gone before, apart from the outline of the grille. That makes Formenti a bit…

HOT ON THE HEELS of the fabulousVanquish Zagato coupé (issue 14),Aston Martin has opened the orderbookon the equally stunning VanquishZagatoVolante. Demand for the fruits of Aston’scollaborative work with Italian stylinghouse Zagato always outstrips the verylimited production runs. So it was nogreat surprise that, after the VanquishZagato coupé sold out almost before itwas announced, Aston was quick tofollow up with a Volante version. Just 99 of the rakish dropheads willbe built, at Aston Martin’s Gaydonheadquarters. As with the coupé (andindeed the new Vanquish S), theZagatoVolante is powered by anenhanced version of the 5.9-litre V12engine, now developing 592bhp(600PS) and good for a projected0-60mph time of just 3.7sec. Styling-wise, the ZagatoVolanteshares its proportions, details andsignature themes with the coupé. Fullercurves with sharper, more pronouncedfeatures combine with round tail-lightsdefined by the same lolly-stick ‘blades’first…

WITH FOUR MORE ROUNDS of the World Endurance Championship completed since our last update, and just one round remaining (the 6 Hours of Bahrain) at the time of going to press, Aston Martin Racing was still in contention for GTEclass manufacturer and driver titles. It’s an impressive position that belies the mixed fortunes enjoyed/endured by the Banbury-based team at the penultimate round in Shanghai, China. For the GTE AM squad of Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda it was another perfect weekend, the trio converting their class pole position into class victory for the third time in three races, and their fifth win of the season in the #98 Vantage racer. Sadly for the GTE PRO pair of Darren Turner and Richie Stanaway, Shanghai was a disaster,…

‘THE WHOLE POINT of having money,’ noted the late Hollywood superagent Swifty Lazar, ‘is to spend it.’ Well-heeled Aston enthusiasts who share his view had surprisingly few opportunities to splash their cash at the Monterey Car Week sales in August, but the cars offered were without exception worth splurging on. At Gooding’s auction, the beautiful Bertone-bodied 1954 DB2/4 Spider discussed in the last issue sold for a sensible (in relative terms) $3,080,000, but our favourite buy of the week was the car pictured below, a 1983 Lagonda hammered by Bonhams for $10,200 over its top estimate of $80,000. For around 20 per cent more than the going rate for a William Towns Lagonda, the winning bidder got a car infinitely better than the average wedge – superbly original, with two…

email us eds@vantagemag.co.uk write to us Vantage Magazine, Dennis Publishing, Bedford Technology Park, Thurleigh, Bedford, MK44 2YA Smart thinking I read with interest the letter in Issue 15 penned by Tony Skipper. Like Tony, I too have questioned the omission of the Cygnet from your listings of ‘All The Road Cars’ at the rear of the magazine. I find the Cygnet an intriguing model, and one which ought to be celebrated as a proactive step taken in the face of impending legislation to promote lower average emissions across a manufacturer’s range. As a small independent, Aston did not have the luxury of making a multimillion-dollar investment in a sub-brand, as Mercedes did with Smart. Nor was it able to shelter under a wider group umbrella in the same way that…

Surely, you’re thinking, every Aston Martin is a drivers’ car? It’s a good point. Certainly one valid enough to make a convincing case for the inclusion of at least another handful of protagonists in this test of tests. What about an Ulster? Where’s the DB2? Why no Vantage V600? These and other questions tortured us in the weeks and months leading up to our gathering at Goodwood. It seems when you have more than a hundred years of history to plunder, the hardest question of all to answer is where do you draw the line? In the end we settled on the six cars you see before you. Half a dozen dues-paid Aston Martin icons. Exclusively post-war (deliberately so, in the end), our sextet is bookended by a pair of…

THERE WAS ANOTHER Aston present at our Goodwood ‘greatest’ gathering. As a consummate modern Grand Tourer, the DB11 didn’t fit the exacting brief of our cover story but, according to Aston Martin’s chief engineer, Matt Becker, it most definitely points to what we can expect from Gaydon’s next generation of drivers’ cars. Architect and guardian of Aston’s ‘vehicle attributes’, Becker is the man with ultimate responsibility for shaping the character and capabilities of the DB11, the all-new Vantage replacement, the Vanquish successor and, yes, even the AM-RB 001. There’s no one better to explain what makes an Aston feel and perform like an Aston. Or how the DNA of a pure, analogue masterpiece like the DB4 GT can be preserved, translated and successfully applied to cars with an almost total…

A1963 Aston Martin DB5 in Silver Birch. That’s an image familiar to everyone, especially when it’s the government-funded one with the exploding passenger seat. Open the bonnet and we see the equally familar twin-cam straight-six, all shiny aluminium and potency. Clearly it’s the Vantage-spec engine with its trio of Weber 45DCOE carburettors. Or is it? Something is slightly different. There are no bumps on the float chambers’ lids, inside which part of the accelerator-pump mechanism normally resides. The screws to adjust the idle mixture are missing, and there are unusual angled bulges running from the sides of the float chamber down towards the manifold flanges. And might the spindles for the throttle butterflies be slightly further away from the engine? Underneath are wires. Electrical wires. Why would a Weber have…

HOW FAR HAVE ASTON SPECIALISTS COME in the last decade or two? If you’d wandered into a typical workshop 20 years ago, it certainly wouldn’t have looked anything like this. The Post Vintage workshops – and its servicing bays, engine shop, spray booths and showroom – have the look and feel of an operating theatre. Or maybe an art gallery. Beautifully set out, almost clinically clean, and absolutely no clutter. It’s quiet too, the calm only occasionally broken by the tap of a mallet, the scraping of a file or the thrum of an air compressor. I have to confess, it does make me a little nostalgic for an old-fashioned garage with battered tin signs and dodgy calendars on the walls, benches covered with tools and chipped mugs, shelves piled…