Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 17 i Vantage

ASTON MARTIN RACING are 2016 World Endurance Champions! That’s a line we’ve been wanting to write for years. Thanks to a brilliant season-long performance by the team, and its Danish driving duo Nicki Thiim and Marco Sørensen in the #95 V8 Vantage GTE, the Banbury-based squad claimed both the GTE Pro team title and the FIA WEC GT Drivers’ Championship. Fittingly, the silverware was won at the final WEC round - the Six Hours of Bahrain - which took place in November last year. Frustratingly for us here at Vantage, this was just a few days after the deadline for our Winter issue. Still, when it comes to delivering good news, we’re prepared to wait a few months! Thiim and Sørensen drove brilliantly in Bahrain. Entering the race with a…

GENERALLY AT THIS point in the year our eyes are on the Bonhams Aston Works Sale; its gravity is such that other major auctions between Christmas and May are often notably light on interesting Astons – but not this time. Having offered four cars in Paris (the two Zagatos mentioned on the previous page, plus a 1964 DB4 and a 1966 DB6 Vantage), RM Sotheby’s has got hold of seven more Astons for its Amelia Island auction on March 10-11, including half a dozen – all crackers and all without reserve – from the collection of the late Orin Smith. The New Jersey businessman, who passed away last year, was a serious collector with seriously good taste. His Astons include a 1966 Short Chassis Volante, a 1952 DB2 Vantage DHC…

Flat-out in Fuji Canon 1DX MkII 600mm lens 1/500sec F7.1 In 2016 a lot was said about the Balance of Performance in GTE. I don’t know what the solution is to equalising very different cars in the same category, but the sheer number of adjustments during the season showed the rule-makers still had work to do for 2017. In Fuji, the Astons were slow down the long main straight compared with their main rivals, which helped me get this picture of all three cars as they headed into turn one. I FIRST STARTED WORKING with AMR in 2009. Working with a team for so long means I’m part of the garage furniture now, so the drivers, mechanics and management trust me and know how I work. Occasionally the guys will…

THE KING OF PRUSSIA? We’ll get to that in a moment. By any measure, Rex Woodgate’s life has been a remarkable one, from being one of Stirling Moss’s first mechanics, to becoming ‘Mr Aston Martin in America’, to his return to the UK to establish an Aston restoration business. Last year, to mark his 90th birthday, he treated himself to a Gaydonera V8 Vantage – with a manual gearbox, naturally. That was typical Rex. His achievements include effectively saving Aston Martin in the States in the early ’70s and, shortly afterwards, engineering the rescue of the whole company. No hyperbole is needed to convey the significance of Rex Woodgate’s contribution to Aston history. Rex was was born in 1926 in Cricklewood, London. His father, an advertising manager, wasn’t especially interested…

IT’S HARD TO BELIEVE THESE CARS ARE BROTHERS. THEIR DESTINIES COULD HARDLY HAVE BEEN MORE DIFFERENT’ Looking at our two wonderful Series 1 DB4s in the paddock at Donington Park, it’s hard to believe they are brothers separated at birth. Almost sixty years later, both have led interesting lives since they left Newport Pagnell, but their destinies could hardly have been more different The road car, DB4/218/L, has had the life that one might have expected. Exported new to the US, it passed through a number of hands until a young and enthusiastic owner acquired it in the 1970s for a mixture of everyday use and the odd bit of competition. A notable excursion was to the Bonneville Salt Flats, where a top speed test ended with a burnt piston.…

A DECADE AFTER the last Vanquish S left the old factory, new Aston Martins are once again to be built at Newport Pagnell. The cars that emerge will be very similar to a select few built there nearly six decades ago, but there will be just 25 of them: continuation versions of the DB4 GT, one of the most exclusive Astons of the David Brown era. All 25 of the shortwheelbase two-seaters have already been sold (at £1.5 million plus taxes) even before the first is completed, with the first scheduled for delivery this autumn. This time, the construction will take place on the west side of Tickford Street, in the Aston Martin Works complex. A dedicated build area is being prepared, visible through the glass rear wall of the…

IN THE LAST ISSUE OF VANTAGE (Winter 2016) we drove an Aston Martin DB5 prepared by GTC Engineering and fitted with Jenvey’s intriguing new Heritage Throttle Body system, designed to look like classic Weber DCOEs but featuring modern fuel injection and fully-mapped engine management. We were impressed, but this brand new system was still a work in progress and there were a couple of driveability issues, chiefly when coming off idle or the overrun. John and James Winsor at GTC were keen for us to try the car again after more development time, so we duly reappeared at the company’s workshops near Silverstone for Take Two. The DB5 is now running on an Emerald K6 engine management system, mapped by Emerald itself, and the idle control valve is now plumbed-in…

THE 2017 ASTON MARTIN Owners Club season is set to be one of the most exciting in the Club’s history, with a calendar packed full of prestigious and innovative events. And it all kicks off with what promises to be one of the Club’s biggest ever Concours, at Aston Martin’s new St Athan manufacturing facility in Wales on Sunday, April 9. The Concours will feature cars from every model era of Aston Martin production, and they’ll be displayed in one of the huge St Athan hangars, which will ultimately be converted into the production line for the new Aston Martin DBX. The event will also include a very special Aston Martin Heritage Trust display dedicated to the original DBS, which is 50 years old in 2017, with the line-up expected…

In many ways, 2017 represents a pivotal moment in Aston’s history. One perfectly encapsulated by these two magnificent cars. Though unashamedly rooted in the past, the freshly minted £200k Vanquish S is the newest model to join the range, while the recently launched, state-of-the-art £155k DB11 points to a bold new future. That both co-exist in a parallel present leaves us spoilt for choice – and gifts us a tantalising opportunity to explore the contrasting characters and divergent goals of these sublime 600bhp V12-engined GTs. Such machines deserve a grand stage on which to play out this most civilised of civil wars, and there’s no more spectacular backdrop than the North York Moors. Their sprawling scale gives us the space to stretch their legs, while the three-hour trip north allows…

Every Picture Tells A Story, so Rod Stewart sang on his eponymous 1971 album, and so, too, does every Aston, or at least the ones that come out of Nicholas Mee and Co’s deliciously traditional glass-fronted showrooms on Goldhawk Road in West London. In its 103-year history, Aston Martin has made about 70,000 cars and, while the name inspires respect and loyalty, there are good and bad ones, flaky and flashy ones, and some that aren’t quite what they seem. Think of it like Rod’s brand of gravel-voiced rocking; most of it great, but some of it, perhaps during his leopardskin- leggings-and-Britt-Ekland period, having a touch less authenticity. The story doesn’t necessarily have to be about a famous owner, a glorious racing past or the state of being the first…

THE CYGNET IS ROB’S DAILY DRIVER, THE CAR HE USES MOST OF THE FOUR HE OWNS, ALL OF THEM ASTONS’ IT REALLY SHOULD HAVE A BIT MORE ZIP TO THE WAY IT GOES, AND EMIT MORE THAN AN INOFFENSIVE HUM FROM ITS EXHAUST’ It has an Aston Martin VIN plate, and it says it’s an Aston on the V5. So of course it’s an Aston Martin.’ There’s no denying the logic of owner Rob Smith. He could go on. In fact he did. You bought it at an Aston Martin dealer, perhaps as a lifestyle accessory to go with your new DB9 or DBS. The cars emerged from the Gaydon factory, where they had their own line. Clearly, our high-handed omission of the Cygnet from the ‘all the Astons’ listings…

‘The Bertone Jet was a particular challenge, having been left by the side of the road in California after an underbonnet fire’ FIRST, THE NAME. As we know, there has never been an Aston Martin GTC. ‘I like Italian exotics,’ says GTC Engineering’s co-founder and now owner, John Winsor. And Italian exotics are what dominated Grand Touring Car Engineering’s workshops back in 1975, when John started the company with Richard Colton, collector of Ferraris and other expensively sporting machinery. Cast your eyes today over the automotive inmates of GTC’s workshop near Silverstone and yes, you will spot the odd Ferrari or Lamborghini. But Aston Martins dominate, as they have done for years. Still, the GTC name is well known, so why change it? GTC today is a family firm, with…

A NEW, 6.5-LITRE, naturally aspirated V12 engine, designed and built by Cosworth, will be at the heart of Aston Martin’s groundbreaking hypercar, it has been announced. The car, so far known only by its codename of AM-RB 001, will also feature a ‘lightweight hybrid battery system’, which suggests some sort of F1-style KERS-type arrangement. Red Bull’s Adrian Newey and Aston Martin’s Special Operations chief, David King, are driving the development of the hypercar, which, it is claimed, will redefine the limits of road car performance. Now, with design and engineering work progressing apace, Aston Martin, Red Bull Advanced Technologies and project partner AF Racing have confirmed a number of key technical partners. Legendary engine-builder Cosworth has been tasked with bringing all its Formula 1 and high performance production engine experience…

A LITTLE MORE than two years ago I received a sternly worded note from a reader, prompted by a quip made at the expense of a £247,900 V8 Zagato. To have likened the strangely dressed V8 to the Nissan Bluebird was, he wrote, ‘most uncharitable – to the Bluebird’. Said gentleman’s letter sticks out in the memory because it was the only one written following the publication of issue 8 that did not suggest I might want to visit an optician. Whether the V8 Zagato looks good or not is a matter of taste, but my backand- forth with fans of the car cemented this view: Zagato is the Jimi Hendrix of the coachbuilding world, a gifted eccentric capable of classically beautiful work but inclined to experiment, and – this…

WHY, YOU MIGHT well be thinking, did Aston Martin not make this car? It’s not as if an Aston absolutely has to be front-engined, is it? Ferrari embraced mid-engined cars back in the 1960s, and no harm has come from that. At one point, Aston Martin was indeed going to build it. The idea was signed off at the highest level and then Dr Ulrich Bez pulled the plug. Did he do the right thing? Opinions among key personnel involved are still divided. This story has been under wraps for years, Aston not wanting the complication of having to explain it. We’ve known about it atVantage ever since the man who shaped Project AM305, Ian Callum, described it to me when I was delving into the gestation of the Vanquish,…

It could be that we’re a little biased here at Vantage, but right now we can’t imagine a more exciting engineering role in the whole car industry than that of chief technical officer at Aston Martin. Fortunately, our admittedly rather partisan hunch is backed up by the arrival of Max Szwaj, who has left his post of six years as head of innovation and body engineering at Ferrari and Maserati to assume his new position at Gaydon. We meet Szwaj (pronounced ‘Svay’) in his office, high above the VIP atrium of Aston’s imposing HQ. He’s been in the job for only a few months, but he’s clearly settled and enjoying the working culture and the impetus that pervades the company now that CEO Andy Palmer’s tireless efforts are gaining traction.…

COMING AT A TIME when, even by Aston Martin standards, the company finances were in a particulalry bad way, the V8s have an interesting – and occasionally confusing – history. Designed by William Towns and launched in 1967, the DBS was built wider, longer and heavier than the DB6 to accept Tadek Marek's new 5.3-litre V8, but it wasn't ready, so initially the DB6’s straight-six was pressed into service. Two years later, in 1969, the V8 entered production in the DBS V8, producing about 340bhp with Bosch mechanical fuel injection. Transmission choice was a ZF five-speed manual or a Chrysler three-speed automatic. The top speed was over 160mph with 0-60mph in less than six seconds and between 1970 and 1972 Aston built 399 examples. These four-headlamp models were the last…

ULRICH BEZ ALWAYS seemed to have one eye on what his old comrades at Porsche were up to. The V8 Vantage that was launched under his tenure as CEO was positively laser-targeted at the 911, and when Porsche revealed it was launching a four-seat, five-door saloon, it didn’t take long for Aston to respond. The Panamera appeared in April 2009, and less than a year later the first Rapides were rolling out of a dedicated facility at the Magna Steyr factory in Austria. Dr Bez had outsourced production because he envisaged annual sales of 2000 cars, which would have been far too many for Gaydon to cope with. In fact the Rapide never sold in anything like those numbers, and in 2012 production relocated to the UK. Indeed the Rapide…