Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 29 i Vantage

DEVELOPMENT OF Aston Martin’s Valkyrie hypercar has taken a big step forward with the commissioning of a further two verification prototypes, VP2 and VP3 joining VP1 at Silverstone for a landmark test. Not only was it the first time that more than one functional Valkyrie had been seen on track, but the test provided an opportunity for Red Bull F1 drivers Max Verstappen and Alex Albon to have their first taste of the Adrian Newey-designed hypercar. While they shared VP1, VPs 2 and 3 (right) were driven by Aston Martin high-performance test driver Chris Goodwin and Aston Martin Racing WEC drivers Darren Turner and Alex Lynn. Some eight VP Valkyries will be built in total, each car being used to develop and validate different systems and attributes of this phenomenally…

MINESWEEPER is usually the biggest impediment to the writing of Market Watch, but right now progress is being slowed by the Prime Minister, who is firing and hiring like the Queen of Hearts. Our attention wanders between a spreadsheet of auction results and TV coverage of the cabinet reshuffle, and as we review the numbers and watch minimally qualified people being given positions of maximal importance, we are reminded that it is always worth throwing your hat into the ring. At the first major auctions of the year, in Arizona and Paris, 13 out of 16 Aston Martins were sold, but the prices achieved were modest, and across the pond in particular there were bargains to be had for those willing to raise a hopeful hand. It is a feature…

FELTHAM DAVID BROWN CARS In the 1940s and ’50s the majority of the world’s best sports cars ran on 16in wheels fitted with 6.00V16 crossply tyres. But for some time there hadn’t been a crossply tyre that holds the V-speed rating. Recently, however, Pirelli’s contribution to the world of historic car tyres has been substantial, as it has increased its range of important period rubber. Driven by the need to make correct tyres for a Maserati 250F, development started on a high-performance crossply tyre. As you can imagine, there has not been a great demand for crossply tyres within Pirelli for some considerable time. Three carcass structures were developed for the planned re-development of the 6.00V16 Stella Bianca tyre of the 1940s and ’50s. They were shipped over to Longstone…

If asked to picture a 1970s Lagonda, the vast majority of us will call to mind the infamous William Towns ‘wedge’. Even after the best part of five decades, that Series 2 Lagonda (and the two evolutions that followed it) remains one of the most striking and controversial pieces of car design ever to reach production. But what of its forebear, the mysterious Series 1? Where its descendants enjoyed notoriety – and tremendous popularity with Middle Eastern customers in particular – it’s fair to say the original four-door V8-engined Lagonda rose without trace. Mentioned in hushed tones akin to David Attenborough narrating rare footage of an endangered species, the Series 1 is one of those cars many marque enthusiasts know of, but few have seen in the metal and far…

‘You don’t know me, but I bought the James Bond DB5 at the RM Sotheby’s auction last night.’ Not a bad opening line, as these things go. And so commenced a conversation with the car’s new owner in Monterey last August. On learning that he was planning to take it back to Switzerland, where it had previously been homed, I seized the moment: ‘Then you have to take it to the Furka Pass.’ Two months later, photographer Andy Morgan and I are in a hire car, climbing from Lake Lucerne to Andermatt at 4750ft, on roads last graced by Bond 55 years earlier. It’s the day before our shoot, and our excitement is tinged with apprehension. Back in 1964, the EON Productions crew could wait days for the weather to…

Imagine being a five-year-old boy growing-up in Norfolk with a dad whose job it was to develop Lotus sports cars and who also starred in a James Bond film. Pretty darned cool, huh? Well, in 1977 that young nipper was Matt Becker, now Aston Martin’s chief engineer for vehicle attributes. Not only did Becker Jnr’s father, Roger, enjoy a 44-year career at Lotus, during which he had a hand in shaping the dynamics of every Lotus road car from Sixties Elan to Noughties Evora, but he famously made Roger Moore look like a handy wheelman in The Spy Who Loved Me, driving arguably its biggest star, that white S1 Esprit. Sadly, Roger Becker passed away in 2017, but Matt – who also honed his skills at Lotus before leaving to…

It was something no-one expected to see. Not just a DB6 taking on the racing ranks of DB4s and ’5s, but a Volante version no less. The man must be mad. Indeed, when Michael Urban made his and the Aston’s competition debut, instead of receiving polite words of encouragement he was told in no uncertain terms that he was an idiot with no chance of success and not to bother. Forty-four years and a cabinet packed full of trophies later, he and the DB6 Volante are gearing up for their first event of 2020. Surprisingly, ownership of the Aston had come by chance; a Morris Eight at 17 had been followed by a Jaguar E-type roadster at 19, until in 1971 his then wife told him to replace it with…

Perhaps surprisingly for an Aston specialist that sets great store on its engines, Pugsley & Lewis doesn’t use an engine dyno. Consequently it doesn’t make any claims for power and torque. As Tim Lewis says, it’s not about the numbers, it’s all about how the car drives. Along with business partner Martin Pugsley, Tim has earned a reputation for producing some of the best-driving Astons around. But when you consider the pair’s pedigree, that’s no surprise at all. Martin and Tim are both former employees of RS Williams, and there can be few finer places to learn the business of maintaining, improving and restoring Astons. ‘I started with Richard in ’75, straight from school, under the railway arches in Brixton,’ says Martin. ‘Tim joined in 1979, though he’d worked there…

OPEN-TOP ASTONS HAVE always held particular appeal, so it’s great to finally see the launch of the long-awaited Vantage Roadster. Like its predecessor, the new Roadster is a terrific looking machine whether it’s taut turret top is up or folded tidily into the tail. Kerbweight is up by 60kg compared with the coupé, but this additional mass has had a minimal impact on performance, with Aston claiming a 0-60mph time of 3.7sec and a top speed of 190mph with the roof raised. The new, lightweight ‘Z-fold’ roof mechanism has been designed to preserve as much of the luggage space as possible, with the resulting 200-litre capacity sufficiently large to stow a full-sized golf bag and an assortment of Pringle jumpers. Compact enough to allow the design team to give the…

WE’VE ONLY JUST driven a late development prototype (see page 30), but Q by Aston Martin has wasted no time in applying its bespoke personalisation skills to the new DBX, a comprehensively customised example of which was heading for the Geneva motor show as this issue of Vantage went to press. We’re sure it would be a nightmare to keep clean, but there’s no denying the silky Satin Xenon Grey paintwork suits the DBX’s imposing curves, while shiny gloss-black 22in wheels and forged carbonfibre Aston Martin ‘wings’ badges complete the stealthy exterior scheme. Inside, there are acres of inky Obsidian Black leather upholstery and extensive use of carbonfibre in a variety of finishes. Machined-from-solid carbonfibre elements adorn the centre console and door inserts, while the storage area is decked with…

SO LET’S START with the good news. Since we last reported on Aston Martin Racing’s exploits in the World Endurance Championship we’re thrilled to say that the factory #95 Vantage GTE scored another GTE Pro class win, this time at the inaugural 8 Hours of Bahrain, which took place in December of last year. Better still, the #95 crew of Danes Nicki Thiim and Marco Sørensen were joined on the podium by teammates Alex Lynn and Maxime Martin in the sister #97 GTE Pro Vantage after the Astons waged a titanic battle with the factory Ferrari 488s. It was the second GTE Pro win of the year for Thiim and Sørensen, meaning the pair went into the two-month winter break with a 14-point lead in the championship. Reinforcing Aston Martin…

Semper & Adhuc Inopinfflce Classique £1500 semperadhuc.fr The Inopinfflce Classique is ‘make-do and mend’ elevated to an artform: its neat case, which measures 44.5mm from lug to lug, houses an expertly restored example of the AS1012, the hand-wound movement that powered so many Swiss watches in the middle of the 20th century. Scalextric No Time To Die V8 Vantage £45.99 scalextric.com The car that made its silver screen debut in The Living Daylights is set to return in No Time To Die – minus its original Q-Branch gadgets, we understand, which no doubt made life rather easier for the product development folks at Scalextric. Live and Let Die, Folio Society edition £36.95 foliosociety.com Another classic James Bond story is brought to life by Fay Dalton, whose pulp-fiction illustrations are the…

Tough gig, designing a concept car when the source material is widely acknowledged as one of the most beautiful road cars ever created. It’s probably why Giorgetto Giugiaro and son Fabrizio chose such an extreme approach when they penned the DB7-based Twenty Twenty back in 2000. This was their vision of a future Aston Martin, a ‘spider’ for the year 2020. It was unveiled at the Geneva motor show in March 2001 and it’s fair to say it wasn’t universally adored. With its aluminium ‘exoskeleton’ and V12 engine semi-exposed beneath a mesh panel in the composite bonnet, it seemed to be everything that traditional, slightly tweedy Aston Martin was not. In one respect it succeeded, in that it turned the media spotlight back onto the Giugiaros’ company, Italdesign. But if…

The gunman standing closest to me is holding an evil-looking assault rifle and wearing the incongruous combo of a snazzy shirt and a pair of tight white jeans. He looks exactly like a seedy low-level Italian gangster should look, which is either a masterful piece of casting or possibly because he is a low-level Italian gangster. Filming for No Time To Die – the 25th officially sanctioned James Bond flick - is taking place in the spectacular city of Matera in southern Italy, located on a rocky outcrop and famous for houses hewn into the solid cliffs. Today’s action is taking place in a beautiful piazza, with my vantage point on a tall balcony that gives an uninterrupted view of proceedings. Four vehicles are in view: an original Range Rover…

I’ve probably been on close to a thousand car launches of one kind or another during all the years I’ve been doing this job. And almost all leave the mind as soon as the last words about whatever car I’ve been driving have been filed. Sometimes I’ll see in a magazine a picture of my former self driving a car 10, 20 or 30 years ago and I won’t have any idea of where or when it was taken, unless the number plate, some topographical feature or the amount of hair left on my head provides a clue. And yet I remember the Aston Martin DB9 launch as if it were yesterday. But it wasn’t: it was (big pause) 16 years ago. The structure was perfect, an ideal template for…

Just 73 other Aston Martin V8 Series IIIs were produced in the year between these two examples being hand-assembled at Newport Pagnell. Four decades on, though, there’s a far bigger gulf between them – not only in terms of condition, but specification, too. The car pictured on the left is a standard V8 Series III. Wearing chassis number 11570, it was completed in September 1977 and still retains the original-specification 5.3-litre V8 and three-speed automatic transmission. It’s a representative car in need of a little TLC, the kind of V8 you might pick up for £65-70k. On first acquaintance, our second car (chassis number J1497, built September 1976) might simply appear a very nicely restored example, a car that might command up to £140k in today’s market. That’s only part…

ASTON MARTIN HAS looked to its racing roots for its latest limited-edition special-series model. Called the V12 Speedster, it has clear echoes of the DB3S and DBR1 sports cars of the 1950s, with more recent inspiration taken from the CC100 Speedster Concept built to celebrate the company’s centenary in 2013. Conceived a little over a year ago, the V12 Speedster – of which just 88 examples will be built – uses elements of the bonded aluminium structures featured in the DBS Superleggera and Vantage to create its own unique platform. Its engine is the same formidable 5.2-litre twin-turbo V12 found in the DBS. Developing 700bhp and 516lb ft, it is mated to a ZF eight-speed automatic paddle-shift transmission and limited-slip differential. A claimed top speed of 186mph is some way…

IT’S NO SECRET that Aston Martin has been through the mill since its historic flotation on the London Stock Market, but the last few months have been particularly dicey, even for a marque that has now teetered on the brink of bankruptcy eight times in its 107-year history. With cash woes from investment in the development of the DBX and the brand new production facility at St Athan compounded by poor sales in 2019, the company needed a substantial and immediate injection of capital. Thankfully, Aston Martin remains desirable to investors. Chinese automotive giant Geely and a consortium led by billionaire fashion industry magnate (and F1 team owner) Lawrence Stroll each approached AML with offers. Stroll’s £182m investment for a 16.7 per cent stake won favour with Aston’s board members,…

THE ASTON MARTIN Owners Club events calendar is bursting at the seams as the club prepares to celebrate its 85th anniversary this year. And, as ever, the biannual concours weekends will be among the major highlights. Loseley Park, Guildford, will host the Spring Concours on May 16-17, an unmissable world-class coupling of the annual Bonhams Aston Martin sale and the club’s highly renowned Concours d’Etat on the Sunday, which will see some of the most exceptional and rare Aston Martins assessed by the white-coated judges. As in previous years, the concours weekend promises a feast for all the senses, with a driving tour and a variety of culinary experiences to choose from. Meanwhile, the Aston Martin Heritage Trust will be celebrating the Cygnet’s 10th birthday with a special line-up, and…

For a man who credibly claims to have always driven within his limits, it seems almost contradictory that Tony Brooks achieved race victories for Aston Martin on the most unforgiving race tracks of them all, especially during an era when so many drivers perished. His great achievements include a win in the wet on his debut at Spa in 1957, and victory at the Nürburgring 1000km the same year. Smooth, precise and measured Brooks may have been, but clearly the man had natural speed and talent to spare. Today Brooks is 87, still fit and sharp, and welcomes Vantage to his Surrey home, where period photographs, memorabilia and a copy of his entirely self-written and researched autobiography Poetry in Motion recall those glory days – not just with Aston Martin…

Russell Bulgin was one of very few journalists who drove the Giugiaro Aston at the time. Here’s what he wrote in 2001: ‘SO TWIST THE KEY at the leading edge of the console: a tiny demi-key, beneath a hinged, enamelled Aston Martin logo. Punch a starter button. This thing works, no question. Lots of show. And pretty reasonable go. You sit in a cabin of two-tone matt-finished leather, butterscotch butting caramel. The hide is already scuffed, foxed, matured, looks wonderful. The top roll of the facia echoes the contours of the leading edge of the bonnet, just floats across the cockpit. What isn’t aluminium or leather is pine, Chinese lacquered to a cool taupe. Instruments are white-face, analogue, with phosphorent blue night-lights… To drive, Twenty Twenty is quick-ish, but feels,…

Bond movies are always catnip for car nuts, and Aston fans in particular, but even by the usual lofty standards of EON’s blockbuster franchise, No Time To Die is something special. As ever, a certain DB5 steals the show (ably supported by the V8 from The Living Daylights, a DBS Superleggera and a cameo appearance for the new Valhalla hypercar), but it’s the DB5 replicas built specially for the spectacular action sequences that are the four-wheeled heroes of the film. These stunt cars are the work of Aston’s Special Operations team based at Wellesbourne. Led by David King, this crack group of engineers has created many of Aston’s wilder machines over the years. Recent highlights include Vulcan, V600 Vantage, and the Valkyrie prototypes currently piling on valuable development miles. King’s…

THE FIRST THING to understand is that the words Vertical and Horizontal in the VH initialism are intended figuratively, not literally. Both refer to the scalability of the platform, vertically up and down the Aston range, and horizontally where individual components were developed specifically so they could be used, adapted or dropped according to each model’s need, without requiring re-engineering of the rest of the car. Although the DB9 is regarded as the first VH car, its origins lie in the Lotus-developed mk1 Vanquish, Lotus itself applying technology learned from the production of the similarly constructed Elise. At the time of its introduction it was not only lighter than the Jaguar XJS platform found beneath the skin of the DB7, it was also twice as structurally rigid. Four versions of…

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Ken Adam is perhaps best known to Aston Martin enthusiasts as the man who dreamed up James Bond’s DB5 with all its gadgets, but there was so much more to his extraordinary life. In fact, ‘hero’ is entirely fitting in this case, as we shall see. Born Klaus Hugo Adam in Berlin in 1921 to an upper-middle-class Jewish family, he anglicised his name to Kenneth, and later Ken, after the Adams fled Nazi Germany for Britain in the 1930s. Continuing his schooling in London, the young Ken developed a love of cinema and a keen interest in architecture, for which he took evening classes. By the time the Second World War broke out, he was working as an apprentice draughtsman designing bomb shelters, but in October 1940, aged just 19,…