All Entries in the "ASTON MARTIN" Category
Test Drive @ Miller Motorcars: Aston Martin Rapide
by Gunnar Heinrich ::: Miller Motorcars Greenwich ::: 2010 Aston Martin Rapide
OUR salesman has been at this all day.
“We’ve had two people get tickets already,” he notes, keeping the Aston well within the speed limit.
It’s Saturday afternoon and Miller Motorcars has sent out a mass invite to sample the 2010 Aston Martin Rapide. Appointment blocks are 30 minutes and ours is at 1PM. Thanks to traffic, we show at 1:14.
Patiently, Miller’s rep. greets us. His speech pattern registers low and level and his manner’s neutral in a way that’s surprising for a man in his forward-leaning profession.
He drives us off the lot and into Greenwich, Connecticut – a tightly packed suburban community sandwiched between two highways (I-95 and the Merritt Parkway) a secondary road (Rte 1) and Amtrak/MetroNorth rail lines that all run parallel to Long Island Sound towards New York.
The town’s crowded interplay between commercial and residential zoning means that even narrow, twisting back roads that cut through forest see constant traffic.
Cutting north into the hills, we approach a slight right-hand bend that leads into a Y-intersection – all clear.
He gives notice that he’s going to take the turn abruptly so that we can get a sense of the Rapide’s “balance.”
In goes throttle, velvet V12 music plays through twin exhausts, here comes the turn, metallic door handle is clasped, he spins the wheel right, and – we’re through to the adjoining road.
He’s smiling. And so are we.
These are the perks of being an Aston Martin “sales specialist”.
It’s a vocation more than a job, and as an automotive enthusiast it seldom gets old. The salesman’s worked for Miller for four years and, yes, he gets a company car.
The salesman pulls over so that Schnookums can get wheel time. She takes us through hill and dale; enjoying the sensation of piloting a four door coupe that’s longer than an M6 but surprisingly lower, tighter, and much more in-sync with the road.
Conversation is limited and stays centered on the Rapide. We’re here to experience the machine and the sales rep’s job is to let the Aston do the talking.
My turn.
Ingress & egress are a little tricky in this coupé
I’m gentle at first – registering the feel of the small leather bound helm. I’m peering out from a cabin where a low suede headliner meets an even lower windshield that overlooks (again) a low, long bonnet.
We’re entirely encapsulated in exotic richness – it’s our own cavern of firm hides and the right amount woods and visual technologies (the pop-up GPS stays stashed under Tamo Ash panel). In essence, it’s more Maserati than Bentley.
I ask if anyone else has made any association between the Rapide and the Lagonda. Miller’s rep. chuckles, “No.” He remembers how much trouble Aston’s first four-door gave customers. That said, he marveled at the uniqueness of the old concept.
We’re taking turns a bit faster now and helm feedback registers more Porsche 911 (danke, herr doktor) than big British GT. The go pedal feels very odd under foot and even odder when, after planting it – for one MISSISSIPPI – nothing at all happens.
The 470hp V12 builds speed briskly and the auto shifts smartly but with a starting weight of 4,300 lbs plus three adult occupants, you can’t help but feel as though the engine’s a little taxed.
The Aston’s V12 produced not the violent, raucous V8 or V10 surge of an AMG Benz or M Bimmer, but rather the smooth application of silken power.
I comment on how all cars seem to be heavy nowadays and Miller’s man agrees. I flash on the surprising litheness of the e32 and e38 7-series.
Our test drive ends just as quickly as it began.
“We’ll be getting our own demo soon,” the salesman says. “If you come back, we’ll spend a longer time with the car.”
Judging by the commendable sales experience – gladly.
Fun Fact of the Day: Did You Know That Aston Martin’s Engines Are Made in Germany?
By Gunnar Heinrich
ASTON MARTIN has been practicing a bit of trans-Euro production since 2004, apparently.
Aston follows in the tradition of other British marques; Bentley, for instance, had some of its cars made in Italy by Pininfarina. So, Aston friends, if you thought your V8 or V12 came from Newport Pagnell, you’re a bit off the mark.
From the DBS through the V12 Vantage, all Aston Martin powerplants come from a (not so) little assembly shop in Cologne where workers are free to gnaw on brätwurst and be merry on Schnäpse while tuning Aston engines to outrageous heights of creamy torque.
Not quite, but sort of:
Located in a separate building at Ford’s Niehl Engine Plant, the Aston Martin Engine Plant is equipped to work solely on Aston Martin engines and the building carries the Corporate Identity of the marque.
The layout of AMEP consists of a 12,500 square metre production hall, which has sufficient capacity to support Aston Martin’s requirements today and in the future. The facility broadly comprises four distinct areas; one to machine engine cylinder blocks, one to machine cylinder heads, one to assemble all engine components and an area for goods received and engine shipment. All engine testing is completed within the assembly process and unlike normal engine production, both cold tests and hot tests are completed concurrently on all engines.
The facility is capable of machining and assembling V8 and V12 engines simultaneously. Each technician will build a complete engine from start to finish – at full production more than 30 technicians will be building engines.
Built in compliance with ISO 14001 environmental regulations, the facility also benefits from state-of-the-art features including an adaptive lighting system that automatically adjusts according to the level of available daylight. Additionally, all of the equipment used within the facility has been specifically chosen not to exceed a noise level of 77 db(A), aiding a pleasant working environment.
Did I mention that Aston also has a dedicated test center at the Nürburgring?
Aston Martin Cygnet: When Sports Car Makers Aim For The Guardrail
- Behold! Aston’s $43,000 Aztec.
- Aston Martin Cygnet based on Toyota iQ; featuring Toyota engine
- Recalls botched joint efforts of yore
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG Aston Martin
TEAM Ferrari has to be howling at this one.
The Aston Cygnet – a joint, face plant project where an Aston Martin’s likeness (read: iconic fascia) is artistically transplanted onto a little Toyota iQ economy hatch- is a sad insight into the economic realities facing a small, independent sports car manufacturer.
The little “Aston” will be brought to markets next year.
Plainly the Cygnet was born of a need to increase revenue whilst simultaneously jumping through the completely-pointless environmental, one-size-fits-all fleet emissions standards set forth by, what Mrs. Thatcher would’ve called, “the bureacracy in Brussels.”
While Lamborghini, Ferrari, Bugatti, and the like are more sheltered from fleet average regulations thanks to their sheltered status as subsidiaries of larger automotive conglomerates, Aston, it would seem, does not have this luxury.
Though, if push came to shove on placing unfair restrictions of fuel economy, Aston’s mangement could highlight that Ford is still a major shareholder in the company.
Still, this decision was part of extending brand awareness while being paid for it.
According to Car & Driver, the Cygnet’s largest engine option, rippling with all the power of an orange salamander – a 1.3 liter Toyota four cylinder motor – will produce a 0-60 time in a blistering 12 seconds and likely set the not-so-hot hatch’s price as high as €30,000 ($43,000).
By the way, speaking of bogus brand extensions – does anyone remember the Chrysler TC by Maserati?
Aston’s next GT, had better come with the looks of an Alfa 8C and the performance on an Enzo to make up for this bull $#!t.
Coming Down From Heavenly Perch: Exotic “Bargains” on eBay
- ‘Tis the season to be inventive with your car purchases
- Bargains by the Bentley-full
- Maserati Spyder for $38K? SL55 AMG for $34K?
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG via eBay
BARGAINS to be had! Bargains to be had!
It would seem that with a little money, poseurs and the thrifty rich alike have options this Christmas season.
The exclusive toys of the last decade are about to avail themselves to a new clientele at clearance prices. But caveat emptor! These are entry prices – maintenance, insurance, taxes, and even petrol will take their pound of flesh, to be sure.
Let’s do a little window shopping shall we?
2000 Bentley Arnage R with 36K miles on eBay. White on Tan. Buy-it-now price: $49,888.
Not keen on chrome matrix grilles for newer generation Bentleys, but this Texan example has an interior that’s been well loved – which sadly isn’t common among older Arnages.
2004 Maserati Spyder with 24K miles on eBay. Blue on tan. Buy-It-Now Price: $38,990.
Let’s see. A droptop equipped with a modern Ferrari V8 plus exotic Italian cache to be had for less money than a new Boxster? Si, grazie!
2003 Mercedes-Benz SL55 AMG with 65K miles on eBay. Black on ash. Buy-It-Now price: $34,988.
For the price of a stripped, year-end C-Class, you could have a drop top that’s faster then everything else on the road. Sexier than most everything else, too. This particular car’s had couple of fender benders, though… Used means used.
2003 Aston Martin DB7 Vantage with 10K miles on eBay. Silver on gray.
Pluses: It’s an Aston. Droptop. Only 10K miles. 5.9 liter V12. Minuses: Silver on gray? It’s got an Automatic. Summary: Did I mention it’s a V12 Aston for $57K?
2010 Aston Martin Rapide & Aston’s Golden Era
- 2010 Aston Martin Rapide a far cry from original four-door attempt
- Imaginative 1980s Lagonda = wierd science
- Rapide better blend of Aston heritage with extended platform function
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd
SPEAKING of German cars in the 80s, time in its kind haze tricks us into the belief that Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW could do no wrong in that Go-Go decade.
It was a lean era of rightness and tightness, maximum attitude with just the right amount of – everything. Engineering connected driver to car in a way that technology has since displaced.
British cars did not share in that golden era. In fact, the 80s were a despicable time for marques like Jaguar (XJS-C) and Aston Martin (Lagonda).
-shudder-
These were the dying days of British Leyland, union strikes, dismal quality control, financial woes, and nonsensical forays into technologies too advanced to be safely implemented – touch panel shifting, anyone?
Perhaps that’s why – these two decades on – Aston Martin is now enjoying its own seminal period of perfection. Where ze Germans have taken their eye off their A-game and given into pork and brand extension, Aston has – except for the wrongful Toyota city car gamble – kept focus.
Granted, product can always be improved and the V8 Vantage on up to the One-77 are no exceptions.
But, all things being right as rain, Dr. Bez & Co. now peddle the world’s most beautiful cars; the 2010 Rapide “four door sports car” included.
The last time Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd built a low-slung, ahead-of-its time four door, it was walloped by the dual curse of poor sales and core-client backlash.
Add salt to this wound: the old Lagonda was starkly different from other Astons of its day.
Aside from being a severe 80s geometric interpretation of what the future held for cars, the Lagondas were overpriced and overstuffed with hardware that failed often and expensively. What made Aston “Aston” seemed cast aside in favor of the starkly modern.
Creative, though it was, the Lagonda belly flopped.
Fast forward and in contrast the Rapide’s entrance onto the world stage (officially) at Frankfurt and previously in concept in 2006 at Detroit has been met with almost universal praise for hitting the mark.
Credit for this initial success belongs to the Rapide’s smart inclusion of Aston heritage and a carefully weighted, but not stilted balance of future elements that will compromise the 2+2+hatch luxe coupé segment which the 2010 Rapide and the Porsche Panamera inhabit.
With first deliveries set for early next year, we’ll wait to see whether quality and performance meet early praise and truly cap Aston’s current golden era.
The Paradox of Thrift
Two members of the press at work…
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG The Flagellants by Pieter van Laer
THERE’S a lot of loathing of self and others happening in the media at present.
I’ll explain how this pertains to cars in a sec…
Much of their vitriol has to do with money; the lack of it for some; the depraved squandering of it for others. For most magazines and newspapers and their salaried staff, it’s definitely the former.
Average advertising revenues fell faster in 2008 than Chrysler’s December numbers which means that executives at every business that makes dough by printing hardcopy – from the New York Times to Vogue to Car & Driver - are casting people off left and right. And like any good ship captains, these corporate heads make sure that they’re the absolute last to leave a sinking ship.
So understanding that the fourth estate is lacking a foreseeable future, what entitles you or anyone else to have one, either?
FoMoCo + 007
The opening scene’s riddled with automotive carnage. BTW, Doesn’t the Aston’s right rear tyre look particularly thin for a modern GT?
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG via IMCDB
NEVER have I ever so badly wanted to see an Alfa Romeo get crushed.
Part ‘n parcel of what makes the latest two films in the Bond franchise so engaging (Casino Royale and the Quantum of Solace) is that the writers have cleverly managed to make us invested in wanting even the lowliest of evil henchmen get snuffed.
No longer are these extras merely faceless automatons that Bond has to kick through like chord wood to get to the boss villain at the end of the game. Each and every casting is deliberately vile and takes real effort to dispatch.
So, when in the notorious opening scene (the same one the blogosphere obsessively covered when a few stunt drivers got seriously hurt) a vicious, violently edited chase sequence occurs where a group of machine gun totting hitmen chase Bond’s Aston Martin DBS in a pair of Alfa Romeos, you couldn’t help but want to see each gorgeous Alfa crash spectacularly – which, of course, they did.
PAG ON DISPLAY
Interestingly enough, the Alfa Romeos are the last cars we really get to see that are outside the Ford family (except for a lone old school VW Bug).
Literally, every car onscreen, from a lowly Mazda taxi in Bolivia to Ford Edge Hydrogens (also in Bolivia) to the villain’s gorgeous predecessor gen. (X308) Daimler Super Eight in Austria (also known as the Jaguar Vanden Plas) is (or was) a Ford product.
This is the third recent Bond film in which Ford has pitched product; it’s reputed if not reported that Ford paid as much as $36 million for the Ford Ka Mk II cameo in the scenes shot in Haiti. Though, I’m sure that investment carried over into the other Ford models onscreen.
Considering that investment, one wonders if Ford will be so heavily committed again now that the FoMoCo’s Premier Auto Group (PAG) has been disolved and Dearborn finds itself in hot water along with the rest of Detroit (Ford’s shares are currently worth less than GM’s).
It’ll be interesting to know how Ford will fare in its return.
QUANTUM WORTH SEEING
As for the second Bond film starring Daniel Craig, it’s well worth watching – eventhough it fell short of Casino Royale and most film critics were quick to dismiss it. There’s been some debate online as to whether he has displaced Sean Connery as best Bond ever.
Roman style, Roger Ebert turned his thumb down on Quantum of Solace.
Still, I give it thumbs up. The spectacular vehicular carnage alone sells the movie!
[Linked: 007]
New York Auto Show In The Year 2008
By Gunnar Heinrich
OUR New York Auto Show segment is back online following its televised premiere on CPTV, the PBS affiliate for Connecticut.
For those who never saw it, this story (TRT: 10:22) takes the auto show through ADL’s unique perspective.
Rather than giving the viewer a dry recount of yet another auto show, we decided to give it the theme of one of New York’s fashion events. After all, the auto show is as much about style as it is about the brass tax of selling cars to an often indifferent public.
The segment covers events such as the Saab Bio Hybrid concept party,the Lamborghini Press launch of the LP560-4, and interviews with GM execs and Aston Martin CEO Dr. Ulrich Bez.
Enjoy.
Ferrari’s Massmarket Foray
Ferrari California Presented By GranTurismo.
By Gunnar Heinrich
GOING massmarket is like going public.
You’re opening up your once closely held business to outside scrutiny and increased regulatory pressures, but in theory you’re removing the ceiling on capital generation.
While Ferrari is very much a unique part of publicly traded Fiat, it has more or less been left alone to its own devices; making precious few exotics for the precious few patrons who can afford the price of admittance (and maintenance).
Ferrari’s pressures, even during their parent company’s darkest hours, seemed to have little to do with fiscal needs but more to do with performance wants.
Luckily this laissez faire system has worked to Ferrari’s benefit. The company has never seen better days – financially.
And like Porsche’s foray into SUV-land and Aston Martin’s segue into four door saloons, Ferrari is set to test, albeit conservatively, the waters of mass-marketdom with the decidedly practical and comparatively everyday California Spyder.
As an aside, the car has a Fiat Barchetta’s front and an ass ressembling the face of some frowning newt; there’s little on first, second, or third glance that can visually recommend the California’s style.
Add the increased proportions and a roomier cabin design placed forward of a conventional trunk thanks to traditional front engine/rear drive setup and what we have are key clues to suggest that this car will have potential SL, 6-Series, 911 and Maserati GT buyers cross shopping.
No doubt that means more Ferraris will be built than ever before as a result for the demand at the $100K level is far greater than it is at even $200K. Plus, Ferrari has entered an age where it’s “brand” identity is as platinum as can be – with new orders regularly reaching into two long years’ wait on new models. Again, we’ll expect the same if not more of the same sell-out rate for the California.
But with all this success that is yet to be reaped, are we witnessing the slow but steady disolution of an elite marque into just another expensive, over-hyped brand?
[Linked: Ferrari California]
Bentley Continental GTC
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG via Auto/Motor Cars
SINCE it is the start of Labor Day weekend, I thought a glossy picture of a car that would (and does for a few) truly celebrate the fruits of one’s labor was in order.
The Bentley Continental GTC has been on the market for a little more than a year and in that time the 2+2 droptop has managed to eclipse not only the chromium sheen of its Arnage superior, but successfully rival the ragtop competition from Aston Martin.
Far be it for me then to suggest that this is Bentley’s finest hour? For those precious few who’ll drive this magnificent car this (US) holiday weekend, I imagine they’re likely to agree.
[Linked: Bentley]
