2007 Aston Martin Db9 Rare 6 Speed Manual Trans One Owner Very Clean Condition on 2040-cars

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Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff takes a stake in Aston Martin

LONDON — Mercedes Formula One boss Toto Wolff has taken a stake in British sportscar maker Aston Martin, whose executive chairman Lawrence Stroll runs the Racing Point F1 team, according to company filings. A Mercedes F1 spokesman said Wolff's move was purely an investment on the Austrian's part and would be diluted by a rights issue on Monday from 4.77% to less than 1%. "Fully diluted following the pending rights issue, this investment will represent a 0.95% stake in the company," he added. "It is a financial investment and Toto's partnership and executive role with Mercedes are unaffected by the transaction." Swiss billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli has also bought a 3.38% stake which will be similarly diluted. Wolff previously had a 16% shareholding in former champions Williams but sold that after he joined the Mercedes team, where he serves as principal and owns 30%. Canadian billionaire Stroll, whose son Lance drives for Racing Point alongside Mexican Sergio Perez, is close to Wolff. The Silverstone-based team — to be renamed Aston Martin next year — use Mercedes engines and gearboxes. Mercedes-Benz's parent Daimler also has a small stake in Aston Martin. "It's clear that Aston are now Mercedes' B team," the Daily Mail quoted one Formula One insider as saying. Wolff's future at Mercedes has been the subject of some media speculation, with the 48-year-old linked variously to senior management roles with Liberty Media-owned Formula One and at Aston Martin. His Aston Martin shares were bought from Yew Tree Overseas Limited, a vehicle controlled by Stroll who acquired a roughly 25% percent holding in Aston Martin with a consortium of investors. Mercedes have won the past six Formula One drivers' and constructors' titles but have six times world champion Lewis Hamilton out of contract at the end of the 2020 season, which has yet to start due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Hamilton, who has also been linked to Ferrari, had told reporters before the global crisis changed the sporting and financial landscape that his decision would depend on Wolff's plans. The Briton is now expected to stay at Mercedes, with a radical overhaul of Formula One's sporting and technical regulations postponed to 2022. Related Video: Motorsports Aston Martin Mercedes-Benz

Aston GT12 Roadster is a one-off convertible from Q Division

The Aston Martin GT12 is already the most track-focused, hardcore variant in the Vantage lineup. Q by Aston Martin has made the GT12 a little more special by unveiling a one-off GT12 Roadster at the Goodwood Festival of Speed today. Thanks to a naturally-aspirated 6.0-liter V12 engine, the brute puts down 592 hp and 461 lb.-ft. of torque. And thanks to a weight savings of 330 lbs. over the road-going Vantage V12 S, it's blisteringly quick around a track. Chopping the roof off of a hardcore track car seems a little odd, but Q by Aston Martin received a request from a customer and delivered the vehicle in a nine-month period. The roadster may share a lot of the same components as the GT12 it's based off of, but it's a bespoke machine that most likely won't be repeated. While the GT12 Roadster utilizes the same V12 engine and seven-speed Sportshift transmission, changes have been made to the car's body. New carbon-fiber body panels give the GT12 Roadster a menacing look, while changes to the suspension ensure the lucky owner receives the same cornering ability as drivers in the coupe variant. Thanks to a folding fabric roof and titanium exhaust system, the GT12 Roadster's V12 will provide a marvelous soundtrack that can't be rivaled by today's turbocharged cars. Pricing for the vehicle hasn't been announced, but it's surely a lot more than the base price of roughly $343,000 for the hard top. As a one off, the GT12 Roadster will most likely be garaged for the majority of its life. However, the vehicle will make its first - and perhaps only – appearance at the Goodwood Festival of Speed today. Related Video: Featured Gallery Aston Marting Vantage GT12 Roadster By Q Division View 19 Photos Aston Martin Convertible Luxury Special and Limited Editions Supercars roadster vantage

007 Questions for James Bond's stunt master

You may not know the name, but you almost certainly have seen some of his work. Chris Corbould has been the special effects supervisor for every James Bond film since 1995's "GoldenEye," and has worked in some way on every one since 1977's "The Spy Who Loved Me." In between Bond movies, he's been the special effects supervisor on such low-budget indie flicks as the three Dark Knight Batman films and Star Wars episodes VII and VIII. Oh, and he won an Oscar for his work on "Inception." I was lucky enough to virtually sit down with Mr. Corbould ahead of the long-awaited release of "No Time to Die", which my colleague Zac Palmer has seen and reported back about all the cars featured in the 25th Bond movie. Mr. Corbould shared some of his experiences creating some of the most iconic stunt sequences in the series' history, including how things have changed over the years, how Bond movies are different and what it's like to not only engineer the stunts, but some of the cars featured in them. Autoblog: What's the biggest difference between working on a Bond film versus other franchise films? Chris Corbould: I think one of the big things is the history behind it. This is the 25th Bond film now and [although] we have to keep changing for the times, there's also a lot of boxes that have to be checked. There are two car chases in this, one with a DB5 in an urban environment and one with a Land Rover Defender in a very very rural environment. [We have to] come up with original ideas for those chases. But the biggest thing working on a Bond film is they always pride themselves in doing the sequences as much as they can for real. Autoblog: I actually unearthed an interview with you in 1999 where you said that "The Bond people pride themselves on STILL doing stunts for real" as opposed to CGI. And that was 22 years ago. Corbould: Yeah! I'm still saying it. Autoblog: How hard has it been to keep that ideology over the years, with changing technologies and capabilities? Corbould: It's not been hard really. The CGI guys have helped us out quite a bit by making our lives easier. They can paint cameras out, they can paint parts of rigs out if need be. The audience still has this fascination in knowing that something has been done for real as well. A lot of the big effects I've done on the James Bond films, there's as much interest in the behind the scenes of how we did the Tube train coming through the ceiling in "Skyfall", how we did the sinking house in "Casino Royale".