Garage Kept 1 Owner Aston Db9 Only 7k Miles Special Order Colors Premium Sound L on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Aston Martin launches AMR line with ultra-exclusive Vantage and Rapide

Aston Martin has taken to Geneva to launch a new line it calls AMR. According to the British automaker, this brand is designed to connect the company's racecars and road cars. In this quest, the models will feature performance and design upgrades to provide some of the look and feel of those racecars. Every model in the Aston family will get an AMR iteration, but the company will start with the Rapide AMR and the Vantage AMR Pro. The milder of the two, unsurprisingly, is the Rapide AMR. As with all future AMRs, the car was developed by the main branch of Aston, while the AMR Pro cars will be developed by the Aston Martin Advanced Operations department. Among the Rapide's updates is a massaged 6.0-liter V12 with a new exhaust that produces 592 horsepower. That engine will propel the car to a top speed of 210 mph. The car also features a new front bumper with a very tall grille. This look is shared with the Vantage AMR Pro, and it makes both cars look as though they've been told something astonishing, but it works. And, to be fair, the standard Rapide already had a tall grille. The nose is accompanied by 21-inch wheels, a new front splitter, side skirts, rear spoiler, and rear diffuser. Inside there is plenty of dark gray Alcantara with gray and lime green highlights throughout. These match the Stirling Green and lime green paint scheme on the outside of both cars. The cabin also has carbon fiber seats, center stack, and center console. View 20 Photos The Vantage AMR Pro kicks everything up a few notches. It's a track-only car, powered by a version of the V8 found in the Aston Martin Vantage GT4 race car. In the AMR Pro, it produces 500 horsepower. The engine sits beneath a hood that is the same as what Aston uses on the World Endurance Championship cars. The rear wing is also taken from those racers. Other body modifications include a new splitter, fenders, side skirts, and rear diffuser. The car has additional performance upgrades in the form of an adjustable suspension, and center-lock wheels with Michelin Pilot Cup 2 tires. Inside, the car has most of the same upgrades as the Rapide, but it also gets a roll cage. Aston didn't release pricing, but it did say how many of each car will be built. Not surprisingly, there won't be many of each. The company will build 210 Rapide AMRs, but just 7 Vantage AMR Pros. So if you want one, you'd better act fast. Otherwise you'll have to wait for AMR versions of other Astons. Related Video:

Here's what Top Gear thinks of the Aston Martin Vulcan

With a limited run of just 24 units, the Aston Martin Vulcan isn't an easy vehicle to get your hands on. Even if you find one, the next challenge is locating a suitable track to drive it because these rare beasts aren't street legal. Top Gear (the website, not the TV show) arranged both and reported on the amazing experience of driving this rare hypercar in must-read story. Top Gear lapped the Vulcan around the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix circuit and came away thoroughly impressed. The author admits that the McLaren P1 GTR has a greater output, but driving the Aston Martin is still an incredibly visceral experience. Downshifts judder through the chassis, flames shoot from the side pipes, and the 820-horsepower V12 screams. "Five laps and I'm spent – I start to get a headache, I need to drink, sweat gathers, ears ring," the writer says. The Vulcan trains its handful of wealthy owners to be racers, but the interior still cossets them in Aston Martin's traditional luxury. As they learn the car, drivers can turn the power up from 550 hp, 675 hp, and to the full 820 hp when they feel ready. The suspension is also fully adjustable. So there's a touch of understeer out of the box, but a person can mitigate that as they gain experience. Plus, the writer claims the cabin fit and finish is marvelous. Head over to Top Gear to get the full story, it's well worth a read. Related Video:

What we'd buy in 1985 (if extremely rich and nutty): the Aston Martin Lagonda

The Barn Miami, a Florida specialty dealer in unique and exotic cars, has just listed this 9,000-mile, two-owner, 1985 Aston Martin Lagonda. Priced at $75,000, it seemingly represents not only a bargain (original list price was $150,000, or around $360,000 in today’s money) but an investment opportunity, and a chance to own one of the most iconic and controversial designs in all of automotive history. When the Lagonda was launched in 1976, the storied British marque had fallen on hard times. Sales figures, build quality and employee morale were at a nadir, and the brand needed a big new idea. Aston turned to in-house designer William Towns, who had taken the brand out of the debonair, if increasingly anachronistic, DB2/4/5/6 styling paradigm with his creasy DBS of 1969. Towns delivered an outrageous wedge of ultra-luxury sedan, with a miniscule rectangular grille, a plank-like prow, steeply angled pillars, and a truncated trunk. A 280-horsepower quad-cam, quad-carb 5.3-liter V8 put power to the rear wheels via a Chrysler three-speed automatic transmission, yielding single digit fuel economy. And the lunacy continued on the inside, with one of the industryÂ’s first digital dashboards, the first application of touch-sensitive controls, and an odd sunroof above the rear passenger compartment. “I think this was the way of the company getting itself back on track with a completely new and revolutionary model,” says Paul Spires, the director of Aston Martin Works, the brandÂ’s in-house heritage and restoration shop, housed at the factory in Newport-Pagnell where the Lagonda was originally built. “In the second half of the 1970s, Rolls-Royce was enjoying success with its Silver Shadow and Bentley models, but there were very few other true high luxury sedans to choose from, and there was definitely a demand for something different and modern.” Different and modern, indeed. The Lagonda was at the hemorrhaging edge of the eraÂ’s electronic capabilities, featuring systems that are still getting the bugs worked out of them 40 years later. “When we look at many modern cars with touchscreen technology, you can perhaps see where the far-sighted and ambitions designers and engineers who created this car were looking,” says Spires.