2014 Aston Martin Db9 on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Dany Bahar plans Aston Martin shooting brake at Modena-based tuner

You can't keep a good man down, or so the saying goes. The jury may still be out on whether Dany Bahar was a good thing for the automotive industry – with some portraying him as an overambitious opportunist and others pitting him as a genuine car guy against the bean-counters – but he's not about to stay down for long. Bahar, for those unfamiliar, was a top executive at Red Bull, serving as right-hand man to Dietrich Mateschitz right around the time that the energy drink company was getting into Formula One and NASCAR. He was then poached by Ferrari to serve as its commercial chief and brand director before taking up the reins as CEO of Lotus. Things didn't go quite so well for him there after new owners fired him, accused him of misappropriating company funds and canceling just about every one of his ambitious (or perhaps overambitious) projects to take Lotus into the modern age. But now he's back on his feet. According to Car and Driver, Bahar's new project is a tuning house and coachbuilder called Ares. Similar to an outfit like Mansory (with which Bahar, incidentally, fostered close ties while at Lotus), Ares is out to make high-end vehicles like the Range Rover Sport, Rolls-Royce Wraith and Lamborghini Huracan that much more unique. But the biggest project Ares is planning to undertake is to turn the Aston Martin Rapide S and Bentley Continental GT into shooting brakes for wealthy customers. Ares wouldn't be the first outfit to do so, Bertone having made a wagon version of the Rapide and Touring having offered an extended-roof Continental. But to show he's not messing around, Bahar has assembled a top team at Ares. Wolf Zimmermann, who worked for Mercedes-AMG before becoming Bahar's R&D chief at Lotus, is handling the technical aspects. 24-year-old Romanian designer Mihai Panaitescu, who is said to have worked on those aborted Lotus projects, is handling the style aspect. And the whole outfit is being based in Modena, Italy – the city that is home to outfits like Pagani, Maserati and nearby Ferrari. Predictably enough, Ares will launch initially in China, Russia and the Middle East, but reportedly plans to make it to the US sometime early next year. Featured Gallery 2014 Aston Martin Rapide S: First Drive View 32 Photos News Source: Car and DriverImage Credit: Copyright 2014 Drew Phillips / AOL Aftermarket Aston Martin dany bahar aston martin rapide s

Aston Martin Valkyrie set to make 1,000 horsepower, rev to 11,100 rpm

Aston Martin is working with Cosworth to develop the Valkyrie engine, an engine (we now know) unlike that found in any other production car. Today it has shared some of the specifics. The naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12 will make 1,000 horsepower and rev up to 11,100 rpm. We did the math, that's 153.8 horsepower per liter in a non-boosted car. Cue the jaws dropping to the floor. The first thought here goes to what this thing will sound like. Aston has us covered there with a video it tweeted out this morning, which you can play below. Developed in conjunction with longtime technical partner @Cosworth, the new V12 had to satisfy a simple, yet extraordinary brief; to create the ultimate expression of the internal combustion engine. #AstonMartinValkyrie #ASTONMARTIN #Cosworth pic.twitter.com/BQXUVD355f — Aston Martin (@astonmartin) December 12, 2018 We got a sneak preview awhile back of the sound, and this just confirms how awesome it's going to be. The noises bring us back to a time when F1 engines actually sounded good. Peak power is made at an astounding 10,500 rpm, so you'll want to rev it all the way up to the top before shifting. Torque is predictably much lower — it makes 546 pound-feet at 7,000 rpm, when most engines are either done or running out of steam. Numbers for the Valkyrie's hybrid system are still unavailable, so we'll have to wait to find out the combined output. The large V12 weighs 454 pounds, and Aston says it's a fully stressed element of the chassis — removing the engine would literally split the car in two. Titanium connecting rods, F1-spec pistons and a billet-machined crankshaft that takes six months to produce are but a few highlights of the Cosworth engine. Aston Martin says the crankshaft is 50 percent lighter than the One-77's V12 rotating assembly. Thankfully, we've been provided with a gallery of engine photos to drool over. Making such a ridiculous and powerful engine emissions-compliant enough for a road car is something every car enthusiast can appreciate. Naturally aspirated V12s are arguably one of the most satisfying engine configurations to have been put forth on this earth. One that revs to 11,100 rpm sounds like it could crack anybody's list of greatest road car engines ever. Aston Martin sounds hyped about it, and we don't blame them. This car, and this engine, are going to be monsters. View 16 Photos Related video:

Aston Martin CEO dreams of an electric future for James Bond

With an endless stream of leggy models, futuristic weapons, and a dashing wardrobe, James Bond can rightfully be associated with indulgence. But his car of choice may soon take on a more ecologic bent by way of electric motor and some batteries. So says Andy Palmer, who is predicting an electric vehicle in Bond's future. EVS are 'almost as inevitable as death and tax.' - Andy Palmer Palmer, of course, is CEO of Aston Martin. As he said in a recent interview with CNBC, mass adoption of electrified vehicles is "almost as inevitable as death and tax," and that will extend to Bond – James Bond – as well. Take a look at CNBC's one-minute video clip with Palmer here. The fictional character has been linked to Aston Martin since the third James Bond film, 1964's Goldfinger. In it, the spy, then played by Sean Connery, drove an Aston Martin DB5. Most recently, Aston Martin built James Bond's DB10 especially for the 2015 film Spectre. The lure for the spy would be less the environmental statement and more the fact that electric cars have a ton of torque and can take off like a shot, says Palmer. He should know, having joined Nissan in 1991 and playing a key role in the development of the Nissan Leaf. He also pushed Nissan to add an electric powertrain to the Infiniti LE with the goal to do so by 2014, but by that year he'd left Nissan for Aston Martin. As for the UK automaker, it said last year that it was working with investment firm ChinaEquity on fitting the Aston Martin Rapide with an electric powertrain by 2017, and the car may have as much as 1,000 horsepower, too, which should be plenty for Bond. The company may also be working on an all-electric DBX SUV.