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

Auto blog

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".

2020 Aston Martin Vantage AMR First Drive Review | It has a manual!

NURBURG, Germany — The new Aston Martin Vantage AMR has a manual transmission. In the precision-engineered, sequential dual-clutch automated hell-scape in which we now dwell, that might be enough copy for a full review. But driving this boisterous menace around the perfect, sweeping, foothilly roads around Germany's Nurburgring (but not on the ‘Ring itself), I discovered that the seven-speed stick shift makes the Vantage approximately 77% more engaging. For this, we have Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer to thank. “Andy committed to always having a manual in the lineup,” said transmission engineer James Owen, at the Aston Martin Racing (AMR) Performance Center at the edge of the ‘Ring, when I asked, insolently, why this car exists. “And as the sports derivative of our sportiest, most focused sports car, Vantage, itÂ’s right for the lineup.” A bit more about that transmission, because it should be dwelled upon: It is built by famed Italian manufacturer Dana Graziano, which has been building transmissions for the likes of Ferrari, Maserati and Alfa Romeo since the middle of the past century. It has a dogleg high-ratio first gear that requires some increased load to knock into. It rev-matches on downshifts, and also allows no-lift upshifts, so you can keep the pedal floored between gears to minimize transitions. ItÂ’s air cooled, for less weight. And it has a Launch Control feature that works like this: clutch down, find first, stomp on the gas, wait for the little light to appear on the dash, clutch out progressively but quickly. Glory. It was, in fact, surprising just how much the gearbox changed my relationship with the Vantage, a car I already liked. The AMR doesnÂ’t add any power, the Mercedes-sourced 4.0-liter turbo V8 still sits at 503 hp. But the torque figures are down significantly, from the 505 pound-feet available in the automatic to 461 with the manual. Remember, this is the first time a manual has been paired with this engine, be it by Aston Martin or Mercedes-AMG. Despite losing 200 pounds from the Vantage's curb weight – through the use of the lighter transmission, forged wheels, carbon ceramic brakes, carbon fiber body and trim bits, and the switch from an electronic differential to a limited-slip one – itÂ’s nearly a half-second slower from 0-60 than the base Vantage (3.9 seconds vs 3.5).

Check out Aston Martin's zero-emissions AMR-SB race car

In the above video, Aston Martin reveals its AMR-SB race car. According to the chassis designer, it came at a time that was fairly busy, especially following the company's Le Mans class victory. But they saw it through, and the result is an amazingly light, zero-emissions race car. Aston was able to do this by powering it with the constantly present resource of gravity. Yes, it's a soapbox derby car. We appreciate car companies that have a sense of humor, and that's clearly what Aston demonstrates with this professional intro video for its soapbox racer. The company built it for the Red Bull Soapbox race in England, and it looks just like one of Aston Martin's Vantage GTE Le Mans racers, down to the wing on the back. That wing didn't seem to be attached quite as well as those on the real cars, since it disappears after one of the jumps. The car gets going more quickly than you might expect, too, as the video shows it hitting over 30 mph at a certain point. Check out the fun in the video above. You can also see the whole ride down from the driver's view in the video below. Related Video: