V12, F1 Style Transmission, Surround Sound, New Tires, Original Msrp Over $225k on 2040-cars

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Aston Martin seeks ‘big brother’ despite first profit in years, IPO talk

Aston Martin just reported that it earned $121 million (or GBP87 million) in 2017, its first profit in eight years, and it's preparing for a possible initial public offering, eyeing a valuation as high as $6.95 billion (GBP5 billion). It has a strategy to begin converting its fleet to hybrid and electric powertrains. Nevertheless, the low-volume British luxury marque says it needs a helping hand to survive the wave of autonomous driving technology sweeping the automotive industry. CEO Andy Palmer tells Bloomberg it's looking for a "big brother" partner to help it with the billions of dollars in capital requirements posed by the dawn of driverless cars. "We are making a new kind of company, a company that can survive on 7,000 to 14,000 very highly priced, very profitable cars a year, but it can survive because of its partnerships," Palmer told Bloomberg TV. "It can be very profitable on that 7,000 to 14,000 cars a year but only by having a big brother that can help it out." Palmer said Aston Martin already has a partnership with Daimler AG, which owns a 5-percent stake in the company, to develop autonomous capabilities, but more help is needed. One assumes he is envious of competitors like Rolls-Royce and Bentley, which benefit from the corporate parentage and financial resources of BMW and Volkswagen, respectively. Sales grew 48 percent in 2017 to nearly 5,100 units, Aston's highest sales volume in nine years, on the strength of the DB11 sports car, which starts at $211,995. It was enough for Palmer to proclaim in a release, "The financial turnaround of Aston Martin is now complete." While it shops around for a sugar daddy, Aston Martin is busy building a new factory in Wales, set to open in 2019. It has launched new models like the DB11 Volante and Vantage, plus the limited-production DB4 GT Continuation model. Further out, the company is building 155 examples of its first electric car, the RapidE, due in 2019, and it's developing an electric version of the DBX crossover, also for 2019. Palmer has said Aston Martin will offer all six of its vehicles in hybrid variants by 2025, with 25 percent of its vehicles to be fully electric by the end of the 2020s. Related Video: Image Credit: Aston Martin Aston Martin Autonomous Vehicles Electric Luxury aston martin rapide aston martin vantage aston martin db11 aston martin dbx aston martin db11 volante

More V12 power, no turbos | 2017 Aston Martin Vanquish S First Drive

Like the last days of the dinosaurs, Aston Martin's $294,950 Vanquish S is one of a handful of extant Tyrannosaurus Rex – few big-capacity naturally aspirated engines still bellow rage at the world in general. So, six liters, twelve cylinders, 48 valves, and no turbos; hurrah. Well, as long as you're not buying the gas. As the delivery driver who brought this car to me observed: "Whatever I seem to do with this car, it never gives more than 14.5 mpg, where as long as you barely touch the throttle, the new DB11 gives you about 18." Aston's DB11, which debuted this year with a fresh chassis/powertrain architecture that will eventually underpin a new car with the Vanquish nameplate, is twin-turbocharged. The Vanquish S, with its extra power, is decidedly not. It's the off-duty moments that stymie gas mileage for naturally aspirated mills like the one in this car. Dragging that huge crank, con rods, pistons, and cams around plays havoc on economy when you aren't on it like jam on toast. At full throttle, there's not a lot in it, turbo or no turbo. The Vanquish is the most unlikely car ever to have almost not made it into production. The name was first used in 2001 attached to Ian Callum's toothsome aluminum/carbon composite coupe body, but then chief executive Uli Bez held it back for six months, officially because he didn't like the Ford Ka air vents. Unofficially, as he later admitted: "What no one wanted to hear at the time is that Vanquish was crap. I changed 200 things, and even then, it burned through gearboxes." At the heart of the Vanquish then and now is a V12 engine, effectively built out of two Ford Mondeo Cleveland V6 units. It's easy to scoff at such humble beginnings, but the rumor machine elicits Porsche and Cosworth involvement in its gestation. First introduced in the 1999 DB7 V12 Vantage, the engine was then tuned to 460 horsepower for the 2001 Vanquish, which also debuted Aston's bonded-and-riveted VH platform chassis. Over 2,500 of these amazing cars were sold in standard and (from 2004) S forms, though its robotized manual transmission was problematic.

2019 Aston Martin V8 Vantage First Drive Review | A sportier bark and bite

Aston Martin's 21st century renaissance kickstarted with the DB11, a high-dollar grand tourer that upped the outgoing DB9's dynamic envelope while keeping one foot firmly planted in the brand's aesthetically elevated roots. The sequel to Aston's bid for relevancy is the V8 Vantage, a more agile and track-focused two-seater, perennially the company's best-seller that guns for the heavyweight in the segment, the Porsche 911. With a completely updated design language and laser-like focus on performance, the 2019 Aston Martin V8 Vantage is arguably the most important modern car to come out of Gaydon in... well, forever. Forget everything you know about the late, great V8 Vantage (and its sublime V12 counterpart). The 2019 model is a completely re-imagined beast, built from the ground up with around a turbocharged engine from an unexpected source. The old Vantage V8's naturally aspirated V8 is gone, and in its place is a Mercedes-AMG-sourced twin-turbo 4-liter V8 producing 503 horsepower and 505 lb-ft of torque (up from the old 4.7-liter mills' 430 hp and 361 lb-ft). The new donor powerplant receives a re-tuned intake and exhaust to give off a slightly different aural impression that's slightly raspier than the thumpy AMG. Unlike its AMG counterpart, the Aston version adopts a wet-sump oiling system, with the benefits of sitting lower to the ground and improved fuel economy due to the system's slightly reduced parasitic losses. Senior Vehicle Engineering Manager Craig Jamieson says that his team's learnings developing the wet sump system in the V12 Vantage enabled them to fine tune this setup for track duty. The engine mates to the ubiquitous ZF 8-speed automatic gearbox, which comes equipped here with stationary paddle shifters. Power is routed through Aston's first use of an electronic differential at the rear transaxle, which helps achieve a balanced 50/50 weight distribution. Seventy percent of the bonded aluminum chassis, which is derived from the DB11's, is unique to Vantage. Its dry curb weight is 3,373 pounds (a more standard wet curb weight wasn't available at press time), and it'll sprint to 60 mph in a claimed 3.5 seconds on its way to a top speed of 195 mph. Though much of the Vantage's design direction comes from the obvious decision to depart from the brand's bygone era, a few choices were informed by function – most controversially, those squinty LED headlamps which some detractors have slammed as being "Mazda-like".