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DBX goes black tie with Q by Aston Martin

Aston Martin won't begin delivering its new DBX to customers in North America until the latter half of this year. Perhaps as a favor to DBX intenders that haven't placed orders yet, Q by Aston Martin has prepared a bespoke DBX for the Geneva Motor Show that presents a sliver of the creative possibilities unlocked by working with Q. The near infinite menu of choices has been broken down into two groups, Q by Aston Martin Commission and Q by Aston Martin Collection. Collection fits a range of predesigned accessories like carbon fiber paddle shifters or hood vent louvers for the DBS Superleggera. The Commission range encompasses all the imagination that a customer's bank account can fund. The Geneva show car wears Satin Xenon Grey paint from the Collection, as well as carbon fiber pieces around the lower exterior, black anodized tread plates and plaques on the sill. The 22-inch gloss black painted wheels come from the Commission department. The grand showcase comes inside the DBX vault. Yards of Obsidian Black Leather come from the SUV's standard options list. Commission stewards designed the satin chrome aluminum trim and jewelry as an entree, all milled from a solid ingot of the shiny stuff and finished with a special diamond pattern. They followed that up with a custom technique for the carbon fiber floating center console, door trim, and luggage floor. Craftsmen laid up 280 layers of carbon fiber, cured it for 12 hours, then put five-axis milling machines to work for 90 hours to create the necessary shapes. The finish on the cabin pieces reflects the strata of the hand-laid layers, while the span protecting the luggage floor comes from a single sheet of herringbone-pattered carbon fiber. Raised metal and rubber welts help protect the load floor finish and prevent cargo sliding to and fro.  The standard DBX starts at $192,986 after destination. A Q by Aston Martin DBX will, naturally, cost a touch more. Related Video:    

Tesla loses top communicator Simon Sproule to Aston Martin

Looking for a new job? Have experience working in a frenetic environment, promoting cutting-edge mobility products for a demanding boss determined to change the way we travel on this planet, as well as how we trek to others? We hear Tesla Motors just might have an opening for such a person. Again. Simon Sproule, the electric automaker's vice-president of communications and marketing is vacating his cubicle after a mere six months in order to become the chief marketing officer (CMO) over at Aston Martin. That position had gone begging for a year until this appointment. Once he's settled into his new digs, Sproule will again be breaking rock with former Nissan associate Andy Palmer who himself recently took the top spot at the British luxury marque. The move comes at what seems like an inopportune time for Tesla. It has a big D product announcement – suspected to be an all-wheel-drive update of the Model S – scheduled just two days from now and the reveal of its "mass market" Model ? early next year. The company declined our offer to comment on the situation. Aston Martin, on the other hand, should be happy to finally have someone at the marketing helm, what with the recent dropping of the veil from its Lagonda sedan and what's likely to be a bevy of new product built on its forthcoming platform. News Source: PR WeekImage Credit: Haruyoshi Yamaguchi / Bloomberg via Getty Images Green Marketing/Advertising Aston Martin Tesla simon sproule

Kahn and Evanta team up for hot-rod Defender, custom Barchetta

If you're familiar with the work of Afzal Kahn, it's probably for his tuned Range Rovers. And if you live in London, you may have seen his Bugatti Veyron with the F1 license plate. But the British tuner and self-styled "automotive fashion designer" is now embarking on a far more ambitious project. Kahn is teaming up with Ant Anstead of Evanta fame – responsible for rebodying Aston Martin DB7s to look like DB4 GTs and that full-scale DBR1/2 model kit – on a new outfit called Ant-Kahn. Far more than a tuning endeavor, Ant-Kahm is setting about creating truly unique (and uniquely British) automobiles. Their first project is called the Flying Huntsman, a long-nose Land Rover Defender that we imagine will emerge as something like a British take on the 1998 Jeepster concept crossed with something Icon might concoct. It'll pack a 6.2-liter GM LS3 V8 producing 550 horsepower, mated to a push-button six-speed automatic transmission, mounted close to the bulkhead with over 15 inches of extra bodywork and set to be unveiled within the coming months. Their second collaboration is set to yield the Evanta Barchetta previewed by rendering above. "Inspired by the design language of 1950s motorsport," the Barchetta pays homage to classic British and Italian roadsters. It's being built around a tubular frame with handcrafted composite Kevlar bodywork and powered by that same LS3 tuned to 450 hp but in a much lighter form than the Flying Hunstman. Only 20 examples will be made after its debut at the Goodwood Revival come September. An Aston Martin project codenamed WB12 is also in the works, painting a picture of an ambitious startup backed by two experienced operators whose projects we're looking forward to seeing come to fruition. Ant-Kahn – The birth of a groundbreaking collaboration between two leading figures in the UK automotive industry. Ant-Kahn is a collaborative partnership between Afzal Kahn - innovative automotive fashion designer and founder of the Kahn group of companies, and Ant Anstead, founder of expert vehicle manufacturer Evanta, and star of Channel 4's "For The Love of Cars". Working together under the Ant-Kahn banner, they will lead a resurgence in British specialist vehicle manufacture, with a number of projects already underway. Their focus is on luxury and quality, using modern prototyping and manufacturing technology, while maintaining the attention to details associated with traditional coach building.