2007 Aston Martin Vantage Roadster 6-speed W/ Navigation on 2040-cars

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Amazon opens contest for The Grand Tour tickets in the US

British enthusiasts already had the opportunity to win tickets to the first taping of The Grand Tour, and now Amazon has opened up a similar chance for customers in the US. In celebration of Prime Day, which starts today, customers in the US can enter The Grand Tour Prime Day Prize Draw. The prize includes travel, $200 to spend, accommodation, and a meet and greet with Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May. Customers that are interested fulfilling a childhood dream should visit Amazon's website and fill out the entry form soon as the draw closes on July 12. The Grand Tour will launch this fall as an exclusive for Amazon Prime members with the exact city locations for studio records set to be revealed later this summer. Amazon, however, did reveal that the trio will host shows in the UK, US, and Germany. So there's no need to get too upset if you don't win the draw. With Top Gear getting a major shakeup with the departure of Chris Evans, we're itching to see Clarkson, Hammond, and May behind the wheel of cars again. The trio, it seems, is also excited to get the new show rolling as Clarkson posted a drifty video on his Facebook page. The trio are currently in Italy filming a comparison between an Aston Martin DB11, a Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat, and Rolls-Royce Dawn. The five-second clip has the Challenger Hellcat and DB11 drifting head-on into the camera crew, which is behind the wheel of an Alfa Romeo. News Source: Amazon, FacebookImage Credit: The Grand Tour TV/Movies Alfa Romeo Aston Martin Dodge the grand tour

2020 Aston Martin DBS GT Zagato revealed with 'fluttering' grille, no rear window

The 2020 Aston Martin DBS GT Zagato has finally been revealed in new renderings of the production vehicle from the British sports car builder. This is the car that's only being sold in pairs with the continuation DB4 GT Zagato, and only 19 pairs of the two models will be built. It also looks a whole lot like its predecessor, the Vanquish Zagato. It has the rocket booster taillights, exaggerated rear fenders, double-bubble roof and enormous front grille, but there are differences, some of which are particularly unique. Take the front grille, for example: Besides lacking the dual round fog lights of the Vanquish example, the DBS grille is active. According to Aston Martin, the grille is made up of 108 individual pieces of carbon fiber, and when the car is shut off, they all move to make the grille solid and flush with the body. Then when the car fires up, they all move to allow air through. The company describes it as the car appearing to "flutter" to life. Then there's the roof, which is one piece of carbon fiber that stretches from the windshield to the edge of the trunk lid. It's a gorgeous piece that adds a two-tone look and highlights the double-bubble design. It also lacks any molded-in louvers to allow rear visibility. To get around that, Aston Martin has added a rear-view camera that displays images in a screen where the mirror would go, just like GM's mirror screen. Those are the most unique design tweaks, but there are more subtle ones, too. The whole car looks lower and longer than the Vanquish, in part thanks to the DBS' leaner body. The side vents are longer. The rear taillights are smaller and incorporated into a black finish panel. There also aren't deep side skirts. Instead, the rocker panels are rounded and tucked in like on a '60s sports car. Final specifications for the DBS GT Zagato are still unclear, but the company has said that the car will be based on the DBS Superleggera. That means it will have a twin-turbo 5.2-liter V12 making at least 715 horsepower and 664 pound-feet of torque. That's significantly more than the Vanquish Zagato's 576 horsepower. Production begins in 2020, and pricing for this and its DB4 continuation partner is $7.9 million.

Mercedes to offer SL, GL platforms to Aston Martin?

The agonizingly slow courtship between Aston Martin and Mercedes-Benz has been a regular topic of conversation ever since the 2009 Lagonda Concept debuted, riding on a Mercedes GL chassis. Beyond that one polarizing concept, though, nearly every other attempt to pair the two brands up in a major way has fallen through. Only the technical partnership between Mercedes and Aston for certain components from AMG, which was negotiated back in July, has held up so far.
That may finally be set to change, according to an excellent profile of the two brands' relationship from Automobile, which claims that two platforms will unite the Germans and Brits. The first tie up is, not surprisingly, a sports car.
As Aston Martin's VH platform - which underpins every car that comes out of Gaydon - continues to age, the pressure will well and truly be on Aston to find a next-gen replacement to underpin the successors to the Vantage, Vanquish, DB9 and Rapide. Automobile claims Mercedes has just such an architecture, in the form its new modular sports car platform. This new platform is slated for the next-generation SLK and SL and is still in its design infancy.