2009 Aston Martin on 2040-cars

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Supercar parade entering highway is mesmerizing

In what must have looked and sounded to motorists on the M6 like an invasion of The Swarm, a parade of 50 enthusiast gems leaving a charity event were caught shooting down the on-ramp and merging into traffic. There were plenty of Porsches joining the 959 and Ducktail above, Aston Martins going back to the badboy V8 of the last millennium, a Ferrari Testarossa, a TVR and numerous other Easter eggs.
There were not, however, plenty of turn signals, with someone counting just five among the fifty engaging in proper use of the blinker. One reason put forth for that is the same reason we're posting this video, which is from last Summer, below: "because supercar." Enjoy.

2022 Aston Martin DBX Review | 2 exceptional cars for the price of 2

PORTLAND, ORE. – It is so easy to greet the Aston Martin DBX with a great big eye roll. Here we go again, yet another purveyor of beautiful sporting machines selling out to produce a bloated SUV that's utterly anathema to all the cars that came before. Yet another cynical brand exercise where some classic styling cues and a desirable badge are applied to someone else's SUV platform. And yet another SUV that's hopelessly compromised by those same brand affectations. Worse, this is Aston Martin. If you take away the DB5-derived body style and GT driving experience, what exactly are you left with? Aren't those the best reasons to buy one instead of a Porsche? In other words, the arrival of a $222,000 Aston Martin wasn't necessarily greeted by giddy clapping and the score of "Goldfinger" turned up to 11. Skepticism would be the word. Yet, immediately, it started to erode. It may be an SUV and certainly bloated compared to a Vantage, but it sure is pretty. And not just because of that trademark grille and Vantage-like ducktail. It's all about the proportions. The pronounced body-length shoulder line and inboard fastback greenhouse may evoke Aston's cars, but it also avoids the tall, slab-like profile of a Porsche Cayenne and most other SUVs. The wheels are pushed to the corners, elongating the body and creating the sort of long hood, short deck proportions one expects from a two-door GT and definitely not an SUV. Even without the styling cues, the thing looks like an Aston Martin. The DBX is also not on "someone else's SUV platform," it was created by Aston Martin for Aston Martin. So unlike the Bentley Bentayga, Lamborghini Urus and earlier Cayennes, Aston Martin didn't need to contend with the sort of existing, unchangeable hard points that lead to awkward proportions. This can also have practical benefits. Take that elongated wheelbase, for example, which is 2.6 inches longer than the Bentayga's despite the entire DBX being 3.4 inches shorter. Much like the similarly from-scratch Jaguar F-Pace, I suspect Aston Martin made the DBX wheelbase so long for the aforementioned aesthetic reasons and because, unshackled by an existing platform, it could. Yet, like the F-Pace, the happy side effect to a long wheelbase is extra interior space. In the DBX, the amount of extra space is genuinely surprising. We fit an enormous Britax rear-facing child seat in the rear and had the front passenger seat pushed far enough back for someone 6-foot-3 to comfortably sprawl out.

UK electric motor maker YASA expands production 50-fold for EVs

LONDON — British electric motor manufacturer YASA said on Thursday it was increasing its production capacity from 2,000 to 100,000 units with a new factory to tap into growing demand from carmakers for greener technologies. Automakers are racing to build greener vehicles and improve charge times in a bid to meet rising customer demand and air quality targets but Britain lacks sufficient manufacturing capacity, an area the government is building up. Last year, the government picked a site in central England to house a new automotive battery development facility, which will develop the processes required to manufacture the latest battery advancements. On Thursday, YASA, based near the English city of Oxford, said it had raised another 15 million pounds ($21 million) as part of its expansion. "Our customers are looking to adopt innovative new technologies such as YASA's axial-flux electric motors and controllers in order to meet the needs of the rapidly expanding hybrid and pure electric automotive market," said Chief Executive Chris Harris. The firm exports 80 percent of production and has worked with companies including Britain's two biggest carmakers Jaguar Land Rover and Nissan as well as Aston Martin. JLR will decide this year whether to build electric cars in its home market, previously citing factors such as pilot testing and support from science and government as pre-requisites. Reporting by Costas PitasRelated Video: