2006 Aston Martin Db9 Volante Convertible 2-door 6.0l on 2040-cars

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Aston Martin and Mercedes will share F1 safety car duties

LONDON — Aston Martin is set to join Mercedes next season as a provider of Formula One's official safety cars, according to media reports on Tuesday. Racefans.net reported that Aston Martin would supply safety and medical cars at 12 of the 23 scheduled races in key markets, with the existing Mercedes cars used at the rest. It said Aston Martin's new DBX SUV, which uses a Mercedes-AMG V8 engine, would be used as a medical car. There was no official confirmation from Aston Martin or Mercedes. Sources indicated to Reuters that the report was accurate, however. Mercedes has been the official provider of the cars, which are deployed in the event of an incident or bad weather to keep the field lapping safely, since 1996 but that deal runs out at the end of this year. A shared supply would make sense for both carmakers, who already have close ties. Aston Martin's executive chairman Lawrence Stroll also owns the Racing Point team, who will race as Aston Martin from next season with four times world champion Sebastian Vettel arriving from Ferrari. Mercedes, a part of Daimler, is set to raise its stake in Aston Martin to up to 20% by 2023. Toto Wolff, principal of the Mercedes factory team, also has a private stake in Aston Martin. Related Video: Motorsports Aston Martin Mercedes-Benz F1

Autoblog's adventures at the Nurburgring 24-Hour race [spoilers]

The brand-new Audi R8 LMS, said to share 50 percent of its components with the street-legal R8 shown off at Geneva, has won its very first race at the 2015 Nurburgring 24-Hours. The No. 28 car driven by Christopher Mies, Edward Sandstrom, Nico Muller, and Laurens Vanthoor for the Audi Sport WRT team out of Belgium finished only 40.279 seconds ahead of the No. 25 BMW Sport Team Marc VDS Z4 GT3 in second place, for the smallest winning gap since the race began in 1970. Those two cars traded the lead throughout Sunday morning and were less than a minute away from one another for the last two hours. They were part of a total 35 lead changes during the entire race – a record for the event – and both did 156 laps. Third place went to the No. 44 Falken Tire Porsche 997 GT3, one lap down. The Audis did what they always do: lurked close to the front, stayed out of trouble, then pounced when everyone else faltered. For the opening stretches the BMW Z4 teams owned it, running 1-2-3 for a while, but all of them hit trouble. When morning came and the race got over its yellow-flag fever, the No. 28 Audi was in front and stayed there. It was the third Nurburgring 24-Hour win for Audi in four years, the brand's first win only coming in 2012. Last year's winner, the Phoenix Audi team that set a race record by doing 159 laps, had both of its cars retire. One hit an oil patch about 12 hours in, spun and was hit by another car behind, taking on too much damage to continue. The other retired with engine issues. Other Notes Three cars crashed out of the race while leading, after the rains that weren't supposed to happen, happened about 90 minutes in. The No. 20 Schubert BMW Z4 led the first 50 minutes of the race, hopped a crest at Pflanzgarten, landed in a pool of water, and hit the wall on the 30th lap. Then the No. 30 Frikadelli Porsche, with a driver team that included ex-'Ring Taxi driver Sabine Schmitz, hit the No. 31 Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 on the approach to Carrousel and crashed out. Then the No. 1 Phoenix Audi, last year's winning car, took the lead but hit the wall after that oil patch near Pflanzgarten and was out of the race. Aston Martin celebrated a class win in the SP8 category with the No. 49 Vantage GT4 N430. This being the tenth anniversary of the Vantage running the Nurburgring-24, this year's car was painted in the same colors as the racecar from ten years ago.

Aston Martin V12 Speedster DBR1 specification pays homage to a beautiful race car

Aston Martin debuted the limited-run V12 Speedster over a year ago, and today it’s introducing a special edition version of the roofless and windshield-less supercar. ItÂ’s called the DBR1 specification, as it takes after the DBR1 race car from the 1950s.  YouÂ’ll immediately see the resemblance between the two in the gorgeous photos above. The V12 Speedster is finished in the same Aston Martin Racing Green paint, and features the same Clubsport White pinstripe and roundels. A Satin Silver anodized finish is applied to the grille to match, and a Clubsport lipstick graphic caps off the front. You also get 21-inch center-lock wheels finished in a Satin Black paint — Aston says each Speedster in this spec spends over 50 hours in the painting process alone. YouÂ’ll get Conker saddle leather on the inside that is complemented by Viridian Green textile and Caithness leather. The interior also features glossy carbon fiber trim and satin silver brushed aluminum switchgear. Aston says this combo is its modern interpretation of the DBR1Â’s interior. And do remember that there is no roof — we have a feeling that you donÂ’t want this interior getting wet. In case you were curious as to why Aston Martin is using the DBR1 as inspiration here, you should know that the car has a rather commendable history in racing. It won the 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans, is a three-time winner of the 1,000-km of Nurburgring and also took the World Sportscar Championship the year it won Le Mans. On top of that, itÂ’s just flat-out gorgeous. “Creating a bespoke specification that nods to the glory of the DBR1 has been a huge privilege for my team and I, and I very much look forward to seeing these cars being driven with the same enthusiasm that we have applied to their design,” says Marek Reichman, Aston's chief creative officer. This DBR1 specification features the same vitals as the standard V12 Speedster. That means it has a 5.2-liter twin-turbo V12 under its hood that makes 700 horsepower and 555 pound-feet of torque. ItÂ’ll do 0-60 mph in 3.4 seconds on its way to a 198 mph top speed. Have fun doing that without a windshield. Aston says you can order a V12 Speedster in this spec now and expect delivery in mid-2021. No price for the DBR1 was given, but the car starts at about $950,000. We suspect this one is a good bit more, likely arcing past the $1 million mark. Related video: