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Aston Martin's Vanquish S Red Arrow aerobatics special edition is a stunning tribute

Aston Martin's in-house custom car division, Q, has just revealed its latest model, the Aston Martin Vanquish S Red Arrows Edition. The Vanquish is themed around the Red Arrows, a British aerobatics team like the American Blue Angels. The connection to the team starts from the outside, with a bright, gloss red paint job with white and blue accents on the carbon fiber trim to replicate the look of the Red Arrows' planes. The badges have red, white, and blue enamel to evoke the Union Jack flag, and a white stripe along the side is meant to look like the smoke trails left by the planes. Inside, the interior is finished in black leather with khaki green leather inserts and matching seatbelts. According to Aston Martin, this color scheme echoes the flight suits worn by the Red Arrows team. The flight team's logo, which shows their diamond-shaped flight formation, is embroidered into the seat backs. The door panels also receive custom embroidery, which shows the "Vixen Break" maneuver. This particular Vanquish S loses its rear seats to make space for a pair of racing helmets that come with the car. The helmets are painted in Red Arrows colors. In addition to the helmets, Aston Martin will include scale models of the car and a Red Arrows plane, a racing suit, embroidered bomber jacket, and a custom luggage set. In keeping with the Red Arrows theme, only nine of these cars will be sold, one for each member of the aerobatics team. Each car will also be signed by the corresponding Red Arrows pilot. Aston will build a tenth car that will be donated to the RAF Benevolent Fund, which helps support veterans and their families. Related Video:

Aston Martin Vantage F1 Edition adds more power, downforce

Well, it seems we were onto something, Aston Martin really did give us a pace car edition of the Vantage. Or, in F1 parlance, a safety car edition. It's technically called the Aston Martin Vantage F1 Edition, and fortunately, it's not just a Vantage with a fancy paint job. It actually boasts several performance improvements that it shares with the real safety car. You can even see some of those upgrades. The car features a front splitter and canards, rear wing, and under body tweaks. They all allow the F1 Edition to make an additional 441 pounds of downforce at top speed over a standard Vantage. Though not majorly affecting performance, the Vantage F1 Edition also receives a slatted grille, carbon fiber accents, quad-tip exhaust, exclusive 21-inch wheels, and a matte dark grey stripe. Only three colors are available, Aston Martin Racing Green, black and white, all three of which can be matte or gloss. Inside, the car gets black leather and grey Alcantara with your choice of green, black, grey or red stitching and center stripe. The F1 Edition gets extra power, too. The twin-turbo 4.0-liter AMG V8 makes 527 horsepower, an increase of 24, though torque is unchanged at 505 pound-feet. An eight-speed automatic is the only transmission available, and Aston Martin says it has been retuned to shift faster. Acceleration and top speed don't change, with 0 to 60 happening in 3.5 seconds for the coupe and 3.6 seconds for the roadster. The coupe's top speed is 195 mph and the roadster's is 190. Besides the extra grunt, the F1 Edition gets stiffer springs and retuned shocks along with a steering rack that Aston says provides better feedback. To pick up one of these upgraded Vantages, you'll need $162,000 for the coupe. Pricing hasn't been given for the roadster, but it will likely cost a bit more. Aston is taking orders now, and cars will be delivered to customers and dealers starting in late summer this year. Related Video: Aston Martin DBX in Stirling Green | On road, off-road and on the track

Aston Martin Vantage might get a Mercedes inline-six

Aston Martin has turned its eye to the inline six-cylinder engine Mercedes-Benz installs in the CLS 53. The British carmaker uses an AMG-sourced 4.0-liter V8 for the DB11 and the Vantage, which produces 503 horsepower and 505 pound-feet of torque in the latter coupe. Aston Martin hasn't said anything about whether or when it would use the inline-six, nor mentioned a product to slot the engine into. If the six does migrate from Germany to England, the move brings several benefits for Aston Martin, and it would create the first six-pot Aston Martin since the 1999 DB7. The 3.0-liter, AMG-built six-cylinder uses an electric turbocharger to put out 430 hp and 383 lb-ft of torque, and gets help from a 48-volt EQ Boost micro-hybrid system throwing in 21 hp and 184 lb-ft. After driving it at a Mercedes-Benz test track, Aston Martin's chief engineer Matt Becker called the powerplant "very complicated and clever," and said, "it's a very impressive engine" that he could envision serving the brand. The 2019 Vantage engine bay can already fit the company's in-house, 5.2-liter V12, so a straight-six shouldn't be hard to swallow. As for how it would fit into the lineup, there's a chance a six-cylinder Vantage supplants the V8. However, since Becker said his engineering team "would not necessarily play" with the AMG's power curves, that option would probably have to wait until AMG upped the three-liters' output. We'd be surprised if Vantage buyers would accept giving up two cylinders and 73 hp. More likely, a six-cylinder Vantage could give Aston Martin a new entry-level model to undercut the $153,081 Vantage V8, but with plenty of ponies to thrill. A V6 coupe could also help the carmaker's emissions scores, and serve specific markets such as China where engine displacements greater than three liters get hit with heavy taxes. Related Video: