2009 Aston Martin Db9 Base Coupe 2-door 6.0l on 2040-cars

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Aston Martin V12 Vantage Roadster revealed with 690 horsepower

Aston Martin kicked off the week with one V12 convertible, and it's finishing it out with yet another one. But unlike the DBR22, the V12 Vantage Roadster has a folding soft top and will be available at the end of the year. It's not quite as powerful as the DBR22, but it's no slouch, and is practically as fast as its coupe twin. Performance upgrades to the V12 Vantage Roadster are essentially identical to the coupe. It has a twin-turbo 5.2-liter V12 making 690 horsepower and 555 pound-feet of torque. Power goes through an eight-speed automatic transmission to a mechanical rear differential. In practice, the Roadster reaches the same 200-mph top speed as the coupe, and it's only 0.1 second behind it to 60 mph at 3.5 seconds. Major weight savings have been found throughout. The exhaust is an ultra thin stainless steel system as part of multiple weight saving measures including the carbon ceramic brakes with six-piston front calipers and four-piston rears. The body has been widened by 1.6 inches and features a carbon fiber front bumper, hood, fenders and side sills, as well as a composite rear bumper and trunk lid. A new grille and hood vent improve cooling, and a splitter and diffuser help with downforce. The coupe's large rear wing isn't included as a nod to classier design, but it's available as part of aerodynamic package. Optional forged wheels can save even more weight, along with optional carbon fiber sport seats. Production of the Roadster starts in the third quarter of this year, with deliveries coming later. Only 249 will be built. That makes it rarer than the coupe, of which Aston built 333 examples. All the Roadsters have been spoken for, and Aston didn't give pricing. Related Video:

Aston Martin and Tom Brady partner for new content series

Love him or hate him, it's difficult to argue with Tom Brady's popularity. While celebrity endorsements are as old as advertising, a tie-in between a storied British automaker and the most successful quarterback in NFL history doesn't happen everyday. Today, Aston Martin and Brady announced a new partnership on a content series, Category of One, that's set to debut later this year. Brady is apparently a longtime Aston Martin owner, though the only model mentioned is his current 2017 DB11. Brady will be working with the automaker on a custom-curated 2018 Aston Martin Vanquish S. The whole thing will be documented and released in portions, with the full car debuting sometime this summer. The Vanquish S, while still beautiful and plenty powerful, is the last remaining car on Aston Martin's old platform. There are few other detail on the collaboration. We also really hope Brady didn't scratch the hood of that DB11. We assume Gisele gave him a few tips for proper poses. Related Video: Celebrities Design/Style Aston Martin aston martin db11 aston martin vanquish s

World's Fastest Gamer prize: Racing Aston Martins around the world IRL

LONDON — Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya is to lead the judging panel for season two of World's Fastest Gamer, a competition aiming to take a virtual racer to the real track for a season with an Aston Martin sports car team. Season one winner Rudy Van Buren, previously a sales manager in the Netherlands, won a year as simulator driver with the McLaren Formula One team. Competition founder Darren Cox said the message coming through from the esports world was that gamers wanted more. "These gamers at the end of the day want to go racing," he said on Wednesday. "So we thought, let's not go against what everyone wants, let's push it and have the real racing as the prize." Cox has plenty of experience of that, having created the GT Academy program that took 23 people from gaming to racetrack with Nissan: "The big prize for the gamers in GT Academy was one race ... this time we're saying we're confident we'll find someone who's good enough and who will do a full season in Aston Martins at the biggest tracks in the world." The winner from 10 finalists — eight of them champions from top motor racing esports series and two separate qualifiers — will become a professional racing driver with Swiss-based R Motorsport, who work closely with Aston Martin. Van Buren will also be racing a full season as teammate to the winner. Cox said the prize of a full season was worth more than $1 million. The circuits will include Monza, Le Castellet, Brands Hatch, Nurburgring, as well as 24-Hour endurance races at Spa-Francorchamps and Daytona. Montoya, who won seven Formula One grands prix with Williams and McLaren, is also a keen online racer and still practices on simulators. Cox said he had started talking to the outspoken Colombian about gaming when they met at Daytona a year ago and he was "fully up for it." "I know the skills between real and virtual are completely transferable, so my job on WFG is to make sure these gamers are hungry and perform under the pressure I intend to put them under," Montoya said.