2019 Aston Martin Dbs Superleggera on 2040-cars

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Aston Martin Vantage GT8 spied looking all fast on the 'Ring

Aston Martin keeps rolling out new versions of its long-serving Vantage, and we keep not complaining. This latest piece, spotted on the Nurburgring, looks particularly mean in matte black with a nice big wing on the back. We believe it to be the anticipated Vantage GT8, which should be the ultimate version of the V8 Vantage. The GT8 will follow in the footsteps of the Vantage GT12; its smaller engine should pack less of a punch, but the car will be lighter in the nose a V12 Vantage, which should help handling balance. Expect the 4.7-liter V8 to be retuned to produce more power than it has in any other Vantage: currently, the top V8 Vantage tops out at 430 horsepower, and we wouldn't be surprised to see the GT8 boast more like 450. That would still leave plenty of breathing room to the V12 models that start at 565. The aero package looks similar to the GT12's aggressive setup but incorporates several changes, including fewer cooling ducts and a reshaped front splitter, rear wing, and diffuser. Expect the interior to come stripped out like the GT12's. This top V8 Vatage ought to make a fine swan song for the eleven-year-old model line before its AMG-powered, turbocharged successor arrives. But don't expect to see too many of them – sources anticipate just 150 examples to be built, which is more than the 100 units of the GT12, but will still make this a rare bird indeed. Related Video:

Pre-Race notes from the 2015 Nurburgring 24-Hours

Autoblog has come to the German countryside to watch the Nurburgring 24-Hour race, and just one day in, we have to say it's outstanding. Le Mans has been the highlight of our summer racing schedule for the past few years, the 'Ring 24-Hour event being the appetizer we always skipped. Earlier this year, however, while visiting Miami to check out the Cigarette Racing 50 Marauder GT S, we met Scott Preacher. He oversees digital marketing for both Cigarette and AMG during the week, then comes to Germany to compete in the VLN race series on the weekends, driving an Aston Martin Vantage GT4 for Team Mathol. If Le Mans is the Oscars of endurance racing, the Nurburgring 24-Hour race is the Screen Actors Guild award – the one voted on by the actors, for the actors. In this case it's the race by the teams and fans, for the teams and fans, even though the increasing manufacturer presence has altered the team equation. We were told that it wasn't so long ago that true privateers could win the overall, but that's not really the case anymore. Front-running teams have heavy factory involvement – Audi Sport Team Phoenix, for instance, which finished in first and third last year, has its own 'Ring race center and is running the 2016 R8; Aston Martin is represented by Aston Martin Racing and Aston Martin Test Center, and Bentley has a Bentley Motors team and uses HPT to run another team. The fan component hasn't changed, though, and you can't talk about the race for more than 60 seconds before someone brings up the battalions of spectators. Every driver we spoke to cited them as the most incredible part of this race after the track itself. It feels to us like a giant German Sebring, with thousands of people camped out in the ginormous, forested infield, many of whom have been here since Monday erecting their ornate camping compounds. There will be parties everywhere Saturday night, and so much bratwurst on the grill that the drivers can smell it when as they're blasting full speed through Wehrseifen. Even when we drove a Mercedes S63 AMG Coupe on a lap before the race, the fans waved like it was a competition. Scott Preacher's Australian co-driver Robert Thompson said, "You come around a corner and it's like you're driving full speed through the middle of a carnival." The race field itself could also be called a carnival, with an officially invited field of more than 170 cars. Even on a track that's 24.4-km long, that's like racing on the 405 at midday.

Why yes, my $3.6 million would go to a new 007 Aston Martin DB5

Funniest damn thing happened today. Turns out my grandfather invested in what he thought was a fruit company in the early 1980s, and 35 years later, we just discovered the Riswicks are all now multi-millionaires. That farmer Jobs guy really knew his orchard. So, what to do with my $3.6 million share. What's that you say? Aston Martin has announced it will be producing 28 new "continuation" 1964 DB5's, all in Silver Birch, and all packing vintage Q Brand gadgets from Goldfinger? Oh, well all of the money will be going to that, then. Now, Mr. Okulski over at the Road & Track would argue that the continuation James Bond DB5 has "killed nostalgia." He says that "it feels wrong," that Aston Martin is doing too much good stuff at the moment to resort to such nostalgia plays. Especially when you cannot drive the continuation DB5 on the road. That's right, every one of them is not road legal. In this country, or any other that you'd realistically want to drive a DB5. I reached out to Aston Martin to confirm why this is, and indeed, governments the world over frown upon any vehicle that possesses spinning tire shredders that extend out from the wheel hubs. Not to mention oil slicks, rotating number plates and the rest of the gadgets to be installed over the course of the estimated 3,000-hour build by the team headed by current Bond special effect guru Chris Corbould. Hmm, no kidding. Even without the guns and ejector seat, trying to make it road legal would be completely and unrealistically complex. In other words, if a DB5 with all the gadgets is to exist, it can't drive on public roads. And if you want a "new" 1964 DB5, don't you automatically want it in Silver Birch and packed with James Bond gadgets? Yes, you damn well do. I know this, because if I could outfit my BMW Z3 in Atlanta Blue with stinger missiles, a parachute and "all-points radar," I damn well would. I absolutely, 100 percent own my car because of nostalgia for GoldenEye, and I won't apologize for it. The Tina Turner theme song is cued up on the iPod. And yeah, I'd buy one of these, too. Now, I must admit that the DB5's road illegality is lame. But let's dig deeper. First, let's face the fact that most multimillion-dollar collector cars are driven less than the potted plants in my living room. They could all be road illegal and it wouldn't matter. If they're lucky, they're trailered to a golf course somewhere and driven slowly around the 18th fairway by a man in a jaunty hat.