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Aston Martin DBX Bowmore Edition is distilled luxury with a whisky theme

Aston Martin, one of the best-known British carmakers, is joining forces with Bowmore, one of the best-known Scotch whisky distillers, to create a limited-edition version of the DBX. Designed by the company's Q division, the Bowmore Edition is a cocktail of modern luxury and old-school craftmanship for car and whisky enthusiasts alike. It takes a well-trained eye to tell the Bowmore Edition apart from the regular DBX in traffic. It's painted in a relatively subtle color named Bowmore Blue, though buyers can alternatively order Xenon Grey. Black brake calipers and black wheels come standard, but our favorite exterior feature is on the side strakes. They gain copper inlays cut out of the original Bowmore still. Q by Aston Martin badges round out the list of visual tweaks. Buyers can choose between a single- and a two-tone interior. Both feature copper and blue tweed inserts created by the Islay Woollen Mill that's located on the same island as the Bowmore distillery. More still-sourced copper accents are found on the bottom of the front cupholders and on the sill plates, and each car comes with an array of edition-specific accessories, including a tweed picnic basket and a leather holdall bag. Aston made no mechanical modifications to the DBX Bowmore Edition, so please don't pour single malt in its fuel tank. Power comes from a twin-turbocharged, 4.0-liter V8 engine borrowed from Mercedes-Benz and tuned to develop 542 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque. It spins the four wheels via a nine-speed automatic transmission. The DBX posts a 4.2-second sprint to 60 mph and it can tow up to 6,000 pounds when properly equipped, which represents about 2,000 bottles of whisky — or a few hundred less if you factor in the trailer. Q by Aston Martin will build 18 units of the DBX Bowmore Edition. Deliveries will take place in the fourth quarter of 2021, but customers won't simply be handed the keys before being sent home. They'll first travel to Edinburgh, Scotland, where they'll pick up their SUV. They'll then take a 170-mile road trip through the fairy tale-like Scottish countryside before boarding a ferry for Islay for a three-night stay. Participants will eat, sight-see, visit the Bowmore Distillery, and hand-fill their own bottle of 39-year-old whisky straight from the cask, which is not bad as far as souvenirs go. Pricing hasn't been released yet, but the standard DBX starts at about $190,000. Related video:

Aston Martin documentary tells development story of Vantage GTE racer

Aston Martin doesn't merely go racing, the carmaker's name enshrines racing: Company co-founder Lionel Martin conquered the Aston Hill Climb in 1914 with a tuned Singer automobile; when Lionel needed a name for the car he built with funding from Robert Bamford, Lionel's wife suggested "Aston-Martin." That makes the Vantage GTE racer that will enter the 2018 FIA World Endurance Championship not only an obvious descendant, but a necessary one. To show us what went into the new standard-bearer, Aston Martin produced a nine-minute documentary on the Vantage GTE's development. The endurance challenger replaces the six-year-old V8 Vantage GTE race car that — even at the end of its development path — took WEC team honors in 2016 and class victory at Le Mans this year. The short doc visits Aston Martin Racing over the course of 18 months spent creating the new Vantage GTE, finding out how the road car got upgraded to race spec, what new partners like Ohlins and Alcon provided, and revealing that electrical wiring can't be mapped out entirely in CAD beforehand, the wiring has to be laid into the chassis by hand in order to find the shortest paths. The Vantage GTE rings in at 2,745 pounds dry, roughly 500 pounds lighter than the Vantage road car. The AMG-sourced twin-turbo V8 gets around 536 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque depending on circuit regulations, and shifts through an Xtrac six-speed sequential transmission with a carbon fiber driveshaft. Ohlins created a five-way suspension, Alcon supplies the brakes, clutch, and limited-slip differential, the Akrapovic inconel exhaust exits just behind the front wheels, and 18-inch forged magnesium TMS wheels wear Michelin tires. Unanimous feedback from the drivers says the new racer is already more durable, more torque-y, and more reliable than the one it replaces. The Vantage GTE debuts on track at the 6 Hours of Spa on May 5, 2018. You can watch it now in the video above. View 16 Photos Related Video: News Source: Aston Martin via YouTube Motorsports Aston Martin Coupe Racing Vehicles Videos fia wec world endurance championship aston martin vantage aston martin vantage gte

5 things to know about the Aston Martin Lagonda SUV

Though Aston Martin unveiled its Lagonda Sedan first, we were told that the British ultra-luxury electric/autonomous spinoff brand's first production car would be an SUV. Today, at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show, they took the wraps off an All-Terrain Concept: a battery-powered, autonomous-ready, all-wheel-drive crossover intended to presage that vehicle. We walked around, and sat in, the vehicle with Aston Martin Lagonda chief creative officer and design studio head, Marek Reichman, who provided us with all sorts of interesting insights about this new vehicle, and brand, which is expected to bow in 2021. Here are five things we learned. It Has a Hood for a Reason "The sedan was the most extreme version of this new design language, derived from the proportion of not having to have an engine, exhaust, driveline, or gas tank. This new concept has more of a hood, but by no means a typical SUV profile -- the windshield starts above the front axle line. This is because in an all-terrain vehicle, in all-terrain mode when you're going through snow or rough road, you want to feel protected. You want to see something in front of you." It's Huge Inside "Because of the powertrain, it has more space inside than a Rolls-Royce Cullinan, which is fully a meter [more than 3 feet] longer. Luxury now is about time and space. I can't give you time, but I can give you space." It Has Radical Materials Inside "Just like we are unconstrained by tradition on the exterior, we are similarly unconstrained in the interior. We've used materials that define modern, contemporary luxury. Not like the traditional values of an English country manor. So on the seats we have cashmere. On the key we have Swarovski crystals. On the headliner we have alpaca. And on the door cards, we have silks. This car will be built in Wales and many of these materials come from Wales." It's Luxurious and Utilitarian "Design is about solving a problem. In this case, it's about solving for a customer who needs more practical applications. So we've made the interior flexible. The front seats rotate for a future autonomous mode. But you can get fixed seats up front and move the rear sheets forward to allow room for a third row. Or you can move both rear rows forward and have more room for cargo. It's a redefinition of uses rather than trying to fit something into the box of what an SUV can be." It's Trendy and Anti-Trend "A designer's job is to see if a trend is going to burn out quickly or be long term.