2014 Aston Martin Vantage on 2040-cars

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Aston Martin Vantage GTE race car revealed

Though Aston Martin had more than enough news in revealing the new V8 Vantage, it decided it needed to show one more thing: the Vantage GTE race car. Obviously the body work is based on the road car, but it's more aggressive. It has an even bigger version of the V8 Vantage's massive grille. The hood gets extra vents. The exhaust now exits out the front fenders. And, of course, it gets a huge wing and equally monster diffuser. The interior is quite a bit different, though, with the comfy seats and leather trim gone in favor of a roll cage and bare carbon fiber components. Under the skin, there are some similarities to the regular V8 Vantage. The main connection is the Vantage GTE's engine, which is a version of the same 4.0-liter twin-turbocharged AMG V8 found in the road car. It makes more power than the street version with at least 530 horsepower. Torque is roughly the same, though. Instead of an eight-speed automatic, the Vantage GTE uses a six-speed sequential manual transmission. Both cars use double-wishbone suspension front and rear, but the GTE gets adjustable anti-roll bars and Ohlins adjustable shocks. The brakes are also upgraded to six-piston front calipers and four-piston rear calipers from Alcon. It will start racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2018. Related Video:

2023 Aston Martin DBX 707 First Drive Review | Supercar SUV

OLBIA, Sardinia – What is the definition of a supercar? It varies from generation to generation, from country to country, and from brand to brand. ItÂ’s the type of complex question that could fuel pub talk until the taps run dry. Aston MartinÂ’s supercars have historically been the low-slung two-door kind, but the British firm submitted a different answer by releasing the 2023 Aston Martin DBX 707. ItÂ’s an SUV that serves supercar-like power, supercar-like acceleration, and a supercar-like price. Does it deserve a spot in this elite group in spite of its family-friendly proportions? I traveled to the Italian Mediterranean island of Sardinia to find out. On paper, the 707 is a DBX with a more powerful engine – thatÂ’s one way to sum it up but itÂ’s cruelly unfair. Dig deeper and youÂ’ll discover hundreds of changes made to differentiate the two models, both in terms of design and in terms of driving dynamics. The grille is 27% bigger (itÂ’s not just BMW riding this train), the side skirts have been redesigned, thereÂ’s a carbon fiber spoiler attached to the top part of the hatch, and the rear bumper is now vented. One of the most striking design cues is the rear diffuser: loosely inspired by the unit fitted to the Valkyrie, it sticks out far beyond the bumper and looks ready to pick a fight with every curb that comes its way. Aston Martin told me you can still fit the 707 with a hitch, so thatÂ’s a relief. Wait: tow? With this? Certainly! Bolt that hitch on it and you can pull approximately 6,000 pounds. While some of these tweaks are purely aesthetic, others allowed Aston Martin to hone the DBXÂ’s aerodynamic profile. Adding splitters to the front bumper stabilizes airflow, for example, and Sam Holgate, Aston MartinÂ’s chief designer for mid-engined models and SUVs, pointed out that the 707 has about 5% less lift than the regular DBX. “Mainly, that came out from the front of the car by venting air out of the arches, but then we got it back with the rear spoiler, so this car is completely lift-neutral front to rear, regardless of whether youÂ’re traveling at high or low speeds,” he told me. In a way, the 707 is a laboratory that incorporates some of the feedback that Aston Martin has received about the DBX since production started in 2020. Buyers wanted soft-close doors; itÂ’s got them. And, there is one improvement that Aston MartinÂ’s engineering team is particularly proud of.

NHTSA grants Aston Martin temporary exemption from new safety standards

A few months ago, we reported that Aston Martin was in danger of running afoul of new US safety regulations that could force it to take some of its most popular models off the market. The automaker, its dealers and – according to the overwhelming results of our informal online pole – you yourselves reasoned that the constricting regulations were unfair to a small-scale, niche automaker like Aston Martin. And the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration evidently agrees, granting the British automaker a temporary exemption from the regulations and allowing it to keep its cars on the US market. The issue comes down to new side-impact crash standards that require motor vehicles to better withstand a collision with a stationary object like a pole or a tree. The Vantage and DB9 models do not meet the new regulations, and Aston, it seems, doesn't have the wherewithal to re-engineer the cars to meet the regulations. But given the small nature of the independent automaker and the relatively small number of vehicles it sells, NHTSA has granted Aston an exemption. As a result, instead of being forced to comply with the new regulations that took effect for the coupes this past September and for convertibles the next – or else withdraw from the market altogether – the DB9 coupe will have until August 2016 to comply, while the DB9 Volante and both coupe and convertible models in the Vantage line will have until August 2017. It's entirely possible that, by that point, Aston will have all-new models on offer, potentially replacing the Vantage and DB9 models or giving it sufficient new products to offer that taking those older, non-compliant models off the market would not cause it the same degree of financial harm. The automaker has an all-new platform in the works and a new engine deal with Mercedes-AMG in place, and was recently spotted testing what could be the first of its new generation of models at the Nurburgring.