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'Q by Aston Martin' bringing unique creations to Monterey

Want an Aston Martin unlike any other on the road? You'll need to look to Q, and no, we're not talking about the inimitable Desmond Llewelyn. No, we're referring to Aston's in-house customization shop, a one-stop destination that can set your Vantage or Vanquish even further apart from every other vehicle on the road. Aston Martin is bringing four new Q-customized cars to next week's festivities in scenic Monterey, CA, covering the gamut of the brand's portfolio. At the lead is the Aston Martin flagship, the hardtop Vanquish. Finished in an eye-catching – and decidedly un-Aston-like – Abor Orange, the Vanquish boasts unique carbon fiber work, with a twill that's twice the size of your average CF. Inside, a new print has been emblazoned on the Obsidian Black leather, which Aston says is styled after the helix of a carbon molecule. For those who want to stand out and experience the wind in their hair, Q is also bringing out a pair of Aston Martin's Volante variants. The Vanquish Volante wears Frosted Silver paint, 10-spoke alloys and a Chestnut Tan interior. The DB9 Volante, meanwhile, sports perhaps the oddest style of this quartet, with Ashen Blonde exterior paint and, um, a pink interior. It's actually called Blush Pearl, and it's complemented by Piano Ice Mocha on the center stack. Finally, Q has turned its eye on the V12 Vantage S, decking it out in amethyst paint with a Monterey Pearl grille. The cabin sports the same Obsidian Black leather found on the Q-fettled Vanquish, but rather than the helix design, the Vantage S sports bold, Vivid Purple leather accents. The contrasting bits include the seat stripe, headliner, portions of the steering wheel finish and glove box liners. Take a look both up top and below for galleries of all four customized Astons, and then scroll down for the full press release from Aston Martin.

Autoblog's adventures at the Nurburgring 24-Hour race [spoilers]

The brand-new Audi R8 LMS, said to share 50 percent of its components with the street-legal R8 shown off at Geneva, has won its very first race at the 2015 Nurburgring 24-Hours. The No. 28 car driven by Christopher Mies, Edward Sandstrom, Nico Muller, and Laurens Vanthoor for the Audi Sport WRT team out of Belgium finished only 40.279 seconds ahead of the No. 25 BMW Sport Team Marc VDS Z4 GT3 in second place, for the smallest winning gap since the race began in 1970. Those two cars traded the lead throughout Sunday morning and were less than a minute away from one another for the last two hours. They were part of a total 35 lead changes during the entire race – a record for the event – and both did 156 laps. Third place went to the No. 44 Falken Tire Porsche 997 GT3, one lap down. The Audis did what they always do: lurked close to the front, stayed out of trouble, then pounced when everyone else faltered. For the opening stretches the BMW Z4 teams owned it, running 1-2-3 for a while, but all of them hit trouble. When morning came and the race got over its yellow-flag fever, the No. 28 Audi was in front and stayed there. It was the third Nurburgring 24-Hour win for Audi in four years, the brand's first win only coming in 2012. Last year's winner, the Phoenix Audi team that set a race record by doing 159 laps, had both of its cars retire. One hit an oil patch about 12 hours in, spun and was hit by another car behind, taking on too much damage to continue. The other retired with engine issues. Other Notes Three cars crashed out of the race while leading, after the rains that weren't supposed to happen, happened about 90 minutes in. The No. 20 Schubert BMW Z4 led the first 50 minutes of the race, hopped a crest at Pflanzgarten, landed in a pool of water, and hit the wall on the 30th lap. Then the No. 30 Frikadelli Porsche, with a driver team that included ex-'Ring Taxi driver Sabine Schmitz, hit the No. 31 Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 on the approach to Carrousel and crashed out. Then the No. 1 Phoenix Audi, last year's winning car, took the lead but hit the wall after that oil patch near Pflanzgarten and was out of the race. Aston Martin celebrated a class win in the SP8 category with the No. 49 Vantage GT4 N430. This being the tenth anniversary of the Vantage running the Nurburgring-24, this year's car was painted in the same colors as the racecar from ten years ago.

Aston Martin V8 Vantage Series II spotted during 'Bond 25' filming

James Bond is known for piloting all sorts of cars from Aston Martin, Lotus, and even BMW. His most famous is obviously the silver DB5 from the Goldfinger, which had various cameo appearances in some of the newer Bond films featuring Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig. But for the latest installment to the series, it appears movie producers are going a bit more nostalgic. Norwegian news outlet Dagbladet reportedly caught wind of the movie's filming and production along Norway's scenic Atlantic Coast, where a later Aston Martin V8 Vantage Series II was spotted during a car chase cut. Diehard Bond fans would point out that the V8 Vantage from the 1970s and 1980s was Bond's vehicle in the films featuring Timothy Dalton as Bond, most notably "The Living Daylights." As seen from the exclusive photos and footage from Dagbladet, the Aston Martin V8 Vantage was being driven with some Toyota Land Cruisers and Range Rover Sports in pursuit. The brown Aston in use even had the same license plate as the one driven by Dalton's Bond: B549 WUU. This strongly implies that the V8 Vantage will make an appearance, in addition to the rumor that Bond will get an all-electric version of the Rapide. The next Bond film is rumored to be very nostalgic, especially since it's the 25th film of the franchise. Not much is specifically known however, besides the fact that Daniel Craig will return as James Bond while Rami Malek will take the role as the film's leading villain and antagonist. Supporting roles will be played by Naomie Harris as Eve Moneypenny, Ben Whishaw as Q, and Ralph Fiennes as M, as previously played in the last few movies. The latest film is directed by Cari Johi Fukunaga, who also directed HBO's "True Detective" and Netflix's hit series, "Maniac." Aston Martin also chimed in with its own nostalgic tribute to its role with James Bond with the launch of an Aston Martin DBS Superleggera that pays tribute to the franchise's sixth film ever, On Her Majesty's Secret Service.