2010 Aston Martin Vantage on 2040-cars

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Check out King Charles III's $17.6 million car collection

King Charles III's coronation will take place in England on May 6, and being crowned a monarch comes with a long list of perks with four wheels. He will gain full access to the Royal Family's fleet of cars, which is valued at about GBP14 million (approximately $17.6 million). The two most expensive cars in the collection are nearly identical: they're a pair of Bentley State Limousine models (pictured) built for Queen Elizabeth II, King Charles III's mother, in 2002. Only two units were made, and they're both part of the Royal Family's fleet, so they're difficult to put a value on; it's not like one is going to end up listed on your favorite auction site anytime soon. British company Nationwide Vehicle Contracts, which compiled the list, estimates that each armored, 245-inch long sedan is worth at least GBP10,000,000 (roughly $12.6 million). Dropping below the eight-digit threshold, the second-most-valuable car in the Royal Family's fleet isn't really a car. It's the Gold State Coach, which Matchbox recently released a 1/64-scale replica of, and its value is estimated at GBP1.6 million (about $2 million). At 275 inches long it's even bigger than the Bentley limousine and it weighs about 9,000 pounds. It's 261 years old and designed to be pulled by eight horses, and has been part of every coronation since 1831. The rest of the Royal Family's vehicles are relatively mundane. There's a 1965 Aston Martin DB6 Volante that Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Phillip, bought for King Charles III on his 21st birthday. It's worth GBP1 million (about $1.2 million). The collection also includes a Rolls-Royce Phantom VI (about $627,000), a Bentley Bentayga (about $201,000), a Land Rover Range Rover long-wheelbase Landaulet ($133,000), a Jaguar XE (about $41,000), and a Land Rover Defender ($38,000). "Luxury cars have long been associated with the monarch and King Charles III, in particular, is known for his fondness of motor vehicles. His impressive collection features sentimental value with motors passed down from his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, to cars bought for him by his parents," explained Keith Hawes, the director of Nationwide Vehicle Contracts, in an interview with CBS News. Being at the head of a car-making nation's royal family also comes with drawbacks: Every vehicle in King Charles III's fleet is British.

2021 Aston Martin DBX looks the part, likely drives it, too

After 106 years in business and after five years working on development, Aston Martin presents its first-ever SUV, the DBX. Having seen spy shots and teasers of the vehicle's progress over the past year, it's everything we'd expect, and on first glance it holds up as an Aston Martin. The company's already told us there's an AMG-sourced, 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 making 542 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque, making this the most powerful version of that motor in the English automaker's lineup. Shifting through a nine-speed torque converter automatic, zero to 60 miles per hour takes 4.3 seconds, top speed is 181 mph. We've heard the exhaust note. And we've seen the leather-filled interior and the $189,000 USD price, which comes to $192,086 after destination. What we now know are 24 pages worth of press release detail that make this a true Aston Martin. We'll share just a few of those details here. The exterior has all the rake and swoop one would expect. Astride the trademark grille shape are LED headlights, below those, DRLs ring two aerodynamic ducts that reduce lift and drag and cool the brakes. Frameless doors hide their window seals for a super clean look, and the B-pillars are fronted with glass to help the illusion of an unbroken expanse. The rakish rear glass slides down to a pronounced, fixed spoiler lip reminiscent of the Vantage. Two wheel sizes are offered, both 22 inches — the V-spoke design shown, and an optional Ribbon design that gives the "appearance of interwoven strands of contrasting color metal" that's inspired by "the interlocking antlers of stags in battle." The DBX comes on a new bonded aluminum platform specifically developed to support an SUV. Years of experience with the construction method helped engineers keep weight of the five-seater down to 4,940 pounds for the vehicle overall. The weight is dynamically managed by an adaptive air suspension bolstered by a 48-volt anti-roll system. The standard 7.8-inch ground clearance can be raised by 1.8 inches to clear a 19.7-inch wading depth, or lowered by a hair under two inches when easy access is needed to the 22.3 cubic-feet of trunk space behind the second row. The new AWD system uses an electronically controlled center diff and a rear differential to apportion torque, going from a 47/53 torque split to sending almost 100 percent of twist to the rear.

Aston Martin to keep V12 alongside new AMG V8

Aston Martin is embarking on a brave new future. After thirteen years basing the bulk of its lineup on the VH architecture, Aston is developing a new platform, and is partnering with Mercedes-AMG to develop a new V8 engine and electronic systems. But what will happen to the old platform and engines once the new ones arrive? You might think that they'd be retired, but that won't necessarily be the case. At least as far as the AM11 V12 engine goes. The 6.0-liter engine was developed by Cosworth, based on a Ford block, and first appeared on the DB7 Vantage way back in 1999, but still powers everything Aston offers, save the V8 Vantage. It's evolved heavily over the past decade and a half, rising in output from 420 horsepower to 565, but Aston is one of the only British automakers still offering a V12 these days (Jaguar no longer does, Bentley's is actually a W12 and while Rolls-Royce does, its vehicles are mostly of a decidedly more sedate nature), and will surely want to carry on that legacy. That's why Aston spokesman Matthew Clarke revealed in correspondence with Autoblog, "Our 6.0-liter V12 engine will remain, with ongoing development, at the heart of a number of our flagship models for the foreseeable future," long after the new engine being developed with Mercedes arrives. Just which models will receive the new eight-cylinder engine and which will keep the twelve remains to be seen, but we get the feeling Aston's eight-cylinder range will broaden to include more than just the Vantage. As for the VH architecture, you can expect it to sail off into the proverbial sunset once the new platform is ready, though we wouldn't be surprised to see it phased out more gradually than abruptly. A 13-year tradition doesn't end overnight, after all.