Sommaire pour Issue 33 de Vantage

DESPITE BEING both Aston Martin’s entry point and its most sporting model, the Vantage has struggled to fulfil its role as volume seller in the current range. Being pricier than its predecessor was always going to present challenges; likewise following a car that won universal praise for its looks with styling that splits opinion. Still, it’s hard to deny that the Vantage deserves more success than it has enjoyed this far. The feeling that there’s a great car in there waiting to be released is a belief shared by Aston Martin’s CEO, Tobias Moers. His solution? The new Vantage F1 Edition. It’s a mark of Moers’ approach that he didn’t simply task Aston’s engineers with making the Vantage ‘better’. Instead he followed a tried, tested and, yes, thoroughly Germanic doctrine…

FIRST, THE BAD NEWS. The Aston Martin Owners Club’s flagship Spring Concours, which was due to be held at Loseley Park in early June, has had to be cancelled for a second year. The organising committee decided they had no choice, given the nature of concours events where judges are so hands-on with owners’ cars. Concours fans can, however, get their fix once again by viewing the online entries at virtualconcours.amoc.org. The good news is that, as things currently stand, there’s still a varied programme of events for Aston enthusiasts to enjoy through the spring and early summer and plenty of benefits to joining the Club. So what can you expect if you join? Is your idea of the AMOC a bunch of overweight, middle-aged men smoking cigars outside a…

email us eds@vantagemag.co.uk write to us Vantage Magazine Editorial, Dennis Publishing, 31-32 Alfred Place, London WC1E 7DP Keeping AM special I wish Mike Duff’s news article in issue 32 of Vantage (Winter 2020) had left me optimistic about Aston Martin’s future. That Daimler is increasing its ownership to 20 per cent should be great news, and yet… Yes, Aston is too small to survive on its own, but any owner needs to be a beneficent owner. That requires a thorough appreciation of what makes Aston Martin – both the cars and the company – truly special. Ford was just such an owner. They appreciated Aston Martin, funded them and let them make great Astons. Worryingly, Daimler’s track record of collaborating with others or shepherding high-end marques is awful. Look what…

R-REFORGED HAS CERTAINLY enjoyed a rapid rise to prominence in recent times. As such, it is one of the more intriguing success stories to emerge in the wider world of Aston Martin. Formed in 2018, the company was created to provide a total design and engineering service to car manufacturers, brands and restorers, and to create desirable and individual limited-edition vehicles such as the Zagato Twins. Engineering and small-scale series production takes place at its UK subsidiary’s 30,000sq ft facility in Warwick, but this is part of a much wider operation headquartered on the same campus as Switzerland’s flagship Aston Martin St Gallen showroom, in Niederwil on the outskirts of Zurich. Known as the R-Universe, it comprises five ‘R’ brands – R-Reforged, R-Experience, R-Service, R-Technology and R-Motorsport – all of…

When it comes to kudos there’s very little to beat a V12. Power, prestige, supreme smoothness and a sense of the exotic are all bound up in this most evocative of engine configurations. For decades the V12 was largely the preserve of Italian marques, the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s defined by the sports cars, supercars and glamorous GTs that forged the reputations of Ferrari and Lamborghini. It was in pursuit of the former that Aston Martin shifted its focus from flagships powered by the magnificent but ageing Tadek Marek-designed V8 to an all-new V12. Naysayers pointed sniffily to the 5.9-litre motor’s Ford roots (it was, in effect a pair of conjoined Duratec V6s), but not only did it sit very nicely in the nose of the DB7 Vantage, it quickly…

When the order book was opened for the hotly anticipated but as yet unseen V8 Vantage Zagato following its March 1985 announcement, deposits for the entire run of 50 cars were taken within six months. Keen to acquire one of the few still available in August 1985 was perennial Aston enthusiast and owner Malcolm Young – though his enthusiasm cooled somewhat when an artist’s impression of the Zagato was shown to him by AML chairman Victor Gauntlett. ‘I was disappointed in that picture produced from under his desk when I visited him to discuss the purchase,’ Malcolm recalls. ‘I described it as “dumpy” – which didn’t go down terribly well with Victor. It was as if I’d criticised his newly born child!’ Of equal concern was the price, which had…

Bulldog – although it wasn’t called that at the time – was an idea that William Towns and I discussed in late 1976 in the ‘lull after the storm’ of the wedge Lagonda. We thought an ultimate sports car would be an exciting thing to do – and fun. So we talked about a concept that would be mid-engined, very low and very fast. I knew that we could expect to have enough power from a turbocharged V8, having already seen 746bhp ‘on the bed’, so 800/850bhp seemed a reasonable objective, meaning we could have, say, 600bhp in the shopping version, 750bhp in the sporty version and 850bhp in the ‘GT’. I calculated that 230mph-plus would be achievable given reasonably good aerodynamic figures. All we had to do was have…

SI XTY-ONE YEARS AFTERI TSI GNOMINIOUS withdrawal of the beautiful but outmoded DBR5 from the Formula 1 World Championship, Aston Martin is returning to F1 with an official factory team. This time with a car capable of challenging for race wins and, in time, maybe even the world title. It’s all part of executive chairman Lawrence Stroll’s master plan to propel Ast on Martin into the highest echelons of the sport, and to use this success to boost Aston’s sales and stock value. That objective has led to a ruthless rethink of the marque’s racing activities, with the World Endurance Championship (WEC) and its jewel, the Le Mans 24 Hours, now the preserve of works-endorsed privateers. ‘THE PROSPECT OF A MOTIVATED VETTEL IN WHAT SHOULD BE A HIGHLY COMPETITIVE CAR…

EVERY CHRISTMAS, under normal circumstances, a friend of the family visits the house bearing the least festive gifts imaginable: scratchcards. Nobody ever wins anything, of course, but this past Christmas in particular a windfall would have been welcome, because in the weeks since then more than two dozen wonderful Aston Martins have been consigned to auction. Barrett-Jackson, traditionally the ringmaster of the January circus in Scottsdale, Arizona, elected to postpone its eight-day event until March 20-27, but Bonhams, RM Sotheby’s, Gooding & Co and Worldwide Auctioneers all held sales in one form or another, and fared well. In total the four houses offered half as many lots as in 2020, but demand was strong and at RM and Bonhams the average selling price leapt by over 100 per cent compared…

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The origins of the Tickford name predate even the motor car itself. In fact they go right back to 1830, when the Salmons Carriage Works was founded in Tickford End, then a separate hamlet just to the east of Newport Pagnell. The company built bodies for horse-drawn carriages – and very successfully too. By the late 1800s it had grown into new factory buildings, some of which still survive in what is now Tickford Street, Newport Pagnell, opposite Aston Martin Works. By then Salmons’ wealthier clientele were talking about a new kind of horsepower, and in 1898 the company built its first body for a motorised vehicle – on a Daimler chassis – for the local MP. In the years that followed, Salmons provided bodies for dozens of marques, including…

With just a hint of a four-wheel drift, Roy Salvadori powers his Aston Martin DBR4/250 past the JBW-Maserati of Brian Naylor; in-line six howling, Aston Martin’s new front-engined Grand Prix car besting one of its mid-engined rivals on its way to a stirring second place. As Formula 1 debuts go, it could hardly have been better… The date is Saturday May 2, 1959 and motorsport fans have flocked to Silverstone to see the cream of F1 compete for the BRDC International Trophy. It’s a non-championship race but run to F1 rules and the grid is packed with the front-running Coopers, Lotuses, BRMs, Ferraris and Maseratis of the day. And then there’s the handsome new British contender in Aston racing metallic green. Race fans have become used to seeing the fabulous…

THE 2021 FORMULA 1 season is yet to start but Aston Martin is guaranteed to be leading the pack, thanks to an agreement that positions the marque as provider of the official Formula 1 safety and medical cars, with both the Vantage and DBX in roles vitally important to the smooth, safe running of each Grand Prix. The specially equipped Vantage safety car will be piloted by Bernd Mayländer, who has been at the helm of the Formula 1 safety car for more than 20 years. The veteran German racing driver is sure to appreciate the fact that his car is based upon the new Vantage F1 Edition, which benefits from additional power and significant chassis and aerodynamic upgrades that make it the most track-capable Vantage yet (see page 14…

Q BY ASTON MARTIN has revealed its latest collaborative project – the DBX Bowmore Edition, created in partnership with legendary Islay-based single malt whisky distillery Bowmore. Limited to 18 examples and available in unique Bowmore Blue, its bespoke features include strips of copper taken from Bowmore’s whisky stills inlayed into the side-strakes, and Bowmore Tweed interior accents. Other touches include polished copper cupholders and sill plaques made of recycled copper from the original Bowmore still. Buyers will be invited to an exclusive Aston Martin Art of Living experience in Scotland. Guests will travel to Edinburgh where they will be presented with their own DBX, before embarking on a 170-mile road trip, taking in Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park before driving onto the ferry bound for Islay, to be…

It’s probably fair to say that automotive development programmes are 99 per cent grind and one per cent glory. For the most part the hard graft goes unseen, myriad changes and thousands of miles of test driving done in private, away from prying eyes and free from praise. Such is life for engineers throughout the industry. And the truth is that they wouldn’t have it any other way, for developing, refining and improving the way cars drive is what they live to do. It’s a process that’s normally closed to outsiders, at least at an early stage, but, in a world exclusive, we’ve managed to jump onto one of the earliest development drives of the R-Reforged Zagato Twins project. How much development work can there be when you’re effectively rereleasing…

It’s as though there’s been some kind of bend in the space-time continuum. At one end of Aston Martin’s Stowe Circuit pitlane, the latest Valkyrie development cars are being monitored and preened by a swarm of laptop-wielding engineers. At the other, a mechanic enthusiastically clouts the knock-off hub spinner of a pre-war 2-litre Speed Model with a copper hammer, in a ritual as redolent of the 1930s as data analysis is in 2021. For once the whooping, whirring and obscenely venturi’d Valkyrie isn’t the centre of attention. Or at least not the centre of our attention, for we’re here to drive not one but two Speed models. And not just any old examples, either (as if there’s such a thing as ‘any old’ Speed model), but two hugely significant machines…

‘The brief to Touring was to develop a two-seater roadster more dramatic-looking than Aston’s own drophead’ David Brown was always looking for new ways to promote the Aston Martin brand, which was why in the early ’50s Aston sent a number of rolling chassis to the great Italian coachbuilders – blank canvases on which they could create striking new designs. One recipient was Carrozzeria Touring of Milan, which in 1955 received three DB2/4 MkII chassis to clothe with new bodywork using its patented Superleggera construction methods. No-one could have imagined that it would lead to a decades-long association between the two companies, one that is still celebrated today with the DBS Superleggera. Production of the DB2/4 had begun in 1953 and the facelifted MkII was introduced in 1955. It’s not…

Two goals are tantalisingly in sight for the angularly dramatic Aston Martin Bulldog concept car, 40 years old last year, as its restoration continues at Classic Motor Cars of Bridgnorth, Shropshire. One is that CMC’s managing director, Nigel Woodward, reckons it’s on track to be finished later this year. The other is that the planned maximum speed run, aiming to achieve or even exceed the 237mph that its original engineers predicted possible, will be undertaken by Aston Martin Racing’s top talent: seasoned race-winner Darren Turner. ‘I’ve been following every news snippet about the Bulldog since I heard about the restoration in the middle of last year,’ Darren enthuses. ‘I knew they were going to get it running and then go for the target, and then I got the call from…