Seems like the recession isn’t hitting just common people, but is also affecting the market for $200,000-plus supercars. One such example is the Rapide, Aston Martin’s sports sedan, whose sales are falling way off initial expectations. According to media reports, the British carmaker is cutting back production of the Rapide to 25 cars per week, which translates to 1,250 per year, or 750 less than initial estimates.
The fifteen finalists in the Silverstone Classic’s, “Best British Sports Car of All Time” vote-in have been announced, and boy is there some choice picks. Before we get to that though, can I just point out a misnomer in using the, “of All Time” qualifier? This assumes (prophetically?) that Britain will not be making any more sports cars in the future, whereas, “Best British Sports Car So Far” would be a far more accurate description. But enough with semantics: who are our lucky finalists?
It’s no secret that for quite some time now, Mercedes-Benz’s parent company Daimler has just about had it with Maybach and is looking to either shut down the über luxury car brand and call it a day or partner up with British sports carmaker Aston Martin on the development of a new model. According to a report from Autoweek, the time has come for the German carmaker to make a final decision with the fate of Maybach to be decided by July 1. At a recent press event in Stuttgart, Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche told journalist that "there is a higher likelihood to come to a positive decision" for Maybach if the company can find a partner. Up until now, the only automaker that has showed interest in working with Daimler on Maybach is Aston Martin.
For the past two years, Aston Martin has been manufacturing the Rapide at Magna Steyr’s facilities in Austria, but that’s about to change soon as today, the British automaker announced that it will move production of the four-door sports saloon to the company’s Gaydon headquarters in Warwickshire, UK. The company said the necessary upgrades at its Gaydon headquarters for Rapide will begin immediately with a view to begin production of the Rapide in the second half of 2012.
In what sounds more like the plot of a The Fast and the Furious movie than real life, investigators at India’s Directorate of Revenue Intelligence office (a.k.a. India’s IRS) have uncovered a massive exotic car smuggling operation in the nation’s capital of New Dehli. It all has to do with India’s notorious 100% import tax on new luxury vehicles. 
It began with one New Dehli luxury car dealer, Sumit Walia, importing brand new luxury cars on forged invoices. These invoices listed the cars as second-hand, which saved Walia – and his customers – some 40% on import tax. Some of the cars – which included Porsches, Bentleys and Aston Martins – were found to have been stolen from the streets of Britain, France, Singapore and Japan.
The imposing fleet of 50 Jaguar E-Type models isn’t the only attraction to arrive today at London’s Canary Wharf for the free-to-visit Motorexpo as Disney and its Pixar studio sent two real life characters from the upcoming Cars 2 movie, which is set to hit UK theaters in 3D on July 22. The full-size film-star cars are the Lightning McQueen racer and the Finn McMissile Aston Martin, voiced in the movie by actors Owen Wilson and Michael Caine respectively.
You can’t spell, “Cygnet” without, “cynical marketing ploy”. The Toyota iQ-derived stocking stuffer iPhone accessory subcompact has prompted a neat little op-ed piece by Bloomberg correspondent (an ex-pat Aussie) Adam Haynes that includes some fascinating dialogue from Aston Martin insiders. 
Most of our readers will know by now that the Cygnet exists purely to counteract the 120 grams of CO2 per kilogram EU carbon restrictions to be introduced in 2012. With a combined CO2 g/km rating of 400, Aston Martin’s current fleet of high performance vehicles could never match this.
Continuing the assault of promotional material for the second installment of the Cars animated movie franchise, Disney and its Pixar unit announced today that two characters from the film will jump into life at the upcoming Goodwood Festival of Speed, which will be held at the Goodwood House from 30 June until 3 July.
Having brought you a first look at the winner of the design award for Concept Cars and Prototypes at this year’s edition of the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este in Italy, it is now time to show you the Aston Martin V12 Zagato in the flesh and on film. The concept study is a V12 Vantage draped in an aluminum Italian suite, and it will spawn a racing model that will compete in the 24-hour Nurburgring endurance race in late June as well as a limited run production version, scheduled for launch within the next year. Follow the jump to get a look of the supercar’s lines and a taste of the brutal sounds produced by Aston Martin’s 517-horsepower 6.0-liter V12 engine in our collection of videos.
The world premiere of the new Aston Martin V12 Zagato, which took place at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2011 this past weekend on the shores of Lake Como in Italy, was marked by the design award for Concept Cars and Prototypes. The conceptual model, which was created to celebrate the Aston Martin and Zagato partnership in the 50th anniversary year of the famous DB4GT Zagato, won the approval of the visitors to the Concorso D’Eleganza event. 
The competition in the Concept Cars and Prototypes category included BMW’s new 328 Homage Roadster, the Ferrari Superamerica 45, Audi Quattro, Mercedes CLS Shooting Brake, Infiniti Etherea, Italdesign VW GO!, Rinspeed Bamboo, Renault DeZir and the Scuderia P4/5.
There are very few cars in this world that can stir our imagination just by looking at them parked on the road, and this is one of them. We’re talking about the top dog in Aston Martin’s current lineup, the One-77 supercar, which was filmed here on the streets of London as it was being started up and ready to launch, by a Youtube user. It’s always great to see a rare supercar being used on the road instead of spending its life in a garage as a centerpiece.
Some companies really know how to celebrate. Take AstonMartin and Zagato, for example. The iconic British sports car maker and the legendary Italian coachbuilder will mark the 50th anniversary of their first collaboration with a brand new study.
To honor their first joint project, the 1961 DB4GT Zagato, the two companies developed the Aston Martin V12 Zagato, a race car study that will be unveiled on May 21 at the Villa D'Este Concorsod'Eleganza in Italy, where it will compete against the Ferrari Superamerica 45. But this elegant and dramatic coupe was not built for classy Concours d'Elegance events alone, as it will actually race at the Nurburgring 24 Hour event on June 25-26.
This year, the iconic Aston Martin DB4GT Zagato celebrates its 50th anniversary, and to mark the event, the British automaker and the famous Italian design house have joined forces once again to create a new project that could very well head to production. The new collaboration between Aston Martin and Zagato will be revealed in concept form at the forthcoming Villa D’Este Concours on May 21 to gauge initial customer reaction with a view to a production model following as early as 2012. 
For the time being, and aside from the teaser rendering, we don’t get any additional information on the new Aston Martin Zagato but word has it that it could be based on the mechanical hardware and platform of the current V8 Vantage.
In a goodwill gesture towards the people of Japan, Aston Martin boss Dr. Ulrich Bez will auction his company Rapide sports sedan at this year’s annual Bonhams event at Newport Pagnell, with all proceeds from the sale to benefit charities providing aid to the victims of the recent earthquakes and Tsunami. The Bonhams auction house said that in support of this initiative, it would waive its commission the Rapide sale that will take place in Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire, on Saturday May 21.
It began with one New Dehli luxury car dealer, Sumit Walia, importing brand new luxury cars on forged invoices. These invoices listed the cars as second-hand, which saved Walia – and his customers – some 40% on import tax. Some of the cars – which included Porsches, Bentleys and Aston Martins – were found to have been stolen from the streets of Britain, France, Singapore and Japan.
Most of our readers will know by now that the Cygnet exists purely to counteract the 120 grams of CO2 per kilogram EU carbon restrictions to be introduced in 2012. With a combined CO2 g/km rating of 400, Aston Martin’s current fleet of high performance vehicles could never match this.
The competition in the Concept Cars and Prototypes category included BMW’s new 328 Homage Roadster, the Ferrari Superamerica 45, Audi Quattro, Mercedes CLS Shooting Brake, Infiniti Etherea, Italdesign VW GO!, Rinspeed Bamboo, Renault DeZir and the Scuderia P4/5.
To honor their first joint project, the 1961 DB4GT Zagato, the two companies developed the Aston Martin V12 Zagato, a race car study that will be unveiled on May 21 at the Villa D'Este Concorsod'Eleganza in Italy, where it will compete against the Ferrari Superamerica 45. But this elegant and dramatic coupe was not built for classy Concours d'Elegance events alone, as it will actually race at the Nurburgring 24 Hour event on June 25-26.
For the time being, and aside from the teaser rendering, we don’t get any additional information on the new Aston Martin Zagato but word has it that it could be based on the mechanical hardware and platform of the current V8 Vantage.
