Aston Martin V12 2012 News

The British-based prestige sports car maker is recalling about 75 per cent of its cars built since late in 2007, after discovering a Chinese supplier was using counterfeit plastic in the accelerator pedals.The recall covers all left-hand drive cars that rolled off the production line since November 2007 and all right-hand drive ones since May 2012, in which there is a risk the pedals may break. The DB9, V8 Vantage, DBS,  Rapide, Rapide S, V12 Vantage, V8 Vantage S and Virage are included in the recall, but the latest Vanquish is not.The recall means thousands of wealthy and celebrity owners around the world will have to return their cars -- including the DBS driven by Daniel Craig in the James Bond movie Quantum Of Solace and a V12 Vantage Roadster he was loaned for his 45th birthday last year.Documents filed with the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration state that a company called Synthetic Plastic Raw Material Co. Ltd. of Dongguan supplied the counterfeit plastic to Shenzhen Kexiang Mold Tool Co. Ltd -- the firm that makes the pedals for Aston Martin.The recall affects 156 cars in Australia, the owners of which are being contacted. "Aston Martin is writing to owners and working through the process of replacing those as quickly as practical," an Aston Martin spokesman said. "However there have been no accidents or instances of the pedal failing here." Aston Martin has announced it will move production of the part to the UK. 

The glamorous V12 Aston Martin Zagato is scheduled for production later this year and will be the pinnacle of the Vantage range.

Despite sweeping two production classes in this year's German 24-hour classic, including a fresh victory for the latest V12 Vantage coupe, the British brand is doing all it can to translate motorsport success into showroom results.That could even lead it into grand prix racing in 2010 with David Richards, the Prodrive and Ford Performance Racing chief who is also the chairman of Aston. Richards has just filed an entry for next year's Formula One world championship, but that's another story . . .While the track work has been paying off for Aston it is also working to create a Road Sport range to give a halo to the brand and bridge the gap to its super-exotic One-77 coupe.It is already pushing the V12 Vantage RS and now has a drop-top model ready to go: the Volante RS.Aston is not believed to be going as hardcore as Porsche does with its RS models, and particularly the stripped-down GT3 RS, but still wants to provide more performance.It is also following Bentley, which is doing the RS job with its growing line-up of Speed models.The V12 Volante RS was caught during test on roads near the Nurburgring in Germany but there is no new yet from Europe about a potential on-sale date or pricetag. But the car will definitely be fast with a 6-litre V12 in the nose.