Aston Martin News

James Bond scores bespoke Aston Martin DB10 for Spectre.Ever since the classic Aston Martin DB5 graced the screen in Goldfinger, the cars driven by James Bond have been something of a cultural touchstone. The suave spy in the very expensive sports car cliché had to start somewhere.However, for Bond's 24th outing, Spectre, the British spook is kicking it up a notch.Aston Martin and the Bond film producers have taken the wraps off the Aston Martin DB10 - a purpose-built James Bond car.Aston Martin is only building 10 DB10s and they are all headed to the film setThe DB10 was designed in-house by Aston Martin, with the film's directer Sam Mendes having a hand in ensuring the DB10 would be a car fit for Bond.The DB10's styling is a mix of classic Aston details and cues from the marque's recent production offerings, but a new headlight shape could be a hint at what's to come from the Gaydon factory.While there is no word on the engine or other features of the car, but it can be safely assumed an array of aftermarket accessories will be fitted by Q-Branch.Unfortunately, those wishing to live the James Bond lifestyle themselves will have to settle for something else, Aston Martin is only building 10 DB10s and they are all headed to the film set.Given Bond's less than gleaming track record of returning field equipment undamaged, it's unlikely we'll see one drive away unscathed when production wraps ahead of the film's November 2015 release.

New S-Class Coupe to make Australian debut at Motorclassica, along with appearances from Maserati, Jaguar, Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin and Lotus.Melbourne's Royal Exhibition Building will play host to Motorclassica this weekend, as over 500 cars and motorcycles fill the world-heritage listed building and its surrounding grounds.Celebrating classic cars and bikes, Motorclassica started as a concourse event but has since grown to become a motor show-style exhibition which has attracted attention from several iconic sports car marques.Among the classic cars at this year's event will be new models from Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar, Porsche, Maserati, Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Lotus, Caterham and Morgan.Each of these brands have rich histories, and Motorclassica gives manufacturers a platform to build on this heritage with their latest models.S-Class Coupe will be available with a number of powertrains, including the 430kW/900Nm AMG 5.5-litre twin-turbo V8Mercedes-Benz was the first contemporary manufacturer to debut a new model at Motorclassica last year, and will use this year's event to reveal its new S-Class Coupe to an Australian audience for the first time.The new model is Mercedes' flagship luxury coupe, replacing the CL-Class range, and will rival the Bentley Continental when it goes on sale locally in the first quarter of next year.Though Australian specifications are still unconfirmed, the S-Class Coupe will be available with a number of powertrains, including the 430kW/900Nm AMG 5.5-litre twin-turbo V8 aboard the S63 performance flagship.Maserati will celebrate 100 years in the automotive business at this year's show and is expected to be represented strongly with iconic past models. The Italian marque's new Ghibli and Quattroporte sedans will also be on display, along with the Gran Turismo and Gran Cabrio two-door models.Jaguar will showcase its F-Type R Coupe, the firm's most powerful production model ever, while fellow British brand Aston Martin will have a Vanquish and V8 Vantage on display.Lotus will also show a pair of mid-engine Exige S sports cars, one hardtop and one roadster.The show will also celebrate 50 years of the Ford Mustang with a special display featuring the most desirable and classic Pony cars, although the new 2015 model due to go on sale in Australia next year won't make the show.Motorclassica 2014 will run between October 24-26 at Melbourne's Royal Exhibition Building.

Goodwood. There is nothing remotely like it, anywhere in the world.It's a combination of a British summer garden party, the world's most upmarket motor show, a classic car event and a high-speed hill climb. Then there is the air show, a rally stage and so, so, much more.Officially it's called the Festival of Speed and it's held each June on the driveway and front lawn — yes, really — at the stately home of the Earl of March, about 90 minutes into the green British countryside from London.The difference is that Charles March has a driveway that is ferocious fun at 250km/h in a retired Formula One car. His front lawn hosts more than 120,000 people over four days.He also knows some very special people, from F1 heroes Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen to rock gods and movie stars. And they like to show their collectable cars and cut loose in the speed trials."This is just amazing. It is unique," Bentley Motors chairman Wolfgang Durheim tells me. He's prowling like a regular punter, taking a close look at the new Jaguar F-Type Project 7 as thousands check the new arrivals in giant temporary showrooms and the Moving Motor Show.And that's what has changed at Goodwood. The event began as a fun run for classic cars and old-timer drivers but the collapse of the last surviving British motor show means the car companies now put all their effort into "The Festival".If you added the investment from all the brands, you would quickly run beyond $50 million. But even that doesn't sound like much when there are classic Ferraris on display that would cost more than $5 million each to put in your garage.The Festival now runs for a full four days and there are regular demonstration runs up The Hill by the most desirable cars on the planet, including the latest LaFerrari, Porsche 919 hybrid and McLaren P1. If you want to see how a Mercedes SLS AMG Black Series looks in action, this is the place, and it's the same for Aston Martin, Lamborghini, Maserati, Lotus and Bentley and more.There's an everyday side, too. Peugeot and Citroen and Toyota and Nissan have giant displays and Ford shows the new Mustang that's coming to Australia in 2015.Ford also uses the Festival to reveal its new Focus ST hot hatch, as Land Rover teases a hot rod Range Rover from its new Special Vehicles division, and Aston Martin and Nissan display concept cars created to debut digitally in theVisiting the show is an automotive overload. It takes a full day just to appreciate the size of The Festival. My weekend passes in a blur because Goodwood blurs dreams with reality, the past with the future, and unspeakably exotic cars with road-going runabouts. Goodwood is much more immersive than a regular motor show. And the cars move, which brings the whole thing to life.It helps immensely that the classic race cars, which truly provide something for everyone from the Dakar to Le Mans, fire up all the senses. How can you not smile as a Blitzen Benz from the dawn of motoring chugs up the same piece of bitumen that Kimi Raikkonen tears apart with a near-new F1 Ferrari?This is passion, and excitement, and a smile-a-second reflection of everything that is good about cars. "Why am I here? Where else would I be?" laughs Martine Walkinshaw, widow of Tom and now the driving force behind Holden Special Vehicles and the Holden Racing Team. She has driven to the event in an HSV Commodore and is watching son Sean driving classic Jaguar racers.It should come as no surprise that the death of the Australian International Motor Show has sparked a lot of interest in Goodwood, and how it can be copied and adapted down under. A couple of attempts are already under way and we'll see in 2015 whether the headline act in Melbourne, combining the resources of the VACC and RACV, can get somewhere close to The Festival.But that's still in the future and, despite all the glorious cars from the past and the sight of so many of the motorsport heroes even from my childhood, I'm still deeply immersed in Goodwood 2014.If you have a Bucket List, and you're remotely interested in cars, add the Festival of Speed. At the top.

LIKE most people, Ivan Sentch realises that unless he wins the lottery, buying an Aston Martin DB4, his dream car, will always be out of reach. Just last month a 1960 series II model sold at auction for $US550,000 ($607,000). But the computer programmer has a backup plan. He is printing the car, piece by piece, in his garage, until he has a working replica.For the past year the car's raked back, windscreen pillars, swooping roofline and distinctive side "gills'' have been slowly emerging from a 300 3-D printer at Sentch's home in Auckland, New Zealand. Working from a digital model downloaded from the internet, Sentch, 32, has split the car's panels into hundreds of 10cm x 10cm pieces so they can be replicated by his small Solidoodle 2 printer, which slowly builds up the shape, layer by layer, with molten plastic that is directed through a nozzle, taking about eight hours for each part.The printed shapes are glued together to make moulds for fibreglass panels. These are mounted on a metal frame, containing the engine, gearbox and suspension from a Nissan Skyline coupe, to make a working car looking identical to a DB4. It has taken a year to print the bodywork in full. Now Sentch plans to start on the interior."If it was not for 3-D printing, I would not have been able to do this project,'' he says. "The normal way of doing it is to mill the shape out of foam, which is too expensive, or to shape it by hand, which was too big an undertaking."By doing it this way, the final cost, including the printer, plastics and the donor car, will be around $NZ40,000 ($37,700). I hadn't thought about using a 3-D printer before this: it was just a solution to a problem.''He is not the only car enthusiast to find that the rapidly developing technology will allow him to build a dream car.In 2008 Citroen unveiled its GT concept car, which was designed for a computer screen. It was featured in the Gran Turismo 5 PlayStation game, but in real life its sharp lines, gaping air intakes and wraparound windscreen were a step too far for the French company. Apart from a prototype driven by a few journalists, the GT remained firmly on the drawing board.Now, slowly emerging in a Toronto garage is a replica of the car, formed on a MakerBot 3-D printer. "I fell in love with the car when I saw it for the first time and I thought that I'd have a go at making it,'' says the owner, who gives his name only as Arthur K, fearing that Citroen will take a dim view of his project. Like Sentch, Arthur will make the panels out of fibreglass and needs plastic moulds."I have got no modelling skills at all, so I can't translate what I see into a clay or foam model,'' he says. "I've downloaded a 3-D model and I'm printing the doors, the interior, the skirts on the front, rear and side, as well as the mirrors.''There are limits on what the MakerBot can do, though: the engine will come from a Chevrolet Corvette and the gearbox from a Porsche Cayman. The oldest 3-D printers were built in the mid-1980s, but consumer versions have emerged only in the past five years, and at first there were few obvious things to make with them. Now it's the car industry that is planning to make greatest use of the technology.Dealerships may no longer have to keep your car for days until a part is delivered: they could print it on the spot. Classic car owners won't have to track down a rare panel: as long as they can get a copy of the blueprints, they will be able to create a replica at home. American chat show host Jay Leno is using the technology to maintain his garage of almost 200 cars."My 1907 White Steamer has a feedwater heater and over the 100-plus years it's been in use, the metal has become so porous you can see steam and oil seeping through,'' he wrote in Popular Mechanics magazine."Rather than have a machinist try to copy the heater and then build it, we decided to redesign the original using our NextEngine 3-D scanner and Dimension 3-D printer, which makes an exact copy of a part in plastic, which we then send out to create a mould."It's like The Jetsons. George Jetson would say, I want a steak dinner. He'd press a button and the meal would come out of the machine, with the roasted potatoes and everything, all on one plate. We may not have the instant steak dinner yet but my NextEngine system is like the car-guy equivalent.''Ford embraced 3-D printing after it printed an engine intake system in four days at a cost of $US3000. The company said a prototype component would have cost $US500,000 and taken four months to make. "We can go from art to part overnight,'' says Matt Zaluzec, Ford's global materials manager. "Three-D printing is all the rage now.''TJ Giuli, leader of Ford's research lab in Silicon Valley, California, is looking at how owners may be able to adapt their cars. "What we really want to do is give people the same kind of acces-sibility they used to have for tinkering with their car, maybe when it was the 1950s, 1960s," he says. "We are interested in seeing how you can use techniques to personalise your car in interesting ways reminiscent of when cars were much more accessible.''Audi has five 3-D printers producing prototype parts for models that run for 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Jaguar Land Rover used a 3-D printer from Stratasys to make the air vents in development versions of the Range Rover Sport.Each winter BMW takes its cars to the Arctic for cold weather testing. In recent years the vehicles have been accompanied by a 3-D printer so replacement or redesigned parts can quickly be produced and fitted. Many Formula One teams also have machines in pit lane.Some Lamborghini Gallardo customers had 3-D printed parts fitted after a production problem meant the flap covering the headlight washers was not fitting properly. Instead of holding up production, a new part was produced on a 3-D printer made by an Italian firm called CRP.One hundred cars had left the production line before the tools for the redesigned part were finished, after which the part could be produced normally using injection moulding. Even Rolls-Royce is using the technology, producing life-size models of bespoke fittings."Buyers might want a drinks-carrying solution to hold a certain type of water bottle or champagne bottle,'' says James Warren, a Rolls-Royce spokesman. "We can present them with several options to ensure that the final version is right first time.''For now, though, 3-D printers are unlikely to replace the stamping, pressing and moulding that take place on a production line because they simply take too long. Some of the most precise shapes are built up in layers only 127 microns thick. It takes 100 of these layers to make a part 13mm thick. But for enthusiasts who cannot afford today's stratospheric classic car prices, 3-D printing is a way to make their dreams come true.SEVEN STEPS TO 3D HEAVEN1. Buy a printerThe Solidoodle 4 ($1100, solidoodle.com) and MakerBot Replicator 2 ($2895, thinglab.com.au) are both popular consumer printers.2. Download the 3D digital designWebsites include humster3d.com and turbosquid.com. Patterns cost from about $55.3. Find a donor carIt should have similar dimensions to the car you're recreating and will provide the underbody components. Panels and trim will be replaced.4. Adapt the designUse 3D modelling software to adjust the digital design so it can be attached to the donor car. Divide it into small printable parts.5. FabricateForm the fibreglass panels using the plastic as a template - a time-consuming process.6. FitThe moment of truth: find out if your calculations and processes were correct.7. PaintA good paint job can cost more than $10,000. 

There's always a great deal of interest any time one of the cars used in a 007 movie is offered for sale. And you can probably multiply that by 59 times for the collection of Bond vehicles owned by US real estate mogul Michael Dezer.Dezer is known for  development on a grand scale: nearly the entire suburb of Chelsea in NewYork, and several massive projects in Florida including partnerships with Donald Trump for the 900 million Trump Towers, $600 million Trump Grande Ocean Resort and Residences and the $166 million Trump International Hotel and Tower.And Florida is also where he garages his collection of 1800 vehicles, including the 59 genuine Bond ones he's selling, each of which has appeared in one of the movies.The catch is that Dezer insists they be bought as one lot, for US$33 million ($37 million). But the buyer will have a fairly comprehensive sample across the Bond series.Among the 59 are a Fairey Huntress boat used in 1963's From Russia With Love and an Audi A5 and Land Rover Defender used in the most recent film, Skyfall, for the kickstarter car chase scenes.From films in between, there are a brace of Aston Martin DB5 coupes, one of which helmed by Pierce Brosnan for Goldeneye -- and the Russian T55 tank from the film. The famed Lotus Esprit S1 that morphed into a submarine in The Spy Who Loved Me is also one of star vehicles, as are the armoured and armed BMW 750iL from Tomorrow Never Dies, and the Jaguar XKR from Die Another Day.There are also more everyday wheels, including the Citroen 2CV from For Your Eyes Only, and a replica of the AMC Hornet from The Man With The Golden Gun. The collection has been on display at the Dezer Musuem in Miami, and it's likely the buyer will do something similar once the deal is done.And while it will make a little space in the Dezer garage, there are still plenty of interesting cars staying there, including the 1948 Ford from Grease,  the 1981 DeLorean from Back to the Future, the Ghostbusters 1959 Cadillac, an original Batmobile, the Lamborghini Social Experiment Project AU 79, and many, many more.This reporter is on Twitter: @KarlaPincott

N stands for Nurburgring heritage at Aston Martin, which has over the years released several special editions celebrating the brand's success racing at the famed German circuit.We've seen the V8 Vantage N400 in 2007 and the N420 in 2010, and at Geneva motor show on March 4 we'll get to see the wraps come off the latest in the N line -- the V8 Vantage N430.Named for the 4.7-litre V8 engine's peak 430 horsepower (320kW in our metrics) delivered at 7300rpm, the N430 offers the choice of a six-speed manual or a seven-speed automated manual with race-style paddle-shifters. Aston Martin is claiming a 0-100km/h time of 4.6 seconds and a top speed of 305km/h.Like its forbears, it adapts track experience and technology -- largely from the Vantage GT4 race car and the GTE endurance racer -- with tweaked suspension and steering, plus some aerodynamic fiddling on the lighter body, which has trimmed about 20kg from the standard V8 Vantage.It also gets a slew of extra features, including machined carbon-fibre doorsill plates and gearshift bezel, black magnesium paddle-shifters, a Bang & Olufsen BeoSound audio system -- and an unmistakeable green and yellow livery that salutes  the icon DBR1 race car.The N430 will be rolled out in both coupe and droptop form, and go on sale in overseas markets in the final quarter of 2014, but there's no confirmation yet that Australia will get a quota.This reporter is on Twitter: @KarlaPincottWatch the Aston Martin V8 Vantage N430 video on our desktop site. 

New British sports car brand David Brown Automotive have issued the first teaser looks and details for their creation -- codenamed Project Judi for now.Echoing the heritage of their namesake, the car looks to be a redux of the hallowed Aston Martin DB5 (itself named for the other David Brown, who headed the brand for decades) and is based on the Jaguar XKR. However the company's press blurb talks of bespoke and "completely original exterior and interior design, realised through the highest quality materials and craftsmanship".It's been announced Project Judi is based on the Jaguar XK-R for reliability and weight-saving strategies. “As reliability is vital, we chose to adopt a thoroughly proven and acclaimed chassis that not only delivers dynamic performance but also lends itself to our lightweight aluminium design," David Brown says.Under the bonnet will be Jag's supercharged 5.0-litre V8 engine developing 375kW of power and 625Nm of torque, mated to a six-speed automatic transmission driving the rear wheels. The company claims Project Judi will do the 0-100km/h sprint in 4.6 seconds -- 0.2 seconds faster than the XKR coupe but 0.2 behind the XKR S -- and reach an electronically limited top speed of more than 250km/h.Project Judi will be unveiled at Top Marques Monaco on April 17, but it's likely we'll see more images and details emerge before then.This reporter is on Twitter: @KarlaPincott

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. 

A British man has given away his pet dog of three years after arriving home to find she had chewed a hole into the wheelarch of his beloved Aston Martin.The damage to the DB9 Volante was done while Royston Grimstead was away, with him arriving home to find border collie spaniel cross Luce 'looking guilty' and covered in feathery white fibreglass."I came home and saw her covered in white stuff and I thought she had got a bird and it was feathers - but it was the fibreglass from the car," Grimstead told the UK's Daily Mail."She had chewed out a huge chunk. I just laughed. I mean, what else could I do? I'm not a crier and she knew she had done something wrong because she had this guilty look on her face."The damage on the car -- which would would have cost around $380,000 here as a new car -- is estimated to be about £3000 ($5,500).Grimstead said Luce has never before chewed any of his possessions, but he'd been thinking about rehoming her because she didn't get on with his other dog. "She must have overheard me talking about re-homing her because she's normally friendly and never really chewed on anything before," he said.This reporter is on Twitter: @KarlaPincott 

We all know the Middle East has a healthy abundance of big-dollar luxury and supercars, but this video juxtaposes the typical ‘bunch of hoons hanging in a carpark' situation with exotica from Ferrari, Porsche, Aston Martin, and Rolls Royce.This Ken Block-wannabe Ferrari 599 driver clearly has the budget of Block, but the skill level of a P-plater in a Gemini in the mall carpark after Coles shuts, as he slides precariously past a Ferrari 458, a pair of Californias, a Porsche 911 Cabriolet, a drop-top Aston and a Rolls-Royce Ghost - and a relatively pedestrian C7 Corvette.However unlike many Hagwalah drift videos, the gathering survives the clip unscathed, so perhaps the graduation from the usual Hyundai Sonata, Toyota Camry and Honda Accord fare is just the ticket to successful Middle Eastern drifting.Watch the Ferrari drifting around other exotics video on our desktop site. This reporter is on Twitter: @Mal_Flynn