Aston Martin DBS

Today, I would like to cover one of the most beautiful cars in the world. This is a car that can stir your emotions into high gear! So I thought that everyone would enjoy the Aston Martin DBS. The Aston Martin DBS is a special version of the infamous Aston Martin DB9.

The DBS is a world class example of a beautiful fast grand tourer that was launched in 2007 at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. The first deliveries occurred in early 2008. The car is assembled in Gaydon, England....and the motor is build at the Aston Martin engine plant in Cologne, Germany.

The DBS is a true 2-seat coupe.....as opposed to the DB9 which is a 2+2 couple. The DBS has a bonded aluminium chassis and is made of lightweight magnesium alloy, carbon fibre composite and aluminium. It is the first production Aston Martin to make extensive use of carbon-fibre body panels.

Aston Martin has a checkered past with some great cars and the company has seen its fair share of financial troubles. Ford purchased the brand in 1987 and sold the brand in 2007 to a consortium lead by David Richards, a British racing champion.

Ford brought stability to the company, substantially increased reliability and left the designers to do what they did best. As a result, they have created fabulous examples of the automobile.

The DB in the name stems from David Brown, the owner of Aston Martin for a significant part of its history. The DB9 was designed by Ian Callum and finished by his successor, Henrik Fisker. Ian Callum is an infamous British designer whose work I greatly admire! He has such a sense of style!

Did I mention that the DBS is FAST! The DBS is equipped with a a heavily revised 5.9 Liter V-12 motor, derived from the DBR9 racing car. The motor produces 510 horsepower, a 0-60 mph. speed of 4.3 seconds and a top speed of 194 mph. The car comes with a 6-speed manual or "Touchtronic" 6-speed automatic transmission.

The DBS generates the numbers promised by a vicious exhaust note and steam roller tires. Click to see the DBS video!

Pricing fits under the category if you have to ask you cannot afford it! Yes....it is ultra expensive at $269,000 USD plus options.

Aston is big on the tactile experience; to bring the DBS’s engine to life, you press a sapphire and stainless steel “Emotion Control Unit”—not an ignition button.

SUMMARY:

I have to admit that Aston Martin DBS is one my favorites cars in the world. First, it is a beautifully styled car with some serious motoring performance.

This is a beautiful example of what a sports car should be! All I can say is wow! The DB9 stirred my adrenaline....so the DBS would only raise the bar.

Maserati Gran Turismo

This will be the last of the luxury supercar posts for the short term, but they are cars that instill such passion. Passion describes today's post of the beautiful Maserati Gran Turismo!

The Gran Turismo is a true 2+2 coupe. It is not the fastest versus it's competition! It does not have a lot of the electronic gadgets found on much of the competition..no heated and cooled seats, no adaptive cruise control, no night vision, or overly complicated stereo system. It is a gorgeous car with a unique driving personality...it is an incredibly smooth driving car. What this car has in abundance is panache! Check out this Maserati video!

Maserati is an Italian manufacturer of racing cars and sports cars. Maserati was originally founded in 1914, and competes directly with Aston Martin, Jaguar and to a lesser extent Audi, Mercedes Benz and BMW. Maserati has been owned by the Italian car giant Fiat S.p.A. since since 1993. Prior to that Chrysler under Lee Iaccoca owned Maserati.

The Gran Turismo comes in a huge number of colors, nineteen exterior colors, ten interior leather colors and believe it six colors for the brake calipers. A 4.2 liter V-8 generates 405 hp., the performance numbers are approximately 0-60 mph. 5.1 seconds, with a top speed of 177 mph.

Pricing for the Gran Turismo starts at $117,500 USD. My take is that this is not an average persons car, but a car that car enthusiasts should aspire to own. It is car that people find very rewarding!

Aston Martin Lagonda Concept

My British blogging friend Hilary Melton-Butcher with Positive Letters mentioned the Aston Martin Lagonda one day. A new and controversial Lagonda concept was announced, so I thought it would be an appropriate post. The new Lagonda concept is controversial since Aston Martin has produced only sports cars with the exception of the original Lagonda. The new Lagonda appears to be an crossover SUV.

The original Lagonda was a luxury four-door sedan (saloon in Europe) built by Aston Martin between 1976 and 1989. An example is shown in the photo below, 645 examples of this model were produced at an average selling price was £150,000.

Lagona was established by Wilber Gunn, an American from Ohio, who went to England to setup a European branch of his brother in laws steam engine manufacturing company. Lagonda is the name of a district close to Lagonda Creek in Ohio.

Aston Martin was about to go out of business in the mid-1970s and needed something to bring in some much-needed cash. Traditionally, Aston Martin had developed 2+2 sports cars, , but the Lagonda — the model being named after a grand sporting marque — was a four-door sedan(saloon) with a brand new V8 engine. As soon as it was introduced, it drew in hundreds of deposits from potential customers, helping Aston Martin's cash reserves.

Throughout the history of the Lagonda, these hand-built Lagondas were among the most expensive sedans in the world. The only other "production" cars to approach its lofty price tag were the Rolls-Royce Silver Spirt/Silver Spur, Bentley Mulsanne, and the Maserati Quattroporte.

A number of "series" was produced during the lifetime of the model, including a face lift in the 1980s which attempted to round off the car's razor-like lines and removed the troublesome pop-up headlights, which had proved unreliable.

The Lagonda was the first production car in the world to use computer management and a digital instrument panel, although the computers in many of the original cars are failure-prone. The development cost for the electronics alone on the Lagonda came to 4 times as much as the budget for the whole car. The second series used cathode ray tubes for the instrumentation, which proved even less reliable than the original model's LED display.

The Lagonda's striking design and opulent, club-like leather interior, together with its then-state-of-the-art instrumentation, contrasted starkly with its decidedly "old world" 4-cam V-8 carbureted engine and Chrysler 3-speed "TorqueFlite" transmission, which combine to provide a single-digit mpg. rating.

Information on the original Aston Martin Lagonda provided by Wikipedia!

Aston Martin DB9

A friend has requested that I do some posts on infamous British cars! So I thought that everyone would enjoy a post about the Aston Martin DB9. The Aston Martin DB9 is a world class example of a beautiful fast grand tourer that was launched in 2004.

A prime example of a 2006 DB9 Volante is show below.

Aston Martin has a checkered past with some great cars and the company has seen its fair share of financial troubles. Ford purchased the brand in 1987 and sold the brand in 2007 to a consortium lead by David Richards, a British racing champion. Ford brought stability to the company, substantially increased reliability and left the designers to do what they did best. As a result, they have created fabulous examples of the automobile. The car sounds fabulous also, click here for the video.

The DB in the name stems from David Brown, the owner of Aston Martin for a significant part of its history. The DB9 was designed by Ian Callum and finished by his successor, Henrik Fisker. Ian Callum is an infamous British designer whose work I greatly admire! He has such a sense of style! For more information about him visit a New York Times Blog.

I have to admit that Aston Martin DB9 is one my favorites cars in the world. First, it is a beautifully styled car with some serious motoring performance. Second, did I mention that the car is FAST! The DB9 coupe has a V-12 motor that produces 470 horsepower, produces a 0-60/0-97kn/h speed in 4.6 seconds and a top speed of 190 mph/306 km/h.

DB9 comes in two variants, a coupe and the Volante convertible. There is also a new variant out now which is the DBS which generates 40 more horsepower than the standard DB9. The DBS wears a full carbon-fiber suit which is a first for Aston, and gets carbon-ceramic brakes and adaptive dampers. Shown below is the coupe version of the the DB9.

The DBS generates the numbers promised by a vicious exhaust note and steam roller tires, sprinting to 60 in 4.3 seconds and topping out at 191 mph via a 510-horsepower V-12. Aston is big on the tactile experience; to bring the DBS’s engine to life, you press a sapphire and stainless steel “Emotion Control Unit”—not an ignition button.

Shown below is the 2009 Aston Martin DBS. Click to hear DBS exhaust note !