Review of Aston Martin Vanquish

All of our recent weekly videos have been of the more educational and historic nature, but now for something completely different. This week’s VotW (Video of the Week) is a review from a few years ago of the Aston Martin DBS by the fine folks at Top Gear. Don’t know Top Gear? You call yourself a British car fan? If you don’t know them yet, you will after watching this video. Oh, and we of course mean the UK version produced by the BBC, not the rather lame US version. In this review from the BBC series, Jeremy Clarkson test drives the flashy Aston Martin DBS in his unmistakable style, before Top Gear’s tame racing driver, the Stig, takes it out for a spin round the track. And as with all Top Gear segments, be careful about watching this at work. […]

In Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale, the ugly duckling grows into a swan. Upper-crust British auto manufacturer Aston Martin may reverse the process, morphing its handsome sports cars into the Cygnet microcar. Cygnet is a collaboration with Toyota, which will sell Aston Martin 2,000 of its iQ mini-commuters to be adapted, with a target sale date of 2010 in Europe. Aston Martin, best known for its dashing James Bond DB series of 150 m.p.h. sports cars, has grafted its signature grille onto the iQ microbox. This makes the mini-Martin concept look like a fugitive from “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.” The bold Aston Martin “face” is disproportionately narrow and tall; think a Rolls-Royce golf cart. The iQ is only 117 inches long (that’s less than 10 feet) and 59 inches high, but it seats four. It’s powered by a 998-cc 3-cylinder […]

Despite its unprecedented success and staggering popularity the world over, Apple’s iPhone is no longer Britain’s coolest brand, having been knocked off the top spot of the ‘Cool Brands index’ by Aston Martin. The influential survey is made up of 2,000 consumers and a panel of 35 designers, style magazine editors, and website executives, who have deemed Aston Martin vehicles as Britain’s most desirable product — pushing the iPhone into second place. The desire to own an Aston Martin vehicle is believed to have been fueled by James Bond, who can be seen driving a whole host of the company’s vehicles in the films. Despite being nearly 100 years old, the car manufacturer still maintains its appeal, according to the survey, while cutting edge technology — such as the iPhone — struggles to keep up. For the full story, read […]