Mike in CA

The way I read frayed's post was that driving the GT3 "a short distance at very low speeds" as the poster described his experience with it, was a very poor test, and would be for any performance car. I don't think it meant it wouldn't be driven on the street or only at 10/10ths on track.

maxbhp

Got to pick his brain for about 20 minutes over a coffee at the Prodrive facility. An amazing facility btw, if you are ever in the UK I suggest you check it out as they are happy to give tours. Also had a heritage collection with some cool retired rallycars belonging to Colin Mcrae, Jenson Buttons BAR Honda F1 car, and of course the Aston lemans cars.

New Vantage is far from coming out, as in about 5 years from now. They are planning to continue to keep tweaking it here and there until a brand new one comes out then. The car first appeared in 05 so it is already quite old but they seem to think it can last another 5 yrs.
I was met with the usual "we do what the market demands" regarding the lack of a manual being offered anymore. They will not make a a v12 Vantage S in manual even if you offered to pay a hefty extra sum.
Couldn't get a straight answer out of him regarding an SUV but it seemed like that is something in the works, and we will see the Lagonda name eventually at some time (maybe as the SUV, but I'm just speculating).

Aston is actually not cash strapped for almost the first time in 100 yrs because Investment Dar, Adeem, and the new investor Investindustrial are in for the "long haul".
Only mention regarding the AMG engines was that they will be a great partner, share the one man-one engine philosophy, and forced induction will be seen on future Astons.
He also promised the V-12 is not dead and will definitely continue in AM's flagship (no idea if they'll borrow one from AMG or continue using the Ford based one they've been using for so long).

My uncle is not an active player or decision maker in the company, he's actually a banker and an exec at Investment Dar and thats where his Board seat comes from. He's also a lifelong 911 fan and the guy that got me into cars in general. I wish i could provide more but I wasn't really there for an interview, just grabbed an opportunity to meet a really cool guy in the car world. Whenever I asked anything that even had a hint of criticism toward the company I could tell he would get a little defensive, so I tried to kiss his *** a little in the end. The company line that he would keep going back to "we are a very small company, have only sold 65,000 cars over the last 100 yrs..."

frayed

Is there a particular reason for your douchebagery? Or are u e-cocking again?

frayed

Yeah. Thought so.

wanna911

No, just pointing out the obvious.......


douchebaggery and e-cocking huh? Nice.

Does that go nice with your E-***** envy?

skuplist

This is better than reading about stitching.

brake dust

Thanks for the follow up maxbhp! Agree seems like a really cool guy. Like their strategy now - focused on GT and not LMP1. Seems like they are following the Porsche strategy and developing racing support for customer teams and generating revenue from racing. Agree with Trackcar - would like to see a "GT" version of the Vantage - would be a great seller!

jakermc

Here you go:

http://trg-astonmartinracing.com/ast...tin-race-cars/

aussie jimmy

hahaha!

but maybe not more than reading abut clear-bras!

kosmo

Daimler officially announes to take up to 5% stake in AM.


“This agreement is a real win-win for both sides,” Tobias Moers, head of Mercedes-AMG, said in the statement. Daimler will have observer status on Aston Martin’s board.
In addition to the engine agreement, the companies are in talks for Daimler to provide electronic components to Aston Martin and are investigating other areas of cooperation. Today’s agreement between the carmakers formalizes an initial accord from July.