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| Aston Martin One-77 |
The iconic Aston Martin DB5 as driven by James Bond is to make an appearance at the Midsummer Classic and ThunderBall events to be held at Stoke Park Club near Stoke Poges in Buckinghamshire.
This event takes place on the 26th June and organiser Nicholas Mee of CTR Events said “we are very excited to be presenting this iconic Aston Martin at Stoke Park Club, itself a filming location for scenes in two James Bond movies. This will also be the first time this DB5 will have been on display with all the other James Bond Aston Martins: the DBS from Quantum of Solace, the Vanquish from Die Another Day and the V8 Vantage Volante from The Living Daylights.”
The Aston Martin DB5 made appearances in Goldfinger in 1964 and Thunderball in 1965 which helped establish the car as not only one of the iconic Aston Martins but also one of the most globally revered cars of all time.
The Stoke Park Club is a country club and resort with an impressive mansion clubhouse and 350 acres of historic parkland. Tickets are available for both the daytime Mid-Summer Classic and the evening ThunderBall. The day time tickets are £95 and the evening tickets are priced at £225. There is a joint day and evening ticket at £295.
Aston Martin Rapide 2010
Aston Martin Rapide 2010
Albert Einstein once described his theory of relativity by saying: "When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute and it's longer than any hour."
Now comes automotive proof. There is arguably no car on the road today more an illustration of time being relative than the 2011 Aston Martin Rapide. Get anywhere near Aston Martin's first four-door offering in more than 20 years, and time — and your heart rate — speeds up.
The Rapide looks like Aston Martin's DB9 because that's largely what it's based on. The cars share numerous components including a 6.0-liter V-12 engine, good for 470 horsepower and 443 pound-feet of torque; a rear-mounted "Touchtronic 2" six-speed automatic transmission with paddle shifters; and various body panels and suspension components.
Aston Martin's philosophy in releasing the Rapide is similar to that of other companies trying to straddle the four-door coupe/sedan line, including Mercedes-Benz and its CLS63 AMG, Maserati's Quattroporte and, most notably, Porsche's Panamera. That is: Build a car that looks and handles like a sports car, yet has the added practicality of a larger trunk and rear seats that you don't have to be a Cirque du Soleil alumnus to access.
Aston Martin Rapide
IT'S a sunny Sunday afternoon and you're off to a country pub for a pie and several pints. Naturally you will not drive yourself there and so are cadging a lift. You have two offers: a Ford Galaxy with lots of space for head and legs or the cramped rear seat of a brand new Aston Martin Rapide.
Which do you choose? Only a complete loser would choose the Ford because the pub will be packed and loads of people will see you rock up in one of the world's most sexy four-door cars. You might well fall out of the Rapide in a tangle of arms and legs but you will still have arrived in great style. Anyway, people will simply assume that this isn't the first pub that you've been to today and that you have already got a few jars in the bag.
You can probably guess the identity of the Rapide's mother from looking at it. Yes, it's a stretched Aston Martin DB9. Astons have an extruded aluminium chassis made up of bonded, riveted and bolted together sections so it's extremely straightforward to get a few longer lengths of aluminium and make a longer version of the car. Which is exactly what's been done - in Graz, Austria and not in Aston's Gaydon factory where everything else is made. A bit of a shame this, because I would rather it were built by British workers. Never mind, it's still lovely to look at.
