Aston Martin teams set out to conquer the infamous Nurburgring in Germany.

Luxury British sports car maker Aston Martin, along with its race team Aston Martin Racing, today announces an ambitious five-car assault on the 2015 ADAC Zurich N24 endurance race at Germany’s infamous Nürburgring.

Aston Martin Racing heads to the world-renowned endurance event on 16/17 May with a pair of works V12 Vantage GT3s, and has its sights set firmly on the outright race win in the top SP9 class.

While Aston Martin has been racing at the annual Nordschleife event for a decade, 2015 is only the third time that its works race team has entered the top SP9 class for GT3 cars.

In 2013, with the car running in the iconic blue and yellow livery of Aston Martin’s technical partner Bilstein for the first time, the team finished tenth after leading the gruelling race for more than half the running time, and in 2014 it finished fifth. This year, Team Principal John Gaw is confident that the race win could be within sight.

“The worst thing you can do at the Nürburgring is underestimate it,” he commented. “However, we’ve shown in the last two years that we have the potential to take the outright race win.

“We’ve learned a lot here, and this year we come with two cars which are well proven and reliable, and a strong driver line-up. The race win is the ultimate goal.”

Aston Martin Engineering Team

Continuing its tradition of intensive product prove-out at this unique and gruelling race, Aston Martin will also enter two race-prepared Vantage GT12s in the event’s close-to-production SP8 class.

The Vantage GT12 was launched to worldwide acclaim in March this year at the Geneva Motorshow, with all 100 examples sold before the car was publicly unveiled. Taking its inspiration directly from Aston Martin Racing’s Vantage GT3, the Vantage GT12 benefits from the learning drawn from the brand’s ten years of racing and developing its road cars at the Nürburgring.

In the 24-hour race, the Vantage GT12s will run as close to production specification as possible with only required racing safety upgrades added, emphasising its track capabilities and demonstrating its durability under the most intense conditions.

David King, Director of Special Projects and Motorsport at Aston Martin said: “This is a unique event where our professional AMR race team and our Gaydon engineering team come together to compete as one entity. The team spirit is very special and we learn a great deal, both technically and organisationally, each year. I am very proud that we have kept a 100 percent finishing record over the past ten years and we will be doing everything possible to maintain that.”

He added: “We are very fortunate to have the continued backing and technical support of partners Bilstein and Castrol, as well as tyre partner Michelin who have been selected as tyre supplier for the Vantage GT12 road car.”      

Finally, to celebrate the company’s tenth year at the race, the brand’s line-up will be completed by a Vantage GT4 to be driven by Aston Martin non-executive chairman, Dr Ulrich Bez, and presented in the same yellow livery as the original Vantage N24 he drove in 2006.

The Nürburgring 24 Hours starts at 16:00hrs CET on 16 May. Follow and support the team on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and now Periscope using #teamAMR.

Range Rover Sport Hybrid and Airstream, the ideal partnership, in the worst weather around.

• Range Rover Sport Hybrid tows 8.25 metre, 2.5 tonne trailer over 2,500 miles to the Arctic Circle
• Patented hybrid technology contributes to a mighty 700Nm of vehicle torque to provide strong, precisely controllable performance for towing in extreme weather
• Trailer Stability Assist technology proves its worth in high winds on exposed bridge
• Gale-force winds, record snow depths and icy road conditions test vehicle, rig and crew to their limits

Land Rover has teamed up with Airstream on an adventure to the Arctic Circle to demonstrate the capabilities of the new Range Rover Sport Hybrid. The world’s first premium diesel hybrid towed the 2.5 tonne travel trailer 2,500 miles to Land Rover’s cold-weather test centre in Arjeplog, Sweden, then on to the Arctic Circle.

In a dramatic real world test of the vehicle’s capability, the car was towing the 13.1m long rig through some of the worst winter weather Scandinavia has experienced in living memory. 

Gales, record snow depths and freak icy road conditions tested crew, car and trailer to the extreme.

More European Airstream owners choose Land Rover products to tow their 'silver bullets' than cars from any other manufacturer so the Range Rover Sport Hybrid and Airstream made an excellent match. 

Setting off from Land Rover’s Design and Engineering Centre at Gaydon in the English Midlands, the team headed to Mengerskirchen in Germany, where a specially winterised travel trailer was waiting for them at Airstream Europe’s headquarters.

Top of Airstream’s European range of trailers, the 684 is 8.25m of boutique hotel suite on wheels, with two double beds, satellite television and Corian surfaces in both its fully-equipped kitchen and spacious bathroom. Thus specified, and once the team had packed their kit on board, the Airstream weighed in at more than 2.5 tonnes. For the Range Rover Sport Hybrid, that sort of weight proved no problem, whatever the weather did.

Throughout, the Range Rover Sport Hybrid demonstrated its astonishing towing prowess. Land Rover has applied for 20 patents for the Vehicle Supervisory Control system that manages the operation of the hybrid powertrain and its sophistication enables the electric motor’s 170Nm of torque to be blended in seamlessly, and contributes to a mighty 700Nm of vehicle torque. This delivers even stronger and more precisely controllable performance, which proved itself very useful, time after time, when towing this large and heavy load through such extreme weather.

En route, the team had to cross the five mile long Øresund Bridge, which was being lashed by the tail end of Hurricane Ole. Gale force sidewinds would have deterred those in lesser machinery but the Range Rover Sport Hybrid benefits from the same Trailer Stability Assist that more conventionally powered stablemates do. Braking each wheel individually based on what is happening to the trailer, any incipient sway is dealt with within milliseconds of it starting – well before it becomes an issue.

Off-road, the car proved its worth too, repeatedly pulling the trailer up and down snowy and often dangerously icy hills, and along forest tracks without fuss.

Ben Samuelson, who led the team, added: “We were closely watching the long range weather forecasts before we set off but nothing prepared us for how bad it got. However, time after time, it was only as we got out of the car that we realised quite how treacherous it was outside.”

Further north, as temperatures plummeted to -22 degrees centigrade outside, both the vehicle and the trailer’s cold-climate capability and comfort ensured that driver, passengers, and indeed those cooking and sleeping in the trailer each evening, experienced nothing but unruffled luxury.

The demanding cold-weather facility at Arjeplog in northern Sweden is the winter proving ground for the full range of Land Rover’s all-terrain vehicles.  For four months every year, the company’s corps of engineers pitch vehicles to their limits against extreme winter conditions with temperatures which have been known to reach -39 degrees in daytime, but can plummet as low as -42 degrees centigrade overnight.

Phil Talboys, who manages the Arjeplog test facility, commented: “The Range Rover Sport Hybrid has gone through the same gruelling test and development regime that all our cars do. This journey just goes to show that the Range Rover Sport Hybrid is pure hybrid – with all the capability and versatility that you’d expect from a Land Rover.”

James Bond will return driving this, the new Aston Martin DB10.

• Aston Martin DB10 created specifically for new Bond film
• Partnership with EON Productions spans 50 years of cinema history
• Demonstrates the breadth of Aston Martin’s bespoke capabilities

Aston Martin together with EON Productions, the producers of the James Bond film franchise, unveiled Bond’s stunning new car, the Aston Martin DB10, on the 007 stage at Pinewood Studios.

The luxury British sports car brand is delighted to confirm that James Bond will once again drive an Aston Martin in Spectre. On this occasion, it will be a model developed specifically for the film and built in-house by the brand’s design and engineering teams.

Led by Aston Martin Chief Creative Officer, Marek Reichman, the design team worked closely with the film’s director, Sam Mendes, to create the ultimate car for the world’s most famous spy.

Celebrating the great British brand’s half century with Bond, which started with the iconic DB5, the DB10 gives a glimpse to the future design direction for the next generation of Aston Martins.

Dr Andy Palmer, CEO of Aston Martin, said: “In the same year that we celebrate our 50-year relationship with 007, it seems doubly fitting that today we unveiled this wonderful new sports car created especially for James Bond.

“To be partnering once again with EON Productions is great news for this company and for everyone around the world that loves to see Bond at the wheel of an Aston Martin.

“I’m incredibly proud of everyone in the team at Gaydon who have brought this special project from concept to reality.”

Production will be strictly limited to 10 of the bespoke sports cars, developed and built by the designers, engineers and highly skilled craftspeople at Aston Martin’s Gaydon headquarters.

Spectre is due for general release on 6 November 2015.

Lagonda returns with super saloon, but only if your in the Middle East, how stupid is that ?

• Exclusive super saloon sees return of evocative Lagonda nameplate
• Innovative special project champions exclusivity
• Strictly limited series production from early 2015  

Aston Martin is today confirming a bespoke product programme for a new super saloon that will see the revival of the historic Lagonda nameplate in a strictly limited series.

As has traditionally been the case, the Lagonda badge will once again sit proudly on a luxurious and exclusive super saloon.

The stunning luxury super saloon revives the Lagonda ethos of ‘the finest of fast cars’ and will be offered exclusively in the Middle East, as a result of specific market demand.

The return of Lagonda follows in the wake of other headline-grabbing projects such as the One-77 hypercar, V12 Zagato and last year’s CC100 Speedster Concept – then seen as the ultimate Q by Aston Martin car – which started out simply as a centenary celebration design concept and, as a result of exceptional demand, later turned into two customer commissions.

Based on the brand’s existing flexible VH architecture, the new car draws inspiration from the highly sought-after William Towns-designed Lagonda of 1976 and features many of the same cutting edge engineering techniques seen in modern Aston Martin sports cars such as the use of carbon fibre in the body panels.

It will be hand-built by the finest craftsmen and women at Aston Martin’s modern manufacturing facilities in Gaydon, Warwickshire in a dedicated building previously given over to the creation of the One-77 hypercar.

The new super saloon will be offered for sale by invitation only and, while precise pricing details remain confidential, the asking price will be commensurate with the car’s exclusivity, quality and luxurious nature. 

Aston Martin Design Director Marek Reichman said: “The debut of this luxury super saloon in the Middle East market will be an exciting moment not only for Aston Martin, but for discerning customers who are seeking the ultimate in luxury and personalisation.

“The new model, like its exclusive siblings the One-77 and V12 Zagato, has been created as a piece of exceptional automotive art. It has been designed and developed entirely in keeping with the spirit and ethos of previous Lagonda super saloons – notably the William Towns Lagonda – and as a tribute to this car it proudly bears the Lagonda nameplate.”