Tag Archives: Aston

The Bosses Car #2 – Aston Martin Rapide

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Regular readers may remember a couple of months ago when i visited the Morgan factory I happened across Charles Morgan’s limited edition Aeromax.

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A couple of weeks ago I happened across Dave Richards, personal transport this fabulous ‘large and in charge’ Aston Martin Rapide while visiting Prodrive.

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The Rapide is Aston Martin’s top of the range 4 door saloon, a successor to the Aston Martin V8 based Series 1 Aston Martin Lagonda of 1974/74 of which just 7 were built.

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The 2010 Rapide is powered by a 470 hp 5935cc / 362 cui V12 …

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that is shared in common with both the DB9 and V12 Vanquish.

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This is only the second Rapide I have ever seen and it still surprises me how graceful this four dour DB9 looks.

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Surprisingly this range topping model of of a well known British Marque is actually assembled at a dedicated Magna Steyr plant in Graz, Austria.

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The standstill to 62mph performance time of 5.2 seconds and top speed of 184 mph will undoubtedly helped a near standard Rapide take second in class during the 24 hour race at the Nurburgring in 2010.

More on Aston Martin and the Rapide Luxe can be seen up the Drive Channel.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s Austrian built edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres, and that you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Inspiration and Innovation – Prodrive Factory Visit

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I was privileged to join fellow members of the Bristol Pegasus Motor Club and Barrie ‘Whizzo’ Williams on a factory tour of the Prodrive Factory over the weekend.

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David Richards a qualified chartered accountant and 1981 World Championship Winning Rally co-driver who started his business as a motor sport consultant in the middle east, says of his company that it’s purpose is to ‘inject excitement’.

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That injection of excitement is backed with 25 years of Championship winning motor sports success that includes rallying

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and racing …

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to the very highest levels including two spells in which David Richards ran teams in Formula One.

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In 2006 Prodrive built a fully working concept car, but declined to put it into production,

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After numerous successes running Aston Martin racing teams …

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David Richards led a consortium of investors in a $925 million take over of Aston Martin in 2007,

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a company of which he is now the Chairman.

It was uplifting to see British engineering is alive and well in Banbury, Oxfordshire with a fascinating range of activity including the assembly of a range of competition vehicles, computer operated machining of a huge variety of items from solid blocks of material, and truly mind boggling assembly of competition spec wiring looms, if your into engineering and or motor sport the Prodrive tour run by the effervescent Jackie Irwin, who has petrol running through her veins, is an absolute must.

My thanks to everyone at the Bristol Pegasus Motor Club who organised the tour including Andy who kindly did the driving honours.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s excitement injected edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Under Austrian Influence – Aston Martin DB3S

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Under Austrian Influence – Aston Martin DB3S #118

Its a great thrill to return to Ed Arnaudin’s photo’s from 20th July 1958 at Thompson CT thanks to his son Steve.

Today’s vehicle is a thoroughly British Aston Martin DB3S, a lightweight version of the DB3 originally designed by Austrian Robert Eberan von Eberhorst, a pioneer in vehicle dynamics who’s CV includes the design of the Auto Union D-type Silver Arrow, the Porsche project 356, which later became the Porsche 356 like the cabriolet in the background above, and the Jowett Jupiter while working for English Racing Automobiles. The DB3S was powered by a 163 horse power 2922 cc / 182 cui twin over head cam straight 6 fitted with three twin choke carburettors.

The vehicle seen here was driven into 7th place in the 7th race of the day at Thompson CT by Paul Hyatt who was doing double duty having finished last in race 6 driving his DB2-4.

I’d like to thank Ed Arnaudin for his wonderful photographs, Steve Arnaudin for sharing them with us and Terry O’Neil’s Northeast American Sports Car Races 1950-1959 for the stats.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s Aston Martin edition of ‘Getting a lil’ psycho’ on tyres’ and that you’ll join me tomorrow for a closer look at a vehicle of the same type as the black one seen in the back ground of the photo above. Don’t forget to come back now !

Edit

Thanks to Vince H the DB3S photographed by Ed has been identified as chassis #118 which can be seen being driven here by Chris Salyer at Laguna Seca in 2007.

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Column Shift Racer – Alfa Romeo 1900 Super Sprint 2

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Today’s featured car is a 1954 Alfa Romeo 1900 Super Sprint Series 2 powered by a 1975 cc / 120.5 cui 4 cylinder engine.

This particular car featuring a 5 speed column shift was delivered on the 31st March 1954.

Vehicles of this type are known to have competed in events like the Targa Florio & Mille Miglia .

I am not sure if these vented rear window’s were part of the original specification, but they would indicate this particular car might have a competition history, if you know anything about it leave a comment below.

The body work is made by Touring of Milan using their trade mark Superleggera (Super light) Duraluminim construction technique featuring a light steel frame covered in aluminium panels.

Anyone who has seen Goldfinger might remember James Bond telling one of his molls about his ‘Aston Martin DB5 Superleggera’ in that fabulous Scottish brogue.

Aston Martin bought a licence from Touring to use the Superleggera technique which has one major flaw other than being very expensive, steel and aluminium when they come into contact suffer galvanic corrosion.

Galvanic corrosion occurs between aluminium alloy wheels and steel hubs making it difficult to remove aluminium wheels after they have remained bolted to a vehicle after long periods of time.

A similar problem often occurs between steel screws and aluminium licence plates.

Allegedly Bristol Cars with their experience in the aircraft industry are the only manufacturer to have satisfactorily minimised the problem of galvanic corrosion by using a special paste twixt aluminium and steel.

The sunken rear lights on this car look particularly fetching though the heavy duty steel bumper rather spoils the effect IMHO.

Wishing everyone a fabulous weekend, don’t forget to come back now !

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