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Lotus and Aston Martin to hook up?

This has been a tumultuous year for Lotus - to say the least - from the company being sold off back in January to its CEO Dany Bahar being fired in June to its questionable financial status and rumors of the British automaker being sold off to another automaker. First, we heard that Volkswagen was interested in acquiring Lotus and parent company Proton, a rumor that was later dismissed. Now Automobile is reporting that fellow Brit Aston Martin could be in the market to work with or possibly even merge with Lotus.
While this is pure speculation at this point, such a venture could prove to be beneficial for both independent companies. That's because with Lotus focused on lightweight, relatively affordable sports cars and Aston Martin producing high-end performance cars, there is virtually no product overlap between the companies. The article suggests that a person or company wanting to merge these two automakers would have to raise between $1.1 billion and $1.6 billion in order to make a go of it, however.
We're not sure what to think of this latest rumor, but anything that can help get the struggling brand back to health at least has our interest.

Aston Martin Vantage GT8 spied looking all fast on the 'Ring

Aston Martin keeps rolling out new versions of its long-serving Vantage, and we keep not complaining. This latest piece, spotted on the Nurburgring, looks particularly mean in matte black with a nice big wing on the back. We believe it to be the anticipated Vantage GT8, which should be the ultimate version of the V8 Vantage. The GT8 will follow in the footsteps of the Vantage GT12; its smaller engine should pack less of a punch, but the car will be lighter in the nose a V12 Vantage, which should help handling balance. Expect the 4.7-liter V8 to be retuned to produce more power than it has in any other Vantage: currently, the top V8 Vantage tops out at 430 horsepower, and we wouldn't be surprised to see the GT8 boast more like 450. That would still leave plenty of breathing room to the V12 models that start at 565. The aero package looks similar to the GT12's aggressive setup but incorporates several changes, including fewer cooling ducts and a reshaped front splitter, rear wing, and diffuser. Expect the interior to come stripped out like the GT12's. This top V8 Vatage ought to make a fine swan song for the eleven-year-old model line before its AMG-powered, turbocharged successor arrives. But don't expect to see too many of them – sources anticipate just 150 examples to be built, which is more than the 100 units of the GT12, but will still make this a rare bird indeed. Related Video:

Aston CEO claims Cygnet cancelled because Toyota is dropping iQ in 2014

While slow sales and a $50,000 price tag may have been contributing factors to the Aston Martin Cygnet being cancelled last month, Aston Martin CEO Ulrich Bez is pointing the finger at Toyota for the demise of this luxurious little city car. In a discussion with Autocar, Bez is quoted as saying that the ultimate reason the Cygnet was cut is because Toyota plans on dropping the iQ (on which the Cygnet is based) in 2014 - a claim denied by the Japanese automaker.
Interestingly, the article also cites another publication reporting that a Toyota importer in the Netherlands heard the same news as Bez, and it has already stopped importing the cars. If the European Toyota iQ is cancelled, that would likely spell the end of the slow-selling Scion iQ in the US, which has sold just 3,365 units through September (a drop of 51 percent year over year).
Regardless of why production of the Cygnet ended, Bez also says that a lack of support from Toyota on the project prevented it from being offered in the US or receiving a supercharged engine, which are two factors that likely would have made the car appealing to more buyers.