2010 Aston Martin Db9 Volante Convertible Silver Black V12 Sport Automatic Nav on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Nissan could have bought a stake in Aston Martin as early as 2012

Aston Martin has a very interesting future ahead of it. While the British brand appeared to be struggling with aging tech for a while, fresh investment from Daimler may have shown a light toward the future with the brand getting engines and electronics from them. Also, former Renault-Nissan top exec Andy Palmer has jumped ship from the French/Japanese automaker to become CEO of the much smaller sports car company. Interestingly, though, new reports from unnamed Nissan sources have indicated that Palmer has been pushing to work with AM for years.
Three unnamed company insiders told Reuters that Palmer made attempts to convince Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn in 2012 and 2013 to invest in Aston Martin, but his proposals were shot down both times for unspecified reasons, according to Automotive News. "We looked carefully at the proposal but we passed on it," said one of the sources.
You can easily see why Palmer was eying Aston Martin even back in 2012. It's no secret that the British sports car mavens were in need of extra funding, well before the Daimler investment. Building vehicles these days is only getting more expensive with stronger safety and emissions requirements. Just look at the brand's desperate hope to get a side-impact crash exemption to keep selling its models in the US as an example.

World's Largest Collection Of James Bond Cars On Sale

A Miami real estate developer is selling his entire massive collection of James Bond memorabilia. Valued at $33.25 million, the collection is considered the largest in the world, and will only be sold to a buyer willing to take the whole thing. Michael Dezer began buying Bond cars in 2011, when he snatched up dozens of the super spy's on-screen rides from the James Bond Museum in Keswick, England, Autoblog reports. Since then, Dezer has amassed 59 cars, the rides coming from movies like Goldeneye, Skyfall and The Spy Who Loved Me. The ensemble also includes boats, tanks, jet skis, motorcycles and thousands of other pieces of memorabilia. The lucky buyer of this collection would even get the yacht used in From Russia With Love. An agency in the United Kingdom is handling the sale of the collection. Related Gallery Editors' Picks: The Most Beautiful Cars On The Road View 10 Photos Aston Martin Automotive History Ownership selling famous cars

On the trail of the Aston Martin racer who helped change WWII

Arguably one of the most crucial operations of the second World War, Operation Mincemeat was a British disinformation mission responsible for misdirecting Axis forces towards Greece and Sardinia, and in turn, opening up the Italian island of Sicily. That led to the downfall of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and opened up the soft underbelly of Hitler's Third Reich. While we won't go into all the details of Operation Mincemeat (it really is worth studying, though), an integral aspect required the transport of a dead body from Hackney, London, 400 miles north to Holy Loch, Scotland as quickly as possible. The corpse, which was disguised as a major in the Royal Marines and loaded with faux sensitive documents pointing to a landing in Greece, needed to be appropriately fresh. That's where Aston Martin racing driver turned MI5 operative Jock Horsfall came into play. The body was loaded into Horsfall's customized 1937 Fordson van, and hustled north. For the rest of the story, you'll need to take a look at Xcar's recapping of Horsfall's fateful journey while at the helm of an Aston Martin Vanquish Volante, the far more civilized successor to the English legend's black 2 Litre Speed.