2014 Aston Martin Vanquish Coupe W/ Only 3k Miles And Under Full Warranty on 2040-cars

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Pre-Race notes from the 2015 Nurburgring 24-Hours

Autoblog has come to the German countryside to watch the Nurburgring 24-Hour race, and just one day in, we have to say it's outstanding. Le Mans has been the highlight of our summer racing schedule for the past few years, the 'Ring 24-Hour event being the appetizer we always skipped. Earlier this year, however, while visiting Miami to check out the Cigarette Racing 50 Marauder GT S, we met Scott Preacher. He oversees digital marketing for both Cigarette and AMG during the week, then comes to Germany to compete in the VLN race series on the weekends, driving an Aston Martin Vantage GT4 for Team Mathol. If Le Mans is the Oscars of endurance racing, the Nurburgring 24-Hour race is the Screen Actors Guild award – the one voted on by the actors, for the actors. In this case it's the race by the teams and fans, for the teams and fans, even though the increasing manufacturer presence has altered the team equation. We were told that it wasn't so long ago that true privateers could win the overall, but that's not really the case anymore. Front-running teams have heavy factory involvement – Audi Sport Team Phoenix, for instance, which finished in first and third last year, has its own 'Ring race center and is running the 2016 R8; Aston Martin is represented by Aston Martin Racing and Aston Martin Test Center, and Bentley has a Bentley Motors team and uses HPT to run another team. The fan component hasn't changed, though, and you can't talk about the race for more than 60 seconds before someone brings up the battalions of spectators. Every driver we spoke to cited them as the most incredible part of this race after the track itself. It feels to us like a giant German Sebring, with thousands of people camped out in the ginormous, forested infield, many of whom have been here since Monday erecting their ornate camping compounds. There will be parties everywhere Saturday night, and so much bratwurst on the grill that the drivers can smell it when as they're blasting full speed through Wehrseifen. Even when we drove a Mercedes S63 AMG Coupe on a lap before the race, the fans waved like it was a competition. Scott Preacher's Australian co-driver Robert Thompson said, "You come around a corner and it's like you're driving full speed through the middle of a carnival." The race field itself could also be called a carnival, with an officially invited field of more than 170 cars. Even on a track that's 24.4-km long, that's like racing on the 405 at midday.

Aston Martin recalling majority of cars built since late 2007 over counterfeit Chinese parts

Back in June 2013, Aston Martin recalled just under 700 vehicles over faulty throttle arms that could break without warning. Bad news, for sure – and things just got a whole lot worse. According to Reuters, the British luxury brand now needs to recall 17,590 vehicles due to counterfeit plastic materials being used by a Chinese sub-supplier – that's roughly 75 percent of the company's output over the same period. Basically, here's how it boils down: with the exception of the Vanquish, Aston Martin will recall all left-hand-drive vehicles built since November 2007, and all right-hand-drive cars built since May 2012. Just as we told you in the recall notice from 2013, the accelerator arms in these cars may fracture, increasing the risk of a crash. Shenzhen Kexiang Mould Tool Co Limited, a Chinese company that molds the accelerator pedal arms in these affected models, was using counterfeit plastics, according to Reuters. These bad plastics were supplied by Synthetic Plastic Raw Material Co Ltd, of Dongguan. An Aston Martin spokesperson tells Reuters that there have been no reports of accidents or injuries in conjunction with this problem.

Jay Leno, Ex-Stig test Aston Martin's latest cars

Aston Martin is on a roll right now. From unveiling its latest V12-powered hypercar codenamed the AM-RB 001 to building one-off convertibles of hardcore track toys, the automaker has really hit its stride. With cars like the DB11 and V12 Vantage S, Aston is also working on reinventing its road cars. Jay Leno, because he's Jay Leno, was lucky enough to test both cars at Willow Springs, and he invited former Stig Ben Collins to have some fun. In this clip from Jay Leno's Garage, the comedian gets a design overview of the DB 11 and then talks to Collins about his racing career, working on Top Gear, and doing Hollywood stunt driving. The pair plays a little James Bond chase on the track, with Collins in the V12 Vantage S and Leno in the DB11. Jay isn't exactly working all of the 600 hp from the twin-turbocharged, 5.2-liter V12, as it's a prototype. Meanwhile, Collins is hot-dogging the V12 Vantage S, with its anachronistic naturally aspirated 5.9-liter V12 and seven-speed manual transmission, behind him. Although the driving pace isn't quite matched, when two remarkable cars get together, everyone wins. Related Video: