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Mid-engine Aston Martin Project 003 supercar teased

Aston Martin has officially announced its next mid-engine supercar with a teaser and a working name: "Project 003." From the teaser image, it should be a stunner with a body that's all curves and wide athletic haunches. We also dig the exhaust outlets through the engine cover. Aston says the supercar will borrow some technology from the Valkyrie, with that car's lightweight construction, active aerodynamics and active suspension likely candidates. Still, Project 003 will be a very different vehicle. For one thing, it doesn't have an absurdly high-revving naturally aspirated V12. Instead, it's a gas-powered, turbocharged hybrid. Aston Martin hasn't said how many cylinders, but it seems safe to say it will have at least eight. Then there's the fact that this will be more practical for road use, with Aston specifically mentioning that this car will actually have luggage space. How novel! We expect that the car will be a bit more civilized in the ride and noise departments, too. Aston Martin says that the first of 500 total examples will reach owners starting in late 2021. While it hasn't said for sure, we expect to see the car unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show. Between the show and when it reaches customers, it will probably get a real name, just as the Valkyrie began life as Project 001, and the Valkyrie AMR Pro was Project 002. Related Video: Green Aston Martin Coupe Hybrid Luxury Supercars

Aston Martin Lagonda supersaloon gets official with first delivery

Over the past 67 years since Aston Martin acquired the Lagonda marque, the name has come and gone, but now it's back again. After an aborted attempt at reviving the brand with a much-criticized SUV concept at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show, Aston is building a new high-end sedan exclusively for the Middle Eastern market, and this is our best look at it yet. We first caught glimpse of the upcoming new Lagonda a few months ago when it was spotted undergoing testing, and Aston released preliminary details and a couple of teaser images just last month. But now it's shipping the first example for testing to the Sultanate of Oman on the Persian Gulf coast, and it has evidently allowed Oman Air and the Aston Martin Oman dealership to release a handful of photos. What we can see is a pretty handsome sedan that borrows stylistically from the original Aston Martin Zagato sedan that shocked the world in the mid-'70s, not to mention cues from the Zagato Centennial concepts revealed last year. It's possible this is Aston's new design direction, a bid to finally take it away from the gorgeous but overfamiliar styling of its current crop. The fresh look is more squared off, with narrower head- and taillights. It's also possible, of course, that this new look will remain specific to future Zagato-branded vehicles. Look close enough and you'll notice that the handsome sedan is wearing the Lagonda badge, not those of Aston Martin. Oman Air Partners With Aston Martin For Exclusive New Lagonda Test Date: 25 August 2014 World class luxury airline Oman Air is today, [TBC], proud to announce a key partnership with globally renowned British car manufacturer Aston Martin which sees the Middle Eastern carrier bring the marque's yet-to-be-launched Lagonda to Muscat as part of its early testing programme. Reviving the iconic Lagonda name from Aston Martin's renowned heritage, the brand new car is a top-of-the-range, luxury four-door super-saloon which has been designed exclusively for the Middle East market – and Oman's awe-inspiring mountains, deserts and state-of-the-art road network are providing the perfect backdrop for essential summer heat testing.

What we'd buy in 1985 (if extremely rich and nutty): the Aston Martin Lagonda

The Barn Miami, a Florida specialty dealer in unique and exotic cars, has just listed this 9,000-mile, two-owner, 1985 Aston Martin Lagonda. Priced at $75,000, it seemingly represents not only a bargain (original list price was $150,000, or around $360,000 in today’s money) but an investment opportunity, and a chance to own one of the most iconic and controversial designs in all of automotive history. When the Lagonda was launched in 1976, the storied British marque had fallen on hard times. Sales figures, build quality and employee morale were at a nadir, and the brand needed a big new idea. Aston turned to in-house designer William Towns, who had taken the brand out of the debonair, if increasingly anachronistic, DB2/4/5/6 styling paradigm with his creasy DBS of 1969. Towns delivered an outrageous wedge of ultra-luxury sedan, with a miniscule rectangular grille, a plank-like prow, steeply angled pillars, and a truncated trunk. A 280-horsepower quad-cam, quad-carb 5.3-liter V8 put power to the rear wheels via a Chrysler three-speed automatic transmission, yielding single digit fuel economy. And the lunacy continued on the inside, with one of the industryÂ’s first digital dashboards, the first application of touch-sensitive controls, and an odd sunroof above the rear passenger compartment. “I think this was the way of the company getting itself back on track with a completely new and revolutionary model,” says Paul Spires, the director of Aston Martin Works, the brandÂ’s in-house heritage and restoration shop, housed at the factory in Newport-Pagnell where the Lagonda was originally built. “In the second half of the 1970s, Rolls-Royce was enjoying success with its Silver Shadow and Bentley models, but there were very few other true high luxury sedans to choose from, and there was definitely a demand for something different and modern.” Different and modern, indeed. The Lagonda was at the hemorrhaging edge of the eraÂ’s electronic capabilities, featuring systems that are still getting the bugs worked out of them 40 years later. “When we look at many modern cars with touchscreen technology, you can perhaps see where the far-sighted and ambitions designers and engineers who created this car were looking,” says Spires.