2010 Aston Martin Vantage Automatic 2-door Coupe on 2040-cars

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Aston Martin waxes poetic about the good life with The Art of Vanquish

Aston Martin markets itself as offering the classy alternative to hardcore sports cars. Its vehicles are certainly capable, but they are also sold as offering an extra dose of luxury to go along with their power. The company is leaning hard into that image in a new short film called The Art of Vanquish. Over the grumble of the coupe's V12, the announcer reads a poem about the metaphor of life's journey, and it positions the Vanquish as a symbol of progress. The film is interspersed with shots of luxury goods like thickly upholstered leather chairs and products from sound system maker Bang & Olufsen, men's clothier Hackett London and Swiss watchmaker Jaeger Le Coultre. The production team True Motion Pictures created the short and has also done projects for Audi and Sony, among other companies. Of course, the idea that Aston Martins and other luxury goods are a symbol of life's adventure is a little contrived. It's still just a car after all – albeit an absolutely gorgeous one. Still, the film is an opportunity for a closer look at the Vanquish, and its wonderful growl is featured throughout. Scroll down to watch the video and be swathed in its poetic concept of luxury. Aston Martin, 'The Art of Vanquish' from True motion pictures on Vimeo.

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.

Watch some vintage F1 cars blast up a Japanese mountain road

It's a rare treat to see classic Formula One cars racing anywhere, but watching them on a Japanese mountain road is absolutely sublime. The folks behind Motorhead from Japan took over the toll road's twisting stretch of tarmac to turn this impossible dream into a reality. The unusual opportunity of a closed mountain road would be a waste for only two vehicles, and there were plenty of drivers in amazing machines that wanted to blast up the hill. After the vintage F1 cars got their turn, some drifters in a Nissan GT-R and a Toyota GT86 added some tire smoke to the misty mountain air. A couple more GT-R racecars and some modern sports cars eventually joined them. Before the rain hit, this team had quite a party going on. This video features amazing camera work, but the music unfortunately drowns out the chance to hear these amazing racecars. If watching this leaves you wanting more, Motorhead released a video last year of another group of impressive performance vehicles on the mountain road.