No Reserve Auction Higher Bidder Wins Aston Martin Db9 22" Premium Wheels on 2040-cars

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Tesla, European automaker may share Supercharger network [w/video]

Tesla Model S owners have had the now-500-plus Supercharger locations all to themselves since the free, high-speed charging network first opened up three years ago. The day may be coming when they'll have to start sharing, however. According to CEO Elon Musk, the company is "in talks with some manufacturers" about opening up its infrastructure to other autos. The mission statement of Tesla Motors is to "accelerate the advent of sustainable transport," and it can be argued that the success of its Model S is doing this, at least to some extent, by inspiring other automakers to build long-range electric vehicles themselves. Witness the Porsche Mission E concept and Audi E-Tron Quattro Concept as two recently unveiled examples. Sharing the Supercharger system is another way to speed things up. When EV owners of other marques want to take a trip, they may find themselves facing a hodge-podge of charging networks, each with slightly different standards, availability, and fees. Supercharging for free at well-mapped and easily accessible locations can only make things easier, and Musk has long said he would like other companies to make use of the network. With some manufacturers declaring allegiance to the CHAdeMO and others, the SAE Combo system, it seemed like Tesla might not get any takers, but finally it may be getting traction. Musk mentioned the development on at least two different occasions recently at speaking engagements in Berlin: once in a morning discussion, and later during a larger meeting with the German Minister of Economy & Energy, Sigmar Gabriel. While in the first instance, Musk used the plural "manufacturers," indicating there may be discussions with more than one firm, the second mention might be more relevant to the near term. In that case, while answering a question about sharing the Superchargers, he stated that "the CEO of one European car company, not a German car company, has approached us recently about doing exactly that, and we're super supportive of anyone who wants to do that." The question now becomes, "who will be the first to use the Tesla high-speed network?" With the specific mention of a European company, and the exclusion of German ones, our best guess is Aston Martin. Its CEO Andy Palmer is quite bullish on electric vehicles and the iconic British brand already has a test mule for an 800-hp electric Rapide on the road, not to mention its fabulous DBX under development.

You can buy James Bond's Spectre Aston Martin DB10

If you watched Daniel Craig sliding around Rome in Spectre and wished you could drive the Aston Martin DB10 too, an upcoming Christie's auction will be your best chance to own one. The company will sell the first of these rare cars to the public on February 18 in London, but you'll probably need a martini – shaken, not stirred – after signing the check because the coupe will likely go for over 1 million pounds ($1.4 million at current rates). The proceeds will benefit Medecins Sans Frontieres. Aston Martin designed the DB10 specifically for Bond and built 10 of them for Spectre. Underneath the carbon-fiber body, the British automaker based them on the V8 Vantage, including its 4.7-liter V8 and six-speed manual gearbox. The movie's production modified most of the DB10s for filming, but it left two untouched, including this one. Daniel Craig also signed the car. The chance to share a vehicle with James Bond sounds incredibly tempting, but you might have a hard time taking the DB10 out for a drive because Aston Martin doesn't have homologation for the car or certification for it to be on public roads. However, you could still enjoy pretending to be a secret agent around a track or another piece of private tarmac. UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY TO OWN AN ASTON MARTIN DB10 PREDICTED TO RAISE OVER GBP1 MILLION FOR CHARITY The only DB10 to date to be made available for private ownership Opportunity to own a piece of automotive history To be auctioned on February 18th to raise money for Medecins Sans Frontieres 21 January, 2016, Gaydon: The Aston Martin DB10 – the first car created exclusively for James Bond by British luxury brand Aston Martin – is to go under the auctioneer's gavel at the London auction house of Christie's on 18th February with proceeds donated to Medecins Sans Frontieres. 'Spectre – The Auction' celebrates the release of the 24th Bond film on Digital HD, Blu-ray™ and DVD with 24 special auction lots going under the hammer for charity, led by the Aston Martin DB10. Celebrating the great British brand's half century with Bond, which started with the iconic DB5, the DB10 gives a glimpse of the future design direction for the next generation of Aston Martins. Production of the DB10 was strictly limited to ten examples of the bespoke sports car which was developed and hand-built by the designers, engineers and artisan craftspeople at Aston Martin's Gaydon headquarters in the UK for the latest Bond film, Spectre.

Chris Harris pits Aston GT12 vs 911 GT3 RS vs McLaren 650S

The Geneva Motor Show is never lacking in exciting performance machinery. And this year was no exception. Our eyes, like those of Chris Harris, were drawn by two hardcore, track-focused versions of existing sports cars. Both wore the name GT3, and now Harris has brought them together for a supercar shootout. And he's thrown one more in for good measure. Those natural rivals are the Aston Martin Vantage GT12 and Porsche 911 GT3 RS, the latter manufacturer having pressed the former to drop the GT3 name to which it claims exclusive domain. There's a great deal that separates them, of course: one's got a V12 up front, the other a flat-six way in the back. But what binds them together is a common approach of taking an existing model, stripping it down, and tightening everything up to make it more of a weapon than a grand tourer. What that means in the Aston's case is a rather high price tag, much higher than that of the Porsche. But scarce demand and speculation on the open market have left British customers, at least, paying as much for the GT3 RS as for the limited-edition Aston. And that takes both into proper supercar territory. So to show what else that kind of money can get you, Monkey has brought along a McLaren. Not the similarly track-focused 675LT, but the standard 650S... Spider, no less, and with worn hard rubber. So which one performs best on the road? Which clocks the fastest lap time on the track? And which gets Harris' vote? You'll have to watch the video for yourself to find out, but it's well worth the 25 minutes of your lunch break. News Source: Chris Harris on Cars via YouTube Aston Martin McLaren Porsche Videos porsche 911 gt3 chris harris mclaren 650s