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2017 Aston Martin V12 Vantage S coming to US with manual

A few years back, the lovely Aston Martin V12 Vantage was available with an honest-to-goodness six-speed manual transmission. It was capable of instilling serious cognitive dissonance. "If I sell the cars, the furniture, and remortgage the house twice ..." That sort of thing. The package is back, in a sense. For the 2017 model year, Aston will produce the V12 Vantage S with a seven-speed manual transmission. And not the automated manual business supplied by Graziano, that has attracted my ire for being about as subtle as a kick in the pants. There's a human-operated clutch and a proper manual lever. It gets better, at least if you're a manual-transmission geek. Aston fitted a dogleg box to this car, meaning first gear is to the left and down, below reverse and where second gear would sit in a traditional H-pattern floor shifter. Less traditional is the throttle-blipping function, which will make downshifts smoother for those unable or unwilling to heel-toe. If AMSHIFT, which is Graydon's code-word for the system, is not your thing it can be disabled or used in any driving mode. More good news: there's no real penalty for choosing the manual over the Sportshift III transmission. The two cars are mechanically the same, offer the same performance metrics and top speed, and are offered at the same basic price. New for 2017 but not exclusive to the manual are many exterior and interior cosmetic options, like brightly-colored exterior accents, in line with Aston's recent styling trends. As the subtitle suggests, there is a serious catch for Americans. It's not that we won't get the V12-manual combination – we will! – it's just that there won't be very many of them. It'll be a no-cost option in the rest of the world. If you want one, let's hope you've stopped reading this article the first few lines and hopped on the phone with your local Aston dealer to get a place on what looks like a very short list. Related Video:

Next Aston Vantage will be the only way to get an AMG V8 with a stick

With only a few exceptions, most of them factory customs, AMG hasn't built cars with manual transmissions. It just isn't the way things are done in Affalterbach. But now that Mercedes's in-house speed shop will be supplying engines to Aston Martin, the world will be treated to cars with three pedals and overengineered German V8s wrapped in a pretty British package. We're into it. The news comes from Car and Driver, which spoke to Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer about the new Vantage among other things. Palmer confirms to C/D that the Vantage will continue to offer manual and automatic transmissions when the next-gen car arrives featuring the AMG 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8. In its most potent form, the eight-cylinder makes 503 horsepower and 479 lb-ft of torque in the AMG GT S. Figure on a little more from the Aston-ized version, just for fun. The current V8 Vantage GT makes 430 hp and 361 lb-ft from its naturally aspirated 4.7-liter. While some may lament the new engine's forced induction, that added power and the thoroughly modern behavior of the AMG engine should be welcome. While the AMG V8 is currently only planned to go into Aston's entry-level car, C/D does mention a possibility of it (and perhaps its three-pedal transmission) making its way into other cars as an economy option for certain markets. If a V8 DB11 were to be offered, don't expect it to show up here, though. There's also no word on who will supply the manual for the AMG-Aston mashup, but it likely will be a transaxle like the current Vantage. Ex-factory manual AMGs aren't totally unprecedented. Pagani has built some three-pedal cars with its massaged AMG V12s. Compared to those, however, these manual Vantages can be considered mass-production cars. And really, any increase in the number of sticks mated to AMG engines can only be a good thing. Related Video: News Source: Car and Driver Aston Martin Mercedes-Benz Coupe Performance mercedes-amg confirmed aston martin v8 vantage aston martin vantage

Gold-plated Aston Martin DB5 model sells for $90k

Classic Aston Martins sell for big bucks at auction. So this news of a DB5 selling for a princely sum hardly comes as a surprise. But the model in question wasn't an actual DB5. It was a scale model. Created to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the legendary James Bond film Goldfinger, this 1:3 scale replica of the DB5 that Sean Connery drove in the movie was plated in 24-karat gold and signed by Sir Ken Adam, who designed the modified movie prop. Created by Propshop at Pinewood Studios, the model comes complete with radio-controlled machine guns, bulletproof shield and rotating license plate – just like the one in the movie. After registering interest from some 19,000 viewers from 129 countries, the model sold online for GBP55,000 ($90k) to one Mr. Robert Tyrrell, an English farmer and Bond fan. Proceeds benefit the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Aston Martin DB5 Model Sells for GBP55,000 in Online Charity Auction 17 September 2014 - Tonight, on the 50th anniversary of the World Premiere of Goldfinger, a unique 24k gold-plated third scale replica of James Bond's iconic Aston Martin DB5 was sold in a special online sale to benefit the NSPCC by Christie's and EON Productions for GBP55,000. It was bought by a farmer from Abingdon in Oxfordshire and was among the highlights of the five lots which made a total of GBP136,800 for the charity. The model was created by Propshop at Pinewood Studios and signed by legendary Bond Production Designer Sir Ken Adam. Bidding closed online this evening during an event in London's West End attended by Bond girl Shirley Eaton. Complete with radio controlled machine guns, bullet proof shield and revolving number plate, interest in the sale came from Bond fans around the world with more than 19,000 visitors from 129 countries to the special www.christies.com/goldfinger site. The buyer, Mr. Robert Tyrrell from Steventon, near Abingdon in Oxfordshire, an arable farmer with a collection of classic cars, said after his winning bid tonight: "I saw it at Goodwood this weekend and said 'I'll be having that!'. I am a Bond man, the first movie I saw was Thunderball and I was more than happy to support this worthy cause." A unique Goldfinger Seamaster 'Aqua Terra' wristwatch created by Omega to celebrate the anniversary of the film surpassed the pre-sale estimate ten times when it sold for GBP70,000.