Author Archives: Alwin

First V12 Zagato spots – pics and video

It looks like Aston Martin has started delivering the first V12 Zagato’s to customers, because the first cars are being spotted on the streets now. Earlier this month, GTSpirit already published photos of a dark silver car spotted in London. Then a few days later, a nice blue one was captured by a spotter in Switzerland. For me, the car looked awesome from the first shots at Villa d’Este, but seeing in a normal street situation really makes it clear how brutal it looks.

The V12 Zagato just got even more exclusive

When the V12 Zagato was introduced, it was said to be limited to 150 cars. However, it looks like it will be even more exclusive than that. Aston Martin has now announced that the production of the V12 Zagato will instead be limited to 101 units, 49 less than the initial planning.

Meeting the maker: Barry Griffin

One cool thing I like about Aston Martins is the small plaque under the bonnet that says: HAND BUILT IN ENGLAND FINAL INSPECTION BY followed by the name of the “final inspector. My first Aston (a V8 Vantage Roadster) was inspected by SIMON WARD. The plaque in my current V8 Vantage S Roaster says PAUL GODDARD. But the final inspector of my favorite car, my V12 Vantage, is BARRY GRIFFIN.

Is this the new Rapide S?

Earlier this month, several car news sites published similar spy shots of what they claim is the upcoming Rapide S. This sportier version of the Rapide would get 40 extra horses (bringing it to 510 hp), a stiffer suspension, carbon ceramic brakes and of course a slightly altered look (confirmed by the camouflaged front and rear in these pics).

Boxberg 2012

Last week, on Sunday July 15, forty Aston Martin’s from all over Europe gathered in Boxberg, Germany, at the Bosch test center. Boxberg is the 3rd event in Aston Martin’s yearly Big 5 series of “driving experience” days for Aston owners. I love these events. In the past I have participated in the Spa and St. Moritz events, but this was my first time to Boxberg. This being a track event, and probably rainy, I left my V8 Roadster at home and drove off to Germany in my shiny red V12 Vantage. Smart choice?

Welcome to Aston dash Martin dot com !

Hi there and welcome to aston-martin.com! Let me introduce myself first: I am Alwin. I am an Aston Martin fan and the proud owner of two of these British beauties (I will tell you more about my own Aston’s in future posts). My day job is running a software company and managing its’ many websites. But next to that, my wife and I run the website of the dutch Aston Martin owners club Power Beaty Soulmates. And it’s through my work for that PBSM site that I found out that I really like writing about my passion: fast and beautiful cars, and Aston Martin in particular. I figured, why not take my writing one step further and create my own car blog site. One that is completely focused on Aston Martin only. So I got hold of the “aston-martin.com” domain, created this blog and here we are! My plan is to post Aston Martin news and rumors, plus reviews of Aston’s I have driven. All from the perspective of an Aston Martin owner and intermixed with my personal Aston story. But to be honest, I have no idea where this is going and how it will turn out. Let’s just get started and take it from there 🙂 I hope you will like my Aston related ramblings. Let me know what you think in the Comments sections!