Author Archives: Alwin

Just picked up: my new V12 Vanquish S

It’s Friday the 13th, but no bad luck for me, because today is the day I can pick up the newest addition to my Aston Martin collection: a 2006 V12 Vanquish S! (BTW: remember that white V8 Vantage S Roadster in the background? Yes, that’s my ex-V8-Roadster, the one I traded in on my V12 Roadster. It pains me to see it’s still in the showroom, waiting for a new owner. Like it? Please go and buy it!)

My new Aston: a V12 Vanquish S!

The V12 Vanquish has always been one of my favorite Astons, a timeless classic. It was inevitable that sooner or later I would own one, just a matter of the right car becoming available on the market. And this week, it did! My dealer told me about this beautiful 2006 V12 Vanquish S being for sale. So I visited the showroom, checked the car out, went for a test drive… and bought it the same day! 🙂

Aston Martin Elfstedentocht

This weekend’s Sunday Drive of the Dutch PBSM Club was a special one, as two members had organized the “Aston Martin Elfstedentocht”. For the non-dutchies among us: the Elfstedentocht is a 200 kilometer long ice skating tour leading past 11 cities in the northern part of the Netherlands. The Aston Martin edition of this “eleven cities tour” had to use the roads instead of the canals and rivers, so it was slightly longer, 230 kilometers, and including the trip to and from the hotel came to just over 320 KMs, for most part over winding B-roads.

The Aston Martin look-a-likes in GTA V

Grand Theft Auto V, the most eagerly anticipated video game ever, was released last week. The game features 257 vehicles, all with made-up names, but most of them still recognizable as real-life car brands and models. Five of the available cars are obviously inspired by Aston Martin models, in particular the cars of the made-up “Dewbauchee” brand:

Aston Martin voted 2nd coolest brand

Each year, Coolbrands lists the coolest brands in the UK, as voted by 3,000 consumers and a panel of 38 VIPs. In 2011, Aston Martin was voted as the #1 coolest brand, dropping to 3rd place in 2012. This year our favourite brand has moved up to the 2nd place again, after Apple and followed by Rolex.