The making of my V12 Vantage Roadster

In June, I received news from my dealership that Aston Martin had finally decided that they would indeed make a V12 Vantage Roadster. It would be a limited run of only 101 units and they just started taking orders. With the V12 Roadster having been my ultimate, but sadly non-existant, dream car for about 3 years, it didn’t take me long to make my decision. In fact, within 15 minutes of receiving the news I had placed my order. Fast forward five months and the production of my topless V12 Vantage has started. And the best part: we got invited to watch it being created at the factory in Gaydon!

“POWER BEAUTY SOUL” Tour visits Kroymans Aston Martin

The Power Beauty Soul tour visited our local Aston Martin dealer on October 4 and 5. A special event was held on Thursday night, for invited guests only. Aston Martin customers drooled over the gorgeous V12 Zagato, the new Vanquish and the limited edition V12 Vantage Roadster. The three beauties took up the entire front showroom.

The license plate dilemma

I think this is a dilemma most sports cars owners recognize: where to place the license plate on the nose of your car without ruining her beauty? Every country has its own laws and regulations on where to place the license plate, how big it must be and what must legally be on it. In the Netherlands, we’re doomed with license plates measuring 52 centimeters wide and 11 centimeters high. Included on the license plate is the EU symbol or NL (Netherlands) sign. Only legally approved plates may be mounted on the car’s front and rear. For cars, one exception is made for American plates which are smaller in width but still 11 centimeters high. To be legally allowed to place the smaller plates on your vehicle, you have to have permission from the RDW, the Dutch Traffic Organization. Only a very small minority of imported or classic American cars are granted this 18:2 plate. And now for the dilemma.

100 years of Aston Martin

Next year, in 2013, Aston Martin will celebrate its’ 100 year anniversary. Last weekend, Dr. Ulrich Bez presented the special centenary logo (shown on the left) on his race car, during the Nürburgring-based VLN series. The logo was designed by by Director of Design Marek Reichman’s team and will be used for all celebration events next year.

Cars for Charity: Dutch ‘Droomrit voor het leven’ featuring many Astons

Last Saturday, September 29, the thirteenth edition of the Cars for Charity event “Droomrit voor het leven” (Dream ride for Life) was held in the Netherlands. The first edition took place in 2000. A student from the IVA business school decided to combine sport cars and children with health problems. For one day, children between the ages of 12 and 17, can forget their illness and have the day of their lives as a passenger in a true dream car. ‘Droomrit voor het leven’ is an annual event and only 50 cars can participate. Brand or year do not matter, what matters is that the cars are exclusive (so a limited amount of Porsches :-)) and that the children see them as dream cars. This years’ list of cars showed a massive amount of Aston Martins, including two very colorful V12 Vantages, Alwin’s Fire Red and his Flame Orange brother.

The perfect V12 Vantage?

Remember GTSprit.com’s review of the V12 Vantage? At the time, I already spotted and reported that the specific car they got to review was a very rare Carbon Edition and in a rare color too: Flame Orange. Well, this very special V12 Vantage has come to the Netherlands (my home country) and is now for sale at my local Aston Martin dealer (Kroymans Hilversum). This week I had the privilege of seeing this car in person and I have to say: this may be the most beautiful and most complete V12 Vantage I have ever seen. But is it the perfect V12 Vantage?

Over 80 Astons at Spa Francorchamps

The Big 5 is Aston Martin’s yearly series of 5 “experience” events. It includes three track days (at Silverstone, the Nürburgring and Spa-Francorchamps) and two driving-experience days (one at the Boxberg test center and one on-ice event in St. Moritz). This Monday (September 17) the fifth Big 5 event was held: the track day at Spa-Francorchamps. Over eighty Aston Martins came to this historic race-track in Belgium. 66 Aston owners taking their own car to the track, others renting a factory car for the day.