V12 Speedster

[MrB.]

Did anyone else notice that Autocar must have broken the embargo by showing the car on their website earlier?

[oilit]

yes - and pictures still exist on the internet - looks LOVELY - although can't see any shut lines on the bonnet to front bumper so i wonder if it will look as striking in real life as the front end is a big YES from me - esp if the overlay bonnet is the bonnet :-)

Edited by oilit on Tuesday 3rd March 13:50

[jonby]

As said above, the pics can be found fairly easily on the net !

Aston's press conference is tomorrow - presume the timings for embargos have changed with the cancellation of GIMS

Aston have tweeted this pic
https://twitter.com/astonmartin/status/12348180840...

It looks like a DBX (presumably the Q version), speedster in the middle and then what looks like the new vantage Roadster on the right

So basically, the only new thing would appear to be speedster, although Aston have a habit of pulling surprises out so there could be something else too

[Bobajobbob]

Looking at this you see how much better the Vantage would look without the bonnet shut line across the nose.

[cayman-black]

Bobajobbob said:

Looking at this you see how much better the Vantage would look without the bonnet shut line across the nose.

Doesn't look that good to me to be honest either.

[Beckson]

Design is a bit fussy honestly

[Bobajobbob]

This is definitely a bit fussy but if you ignore all the additional details on this model and just look at the lights and nose, to me at least, it looks a lot better.

[Venturist]

So that’s three goes they’ve had at designing the front end of the new Vantage now. Still don’t really like any of them

[Jon39]

An errant webpage can be deleted, but with the internet being what it is, all the full size photographs remain on show.

Unfair to reproduce them here, but after looking at all four pictures, I wonder which model the Speedster might be based upon. We will know tomorrow.

Another thought, possibly the bonnet and wings do not hinge forward Vantage style, hence no shut line across the front of the bonnet.
There appears to be a smaller, more conventional bonnet lid.

Edited by Jon39 on Wednesday 4th March 09:36

[Mr.Tremlini]

Yes, certainly appears to be a smaller, more conventional bonnet, somehow similar to that on a Shelby Cobra. It is so Vantage looking in all areas that I cannot see it being based on a DBS, but as you say, tomorrow we find out, but the most interesting aspect of this project would be the engineering behind the V12 in the Vantage scenario!

[anonymous-user]

Well I like it, and it's an indication of what's happening with the Vantage, perhaps.

[EVR]

Love that back!

[Cold]

£765,000. That's quite a lot of money.

[anonymous-user]

Cold said:

£765,000. That's quite a lot of money.

It is, but when the McLaren Elva costs £1.4m and the Monza SP2 £1.6m, it's (relatively speaking), good value.

[Cold]

NFC 85 Vette said:

Cold said:

£765,000. That's quite a lot of money.

It is, but when the McLaren Elva costs £1.4m and the Monza SP2 £1.6m, it's (relatively speaking), good value.

But you're not buying one of those, you're buying one of these. It's still a lot of money and in isolation cannot really be considered good value.
88 are being offered for sale. I wonder if the entire allocation will be sold.

[Olas]

Shame on AM for letting the pictures out before the big reveal - nobody has any reaosn to attend the event now they know what it looks like.

[Cold]

I guess the big news here is that they've stuffed a new gen V12 into the front of a new gen Vantage.

[Big Ry]

What's more interesting though is the V12 in what to me appears to be the Vantage body. They're clearly showing it can be done (which we knew anyway), however I wonder how many people would actually want it. The world is rapidly changing and the market for big engine cars is rapidly decreasing. Maybe I'm wrong, but the current V8 Vantage is so capable and quick as it is, what possible purpose would there be to releasing a V12 ? If they did it, I could see it being in very limited numbers, as I just don't see why anyone would buy a 5.2 V12 over the existing 4L V8. Same as the DB11...........the V8 variant is actually a better car.

[anonymous-user]

Cold said:

But you're not buying one of those, you're buying one of these. It's still a lot of money and in isolation cannot really be considered good value.
88 are being offered for sale. I wonder if the entire allocation will be sold.

How much should Aston charge for Speedster? The current pricing strategy has been under a lot of scrutiny across the range because it's assumed they should be selling bespoke cars for the same price as Porsche's cookie cutter, robot built 992's. The Speedster has a large amount of bespoke items on it, and when you're only building 88 of them, the unit price needs to justify the fabrication and tooling expenses, let alone the rarity of the product.

Olas said:

Shame on AM for letting the pictures out before the big reveal - nobody has any reaosn to attend the event now they know what it looks like.

I don't believe they slipped up - they release the photos and wording ahead of time and the press have an embargo to adhere to. Autocar appear to have got their days mixed up and published it 24 hours early, but the internet has a way of remembering, so the imagery was still detectable once they'd taken it off their news pages.

[Jon39]

Olas said:

Shame on AM for letting the pictures out before the big reveal

I don't think we can blame AML.

'Trusted' magazines etc. are given the information in advance, so that their printing can be ready to coincide with model launches.

Does Autocar appear every Wednesday? Presumably that is why traditionally, new car models are announced on Wednesdays.
Printed motoring magazines are obviously less important though these days.