Watch 007’s new Aston Martin jump, drift, and barbecue baddies in latest trailer

23 July, 2015

 

Few movie relationships have lasted as long as the one between James Bond as his trusted Aston Martin. And for the latest iteration of the franchise, Spectre, Bond utilizes a gorgeous fire-spitting, sideways-sliding, show-jumping Aston Martin DB10. Check it all out in the hot-off-the-press film trailer below:

First unveiled at the film’s press launch late last year in London, the DB10 is a one-off edition made specifically for the film franchise. This is a shame, because it stands as one of the prettiest cars to adorn the famous Aston Martin badge in quite some time. But don’t get too sad; Aston Martin have stated that elements of the DB10 give us “a glimpse to the future design direction for the next generation of Aston Martins”.

While details on the car are thin on the ground, we can probably assume that the rear-mounted flame-thrower will not make it to any production versions …

Racing Mazdas

Both Rod Millen and Ron Kendall were rotary racing kings, emanating from the North Shore of Auckland, where I grew up. And the ultimate rotary techno guru was Bill Shiells, who developed the engine into a rocket ship while working out of Gulf Mazda in Takapuna from 1969, and later in his own business, Rotorsport. He began to extract some phenomenal horsepower from the enigmatic rotary engine. Bill was one of the first to race the Mazda RX-2 Coupe in 1971 and achieved immediate success, causing others to sit up and take notice, particularly the North Shore’s racing elite. They included Robbie Francevic, Rod Millen, Ron Kendall, John Woolf, John Le Feuvre, and Rex Findlay.

Range Rover CSK — the original SUV

The Range Rover, thanks to Charles Spencer King, went into production in 1970 boasting an iconic shape that would last until 1996. The vehicle that would create the SUV moniker came about because Rover decided it was time to add a bigger four-wheel-drive vehicle, one with a 100-inch wheelbase, to the model range. Land Rover made a 109-inch wheelbase model but the standard vehicle had a 88-inch wheelbase.
The new model would be more suitable for road use than the existing Land Rover, which was considered to be predominantly for rural use. To make sure it could cope on any road it came standard with the Rover 3.5-litre V8 engine. The body design was originally sketched by King and went into production with only a few minor touch-ups by the Rover styling team.
According to King, “The idea was to combine the comfort and on-road ability of a Rover saloon with the off-road ability of a Land Rover. Nobody was doing it.”