Aston Martin’s ambitious plan revealed

3 March, 2016

At the 2016 Geneva International Motor Show, being held over March 3–13, Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer announced plans to refresh Aston Martin’s entire line-up, as well as sharing plans to add three new models to the range by 2020.

Aston Martin is looking to not just retain the heritage of ‘beautiful, powerful, handcrafted cars’, but also future-proof the brand in a changing motoring landscape. The new plan for Aston Martin is built on four product pillars: sports cars, a new crossover, saloons, and a growing range of specialist-series limited-volume vehicles.

The first of these changes is the DB11, which was released in early March in Geneva, with a barnstorming 5.2-litre twin-turbo V12 putting out 539hp/620Nm. 

The next release will be Aston’s ‘sports crossover’, the DBX, which is to be built at a brand-new production facility in Wales.

We’re looking forward to the arrival of the DB11 in New Zealand, which will apparently be towards the end of 2016.

Lancia Stratos – building a winner

On his own, and later with his wife Suzie, Craig Tickle has built and raced many rally cars. Starting in 1988, Craig went half shares in a Mk1 Escort and took it rallying. Apart from a few years in the US studying how to be a nuclear engineer, he has always had a rally car in the garage. When he is not playing with cars, he works as an engineer for his design consulting company.
Naturally, anybody interested in rallying has heard of the Lancia Stratos, the poster child and winner of the World Rally circuit in 1974, ’75, and ’76. Just as the Lamborghini Countach rebranded the world of supercars, so, too, did the Lancia Stratos when it came to getting down and dirty in the rally world.

This could be good news for restoring cars and bikes – but we must be quick!

Our parliament is currently considering a member’s Bill, drawn by ballot, called the ‘Right to Repair’ Bill.
It’s due to go a Select Committee for consideration, and we can make submissions ie say what we think of it, before 3 April this year. It’s important because it will make spare parts and information for doing repairs far more readily available and this should slow the rate at which appliances, toys and so on get sent to landfill.