Aston Martin leaks topless DB11 images

22 September, 2016

 

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Aston Martin has teased images for a 2018 Volante D11, and we’re excited

In August just gone, we made our way to the Aston Martin DB11 unveil. A NZ$365K, plus on-road costs, was justified by its technology, beauty, and power. Knowing that it’s powered by a newly designed 5.2-litre twin-turbocharged V12 engine, it’s sure to be the most powerful ever, with 600hp and a stump pulling (not that you would) 700Nm of torque. This equates to a gorgeous tourer that will top out at 322kph and jet to 100kph from a standstill in just 3.9 seconds. After 103 years in the automotive game, it’s safe to assume that they know a thing or two by now. 

Just recently, Aston Martin dropped three images onto their Facebook page — three images of a DB11 with a soft-top. Printed on the side of the vehicle was ‘Opening Spring 2018’.

Aesthetically, the DB11 Volante looks to feature the same DB11 rear end we’ve already seen, but they didn’t photograph the front of the vehicle, leading us to speculate there might be a few subtle changes. 

The Volante will no doubt be a little slower than the coupe DB11, and a little more expensive, too. We’re expecting Aston Martin to release official images in the coming months, so we’ll keep you posted. 

Design accord

You can’t get much more of an art deco car than a Cord — so much so that new owners, Paul McCarthy and his wife, Sarah Selwood, went ahead and took their Beverly 812 to Napier’s Art Deco Festival this year, even though the festival itself had been cancelled.
“We took delivery of the vehicle 12 days before heading off to Napier. We still drove it all around at the festival,” says Paul.
The utterly distinctive chrome grille wrapping around the Cord’s famous coffin-shaped nose, and the pure, clean lines of the front wing wheel arches, thanks to its retractable headlamps, are the essence of deco. This model, the Beverly, has the finishing touch of the bustle boot that is missing from the Westchester saloon.

Motorman: When New Zealand built the Model T Ford

History has a way of surrounding us, hidden in plain sight. I was one of a group who had been working for years in an editorial office in Augustus Terrace in the Auckland city fringe suburb of Parnell who had no idea that motoring history had been made right around the corner. Our premises actually backed onto a century-old brick building in adjacent Fox Street that had seen the wonder of the age, brand-new Model T Fords, rolling out the front door seven decades earlier.
Today, the building is an award-winning two-level office building, comprehensively refurbished in 2012. Happily, 6 Fox Street honours its one time claim to motoring fame. Next door are eight upmarket loft apartments, also on the site where the Fords were completed. Elsewhere, at 89 Courtenay Place, Wellington, and Sophia Street, Timaru, semi-knocked-down Model Ts were also being put together, completing a motor vehicle that would later become known as the Car of the Century.