Giorgetto Giugiaro said in an interview I recently read in "The Road Rat" magazine: What's beauty in a car? It's simple architecture and good proportion. [...] The simplest things are the most beautiful. Well, that's exactly what I wanted to discuss in this article. We will get a brief insight of design proportions using the… Sigue leyendo Car design: Proportions
The name of the first V8 Vantage to officially enter a race, Rose, is perhaps the most famous nickname any Aston Martin has received to date. Save Coal Scuttle, maybe. Aston Martin decided to use a car directly derived from the road going V8 Vantage to prove its racing abilities entering the Nürburgring 24h race.… Sigue leyendo The V8 Vantage story – N24
When we drive a car through a curve, all wheels must turn around the same instant center of rotation, allowing better control and minimizing tire wear. Each front wheel must therefore follow a path with a different radius, being obviously larger for the outer wheel. The instant center of rotation is the point around which… Sigue leyendo Chassis engineering: Ackermann steering
In April 1950, Aston Martin already under control of the industrialist David Brown unveiled the DB2. Shortly after, at the end of that same year the Vantage name was used for the first time in a tuned DB2 variant. DB2 Vantage improvements were limited just to its W. O. Bentley designed inline 6 engine. This… Sigue leyendo The V8 Vantage story – Vantage Surname
Things were slightly different in Porsche back in 2008, when the 997 GT3 arrived. Shortly after the GT3 Cup was unveiled, the GT3 saw the light as a street version of that same car. Lately, street and racing 911s are completely independent developments, being just the GT3 RS somewhat motorsport related. The 997 GT3 is… Sigue leyendo Test drive: 2008 Porsche 911 997 GT3 MK1
A few days ago a friend sent me a message with a single photo of a 718 Boxster GTS and a proposal to test drive it. We agreed to meet after work. 5 minutes before the agreed time I was eagerly waiting on the street for his arrival. Some sort of a Subaru sound was… Sigue leyendo Roadtest: Porsche 718 Boxster GTS
After having moved the vehicle manufacturing plant to Gaydon's modern factory, which produced 5,000 cars a year, the capacity and technology of the old engine division still based in Newport Pagnell was utterly insufficient. In order to meet the new requirements, Aston Martin moved in October 2004 its engine design and manufacturing plant to Cologne,… Sigue leyendo The V8 Vantage story – AM05 engine
It is usually understood that the less restrictive the exhaust system is, the better performance it will provide. Unfortunately there are many factors that come into play. The design of an exhaust system not only influences the engine performance and noise volume, depending in the design choice it will also provide very different exhaust tones.… Sigue leyendo Engine Technology: Exhaust
The aluminium chassis, cornerstone of the Gaydon era Aston Martin range, was used for the first time in 2003. This allowed the brand to secure its future and greatly reduce costs by developing all its models based on the same platform. Aston Martin has named this chassis "Vertical Horizontal Platform (VH)". In spite of what… Sigue leyendo The V8 Vantage story – VH platform
Inertia is the resistance of an object to change its rest or motion status. This property is clearly described in Newton's First Law, which states that an object will remain at rest or in uniform motion in a straight line unless acted upon by an external force. The polar moment of inertia is the measure… Sigue leyendo Chassis engineering: Polar moment of inertia
