Back in the 1984, Aston martin needed a new model. The same shape had been in the production since 1967 when it was launched with the 6 cylinder engine, but a completely new model was too expensive. A new suit of clothes would be more affordable.

It was to be the renewal of an old association which brought Aston Martin back, once again, among the world’s fastest cars. Back in 1959, the company wanted to produce a special lightweight version of the DB4GT; they went to the Italian styling house of Zagaton in Milan and 19 models were built form 1962-4. twenty five years on, the new owners were looking for a similar extension to the Vantage range at the time of 1984 Geneva Motor Show; they visited the Zagaton stand founder Ugo Zagaton had died, but the company was being run by his sons, Dr. Elio and Ing. Gianni.

During the earlier Aston Zagato production, the Italian company was building a number of niche models for the various separate Italian manufactures. By the 1984, the major part of the Italian industry was controlled by Fiat and Zagato needed to find outside Italy. The arrival of the Aston principals, Victor Gauntlett and Peter Livanos, was manna form heaven.

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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration today announced that Toyota has identified a vehicle-based remedy to fix a sudden acceleration safety issue involving floor mats trapping accelerator pedals in various Toyota and Lexus models. Toyota announced the recall of these vehicles in early October and said it would soon develop a vehicle-based remedy to reduce the risk of a crash due to accelerator pedal entrapment.

The models involved in the recall are: 2007 to 2010 MY Camry, 2005 to 2010 MY Avalon, 2004 to 2009 MY Prius, 2005-2010 MY Tacoma, 2007-2010 MY Tundra, 2007-2010 MY ES 350, 2006-2010 MY IS 250, and 2006 to 2010 MY IS 350. (more…)

Toyota Announces Recall of 110,000 Tundra Pickups for Excessive Corrosion; Motorists Should Remove Spare Tires From the Underbody

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) today alerted owners of certain Toyota Tundra vehicles to remove spare tires mounted underneath the body of the vehicle. Excessive corrosion due to “road salts” can cause the rear cross- member of the vehicle frame to fail and allow the spare tire to fall onto the roadway at any time, creating a road hazard for other vehicles.

Toyota has just announced a recall of these vehicles, but NHTSA recommends that owners remove the spare tires even before taking the vehicles to the dealers to be remedied. (more…)

Big but still elegant, the V-8 Vantage put Aston Martin firmly into the ‘seventies supercar league and gave the company a justifiable claim as producers of the world’s fastest four seater production car. Motor racing in the fifties and James Bond in the sixties had put Aston Martin on the world map as the car you promised yourself one day. The V-8 Vantage made sure that its performance would be in keeping with its reputation when that day arrived.

In the days when most supercars weighed no more than a ton and a half, the 4000lb Vantage needed a pretty impressive power output to keep up. The trusty 5.34 liter four cam V-8 was worked on to produce a reliable and tractable 375bhp thanks to four big downdraught 48 IDF weber carburetters, bigger inlets values and a better exhaust systems; with a drag factor of 0.38, this enable a maximum speed of 170 mph; but, even the standard V8 saloon had 300 bhp which was good for nearly 150 mph.

While James Bond made the DB series famous he used a 147 mph and 1963 DB5 and these continued through to the DB6 MK II, Aston’s then owner David Brown wanted to produce a genuine 4 seater which even the longer wheelbase DB6 didn’t really achieve and it had to be faster than the 4 liter cars. According work started in 1963 on a new all aluminum V-8 engine, While the new car might have been one designed by the Italian coachbuilder touring, who had styled the DB4.

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Believe it or not, but Italians have a great car sense. They have been giving us the best cars on the streets. And also have been providing us with these for a long time. The Italian car manufacturers have gained a lot of respect from the entire world where ever their cars have reached. Now a lot of Italian cars have invaded the automotive market. This has been quite a controversial issue that which manufacturer has been providing the best cars of them all. Now with due respect I would say that proclaiming someone on top in this market is utter stupidity. This is generally because the manufacturers produce new models so quickly that one doesn’t have any time to judge the car or the manufacturer.

But with experience one can definitely pick out the top 5 manufacturers. Now experience is needed in this to judge this because only facts matter in such topics and not opinions. For me one of the top manufacturers in the italiano business is Lamborghini. And all the due facts support this statement too. Well the latest proof of this has definitely been the all new Murcielago LP640. Now you might be thinking that wasn’t it released quite a time ago. Well do not worry friends; Lamborghini has now released a new version of that. And this time we are getting a roadster!

That’s right; Lamborghini has released a Roadster version of the Murcielago LP640. Lamborghini has kept its brilliant designing yet again. The roadster has been installed with a soft top that rests just about two inches above your scalp. The aerodynamics and the height of the car have been maintained in this version too. So that means that you can now also experience the low rise of the car when the top is in the trunk.

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The only problem with the Nissan GT-R is the lengthy period of metal recalibration required when we have finished driving it and climbed into something less capable, which is just about everything else here. I am not the hero, you mumble to yourself as you make your way across the paddock to a mere Porsche or a Mercedes or a BMW.

The car is the hero’ perhaps Nissan ought to print that on the back on the sun visor, so you can flip it down for your last couple of laps or final five minutes on the road in the GT-R. Because if you forget, and try to do in other cars the things you can do in this one, you are not going to prosper.

It is a sign of the GT-R segment-busting abilities that we could have put it in any of four groups; it matches the M3 on price, the blown, four wheel drive Japanese saloon on philosophy and the 2+2 layout it suits this group best, but whichever group it wound up in it would always have some attribute that didn’t fit. In this case it is the lap of time; its 1min 0.6 sec is 2.6sec quicker than Porsche.

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