Aston Martin's Avalanche of Models

Niche car manufacturers like Aston Martin never enjoyed a peaceful life – the fragile sports car market is pretentious and forever changing. Adapting to such an unstable environment is difficult for any sports car manufacturer, whether we’re talking about Ferrari, Porsche or Aston Martin. However, the British company has bright plans concerning their future, plans well supported by the current range of Aston Martin models. The three main pillars that ensure Aston’s success are the DB9, the V8 Vantage and the V12 Vanquish. Let’s have a quick look at each of these fantastic cars.

Aston Martin V12 Vanquish

Equipped with the most powerful engine in any Aston Martin production car, the V12 Vanquish is a technical marvel and a work of art, all at the same time. The Aston V12 Vanquish benefits from a aluminum and composite body, electronic traction control and throttle, a formula-one style six-speed gearbox and all the latest gadgets one could think of. The 5.9-litre V12 is a real “Porsche killer” as many called it. However, the price of the Vanquish is of $220,000. This model was discontinued early in 2007.

Aston Martin DB9

The DB9 is equipped with a 6.0 L 450 brake horsepower (335 kW) V12 engine borrowed from the Aston Martin V12 Vanquish. The DB9 is a direct competitor of the 911 Turbo model from Porsche and the F430 Ferrari. According to Wikipedia, Aston Martin will be revealing the DB9 LM along with the DBS and the V8 Vantage N400 in the 2007 Frankfurt Motor Show. The DB9 LM commemorates Aston’s GT1 class victory in the Le Mans 24-hour race in 2007.

Aston Martin V8 Vantage

The Aston Martin V8 Vantage has a 4282 cc engine, producing 380 hp (283 kW) at 7,000 rpm and 302 lb-ft (409 Nm) at 5,000 rpm. The V8 Vantage engine is assembled manually at the Aston Martin factory in Germany and is based on the V8 engine from Jaguar. The performance of the V8 Vantage is excellent, with a 75 mph - 280km/h top speed and a naught to 60 mph time of under 5 seconds.

Future Aston models

A 4-seater sports saloon has been in production for a few years now. It’s called the Rapide and most likely we will see it on the road in 2008. The Aston Martin DBS is another cool model presented to the public with the occasion of the last James Bond movie. Other concept cars have been presented this year, but there are no definitive plans to turn any of them into production vehicles.

By Michael Rad.

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The History of James Bond Model Cars

The production of Corgi's first Aston Martin DB5 model in 1965, which was based on the car featured in Goldfinger complete with ejector seat, coincided with the beginning of the Bond phenomenon, but the success of the company's James Bond model cars could hardly have been predicted.

Three years later Corgi had sold 3.9 million units of the DB5 making it an instant and - judging by the fact it is produced to this day - timeless classic. Much sought after as collector's pieces, if you are lucky to own one in pristine condition from the early 1970s the value is something in the range of £200-£300, although why would you want to part with it at all? And if you have one showing some wear and tear, the value is probably something of the order of £50.

Corgi is currently going strong and with each new James Bond film it produces another of its die-cast classic scale models, which are keenly snapped up by collectors. And although it is easy to see Corgi as a company producing children's toys, nothing could be further from the truth – when in the '80s the company suffered from a downturn in the toy market due to computer games and the like taking a significant amount of market share the company took a long hard look at what it was doing and deliberately refocused on the adult collector.

The change of strategy paid off with a huge increase in sales as James Bond models other collectible cars were snapped up. Corgi has continued to develop its ranges and current models in the James Bond range in clued a gold-plated collectors edition DB5 model car, proving the eternal interest in this car.

While Corgi has been well established in Britain for years, it is not the only company to hold a license to produce 007 cars - RC2 produced 1:18 scale models including the DB5 and the Aston Martin DBS from Casino Royale, while radio controlled versions of the cars are available from Nikko.

And proving that the market for 007 model cars remain strong, there is a new magazine aimed at Bond model car collectors. It's called The James Bond Car Collection and in addition to a full colour magazine each copy includes a 1:43 scale model from one of the films.

By David Leigh.