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View Photos of the 2026 Aston Martin Vanquish Volante

View Photos of the 2026 Aston Martin Vanquish Volante

Yahoo25-03-2025

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After a hiatus that lasted roughly six years, Aston Martin revived the Vanquish nameplate as a flagship model last year. It's now joined by the 2026 Aston Martin Vanquish Volante.
The 2026 Aston Martin Vanquish Volante joins Aston's lineup as a new flagship convertible.
The new Vanquish Volante sources its power from the same 5.2-liter twin-turbocharged V-12 as the coupe model.
Output is impressive, with the V-12 making 823 horsepower and 738 pound-feet of torque.
The peak torque figure is available all the way from 2000 to 5000 rpm.
The Volante's soft top, which the brand calls K-fold, can be opened in 14 seconds and closed in 16 seconds.
The roof function can be operated from the key fob when you're standing near the car, or while driving up to 31 mph.
The Bilstein DTX dampers are technically shared with the coupe, though they've been reworked to account for the convertible's extra weight.
The automaker hasn't announced pricing, though we're expecting the new Vanquish Volante to start at around $500,000.
Between the coupe and the Volante, Aston Martin wants to keep the Vanquish's yearly production figures below 1000 units.
Keep scrolling for more photos of the 2026 Aston Martin Vanquish Volante.
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Aston Martin 'Spy Car': Spy And Mistress Tour Europe Stealing War Plans
Aston Martin 'Spy Car': Spy And Mistress Tour Europe Stealing War Plans

Forbes

time2 days ago

  • Forbes

Aston Martin 'Spy Car': Spy And Mistress Tour Europe Stealing War Plans

Now "Ulster bodied", this Aston Martin's wartime spy secrets can now be revealed. Tell me the plot, I say. "A British Army intelligence officer drives around Europe, just before World War 2, with his mistress, who's actually somebody else's wife and pretending she's Dutch, but really German," says retired construction company CEO Neil Pickstone. "They're masquerading as tourists in a 1935 Aston Martin, which has been fitted with secret compartments engineered by Aston and the Royal Automobile Club. "They befriend young, wealthy German army officers, steal German war plan documents, take photos of military installations, smuggling them back to Britain in those hidden compartments, and never get caught despite being stopped and the car being dismantled by the Gestapo." It sounds like a Netflix or Apple TV thriller. Except it's true, actually rather more extensive, and thoroughly documented, coming to light when two men from Cheshire, England, Pickstone and friend Simon Isles, bought the seen-better-days Aston in 2022. They'd been told the car was used to smuggle currency out of Nazi Germany, but became increasingly aware things didn't add up... Originally an Aston Martin Mark 2 Sports Saloon, the spy car chassis is retained under the "Ulster" ... More body. The car is now a faithful recreation of an "Ulster-bodied" 1930s Aston Martin race car. In the hands of British Army intelligence officer Robert William Fenton "Tony" Mellor it was a 1935 Aston Martin Mk2, but the original body way beyond repair. So Pickstone and Isles rebodied it, but retained its secrets. "Its original owner, Lieutenant, later Major, Mellor was born to a wealthy family. Come the threat of a second World War, back then there was no government budget for intelligence work. Much of it was self-funded by well-off military officers," said Pickstone. "Buying the Aston Martin in 1937, at 25, was a considered decision: in 1930s Germany, army officers were also from wealthy backgrounds. They enjoyed racing their cars, so when Mellor and mistress Ellen Magnee turned up in Germany in the the Aston, seemingly as rich tourists, German officers recognised it as a fast car and engaged in conversation; Mellor got to know them, taking opportunities to gather all sorts of intelligence". The only known image of Major Tony Mellor and his Aston Martin "spy car" comes out of storage. In parallel with deceiving German military officers, Mellor was developing close ties to the French Resistance. The Aston Martin became key to some of their missions, so appearances, especially during night-time car-bound exploits, were crucial. Fenton fitted Bosch headlights to replicate the look of a German staff car at night. He also stole a German military vehicle "exhaust whistle", diverted exhaust gasses sounding their imminent arrival at checkpoints, barriers lifted in advance, Mellor and his French Resistance passengers hurtling through at 80mph leaving guards little chance of spotting the night-time ruse. Such antics were just part of the documented story, archived in files that came with the Aston and in Mellor's Cheshire Regiment museum. "The car came with a story about helping Jewish people pre-war, smuggling silver and currency out of Germany," said Pickstone. "It came with the secret compartments, the altered exhaust, and all the bits and pieces that made it special. "But the story about smuggling currency was fabricated. This was a spy story." Pickstone and Isles knitted together Mellor's memoires, the car's history file and archived accounts of then-fellow officers to piece together an extraordinary tale. It also raised the question of why, when a senior officer spoke about recommending Major Mellor for the Victoria Cross (the highest military bravery honour) there was a resounding silence from then military chiefs. However, Mellor was awarded the Croix de Guerre with Vermilion Star for his contribution to the French war effort. One of the secret compartments, the large tube, in situ. The Gestapo missed its hidden secrets even ... More after dismantling the Aston. In the car's file is a letter from Aston Martin to Mellor. It notes his attendance at the Aston Martin factory where he was instructed in repair and maintenance of the car on his European "tours". "The letter to Mellor is for, whatever purpose, from Aston Martin to confirm he spent time working in the factory on his car. We believe it's to document what he'd allegedly been doing for six weeks while out of barracks. We believe he was actually designing secret compartments," said Pickstone. "The first modification was a cross tube on the chassis. It had a locking mechanism that couldn't be spotted unless you knew what you were looking for," said Isles. Meanwhile, the Royal Automobile Club provided a battery. It worked normally, but also had a hidden compartment. "Just pre-war he was travelling around Europe with Ellen Magnee and got stopped by the Gestapo. They stripped the car, but found nothing," says Pickstone."In the archives there's evidence he said it was a good job because he had the plans for the Siegfried Line hidden in the secret compartments." The restored German Army officer staff car exhaust whistle. Mellor Captures 500 German Soldiers On His Day Off While he left the Aston in Holland for much of the war, his antics continued. He was one of the first British soldiers onto Sicily in 1943 where he is believed to have had a brief dalliance with a local countess. But he was also part of the spearhead during 1944's Normandy landings. "Soon after he was granted 24 hours leave to see 'friends' in a nearby village. He took a wireless man, a jeep and a driver. We believe he was meeting a previous girlfriend, and to gather intel about what the Germans were doing," said Pickstone. "En route they came across the Eighth Army, parked up approaching a bridge where there was a report of a German Tiger tank which had destroyed several Allied tanks. The commander of the Sherman tank at the head of the column refused to go any further. "Mellor and a French freedom fighter went to have a look, but the 'Tiger' was just a tracked vehicle. They captured it, just as a German staff car appeared; the Sherman opens fire, the staff car crashes, and the occupants captured too. "More freedom fighters appeared and proceeded to capture 200 Germans in the woods, locked them in a barn while they went to help defend a nearby town, but ended up capturing 300 more German soldiers. 'They were terrified of the French, so wanted to surrender to a British officer. Mellor ended up capturing 500 Germans on his day off...' The question remains: was Major Mellor the inspiration for James Bond? While it's mainly Cheshire lanes that pass under the Aston's wheels these days, you wonder what other tales of derring-do war-time archives, due to be opened under the UK Government's "100 year rule" in the 2030s, could reveal. Major Mellor retired to an Oxfordshire village, but evidence remained of his past. Upon his passing, his cottage was sold, the new owners discovering a secret compartment in the basement, evidently designed to store the tools of a spy's trade. Asking Pickstone and Isles if they thought Mellor, a neighbour of 007 creator Ian Fleming, a fellow intelligence officer, was the basis for James Bond they simply said I should draw my own conclusions. I'll simply let you draw yours...

Revealed: Aston Martin's F1 issue forcing Fernando Alonso to 'invent' overtakes
Revealed: Aston Martin's F1 issue forcing Fernando Alonso to 'invent' overtakes

Yahoo

time4 days ago

  • Yahoo

Revealed: Aston Martin's F1 issue forcing Fernando Alonso to 'invent' overtakes

In Fernando Alonso's first Formula 1 season with Aston Martin, 2023, he claimed six podiums in the first eight races and was running third in the championship. The pickings have been more barren since then and in the Spanish Grand Prix – the ninth round of 2025 – he picked up his first points of the season. Lance Stroll had scored all of Aston Martin's points until then – a humble 14, drawn from the first two rounds. Advertisement Read Also: Adrian Newey: Lance Stroll is 'much better than people give him credit for' Heads have already rolled in Aston's technical department last season and the AMR25 car has not started the season well, seeming to have a fundamental problem with race pace. Stroll's tendency to qualify poorly and then pick up positions partially masks a trend of the car being slower on Sundays than it is on Saturdays, though the only time this season he qualified inside the top 10 (at Imola) he finished 15th. Alonso, though, has reached Q3 three times and only just got a return in the form of two points (and it would have been one but for Max Verstappen's penalty). A notable feature of the first and last rounds of this latest triple-header has been his tendency to overtake at unconventional points on the track, usually via a sneak attack. Advertisement 'We lacked top speed, so on the straights we were losing a lot,' he said in Barcelona. 'I didn't make a single overtake under DRS. They were all made in Turn 3 on the outside, which is not a normal place to overtake, but we have to invent these kinds of moves. 'Also in Imola I was out of Turn 7 when I made three overtaking [moves] in the last few laps. So we need to solve this situation and start overtaking on the straight with the DRS like everyone [else] does.' Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images via Getty Images Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images via Getty Images 'We need to improve a little bit our straightline speed and also the [tyre] degradation. As I said, Saturdays are quite competitive and Sundays we seem to take a step back. Advertisement 'So happy for today for sure, first points, good Safety Car at the end, good timing and things. But if we go back on Thursday and we redo the weekend, we need to change something on the car to be a little bit more Sunday-biased than Saturday-.' Alonso can be relied upon to highlight his own contributions to a result with the enthusiasm of a carnival barker. But both he and chief trackside officer Mike Krack alluded to the car being under-balanced, with too much understeer. It's common for teams to set up their cars to have an understeer balance at circuits such as Barcelona because the rear axle is the critical one, and some understeer can help protect the rear tyres. But when asked by if the problem was caused by dialling in too much understeer, Alonso's answer was an unequivocal 'no'. Among Aston's challenges last year was that most of the performance upgrades added to the car didn't generate the expected result. While the AMR25 is the product of the previous design leadership, at Imola a new floor and bodywork package represented the first definitive output of the latest regime and the new wind tunnel. Advertisement It was never going to be worth half a second a lap, but CEO and team principal Andy Cowell talked about it in terms of a lab experiment to enable to stress-test its tools and procedures. 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That is also why you see the small gaps in qualifying. Because all the weaknesses the cars are having are being covered by the new tyres, by the new rubber. 'As soon as the tyres become two laps, three laps, four laps old, the weaknesses become more and more. That is why you see that the cars in the front are just going. That is why the field is spreading so much.' Noticeably, Aston Martin has been 'scrubbing' its race tyre sets – essentially giving them a short run, usually during practice, to put a heat cycle through them. The process of bringing the tyres up to working temperature and then cooling them again changes the visco-elastic properties of the rubber. Advertisement It would be overly simplistic to say this improves grip and life characteristics on a linear scale, but there is a belief it can make the tyres less sensitive to graining and thermal degradation. Peak grip is lower, but the aim is to make the duration of the peak longer. Aston Martin's chief tyre performance engineer Jun Matsuzaki has been regarded as a key asset for many years and has been with the team since its Force India days, when he helped Sergio Perez become a 'tyre whisperer'. Before that he worked for Bridgestone. It was Matsuzaki who first worked out that Pirelli's rear tyres in 2013 could run longer stint lengths when mounted in the opposite direction they were designed to rotate. So it's unlikely that Aston's performance deficit is being caused by not getting the best out of the tyres in terms of trackside operations. It's a question of mechanical and aerodynamic design. Alonso, for one, seems to believe the team now has a handle on the problem: 'I think we know what is happening…' Read Also: F1 Spanish GP analysis: Red Bull forced McLaren to unleash its full potential To read more articles visit our website.

Aston Martin faces pressure from Fitch
Aston Martin faces pressure from Fitch

Yahoo

time5 days ago

  • Yahoo

Aston Martin faces pressure from Fitch

Fitch Ratings has maintained Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings Plc's long-term issuer default rating at 'B-', with a Negative Outlook, citing increased liquidity risk and weaker-than-expected free cash flow in 2024. The credit update, published on 2 June, follows continued financial pressure on the luxury carmaker, despite a recent capital injection and relief from proposed US automotive tariffs. The rating action comes two months after Aston Martin's executive chairman Lawrence Stroll told Bloomberg News (1 April) that he does not rule out taking the company private. Stroll described the carmaker's market valuation — around £650 million — as a 'joke', noting it is now roughly equal to the amount his Yew Tree consortium has invested since 2020. After the latest £52.5 million capital raise, Yew Tree's stake will increase to around 33%. While Stroll insists the company is 'severely undervalued', Fitch's view underscores the difficulty of turning around the carmaker's financial performance. Fitch highlighted a larger-than-anticipated free cash flow deficit in 2024 and ongoing execution risks linked to Aston Martin's turnaround strategy. These concerns persist despite a £125 million capital boost announced at the end of March, comprising a share issue and the sale of the company's stake in its Formula 1 team, which temporarily eases liquidity pressures. Aston Martin, which has declared its goal to become EBIT-profitable in 2025, has consistently struggled to achieve sustainable performance. Car sales fell 9% year-on-year to around 6,000 in 2024, while the group reported a pre-tax loss of £290 million. Analysts have questioned the company's ability to deliver on revised profitability targets, particularly given ongoing supply chain constraints and past delays in model launches. The company's US exposure adds further complexity. The US accounted for 37% of group revenue in 2024, and earlier proposals from the Trump administration to impose 25% tariffs on UK car imports raised concerns. However, a new UK–US trade agreement, whose implementation date remains unclear, will reduce duties to 10% for the first 100,000 vehicles exported annually, roughly equivalent to the UK's 2024 export total, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). While management has downplayed the impact, noting the tariff hike is 'not catastrophic,' Fitch notes that the pricing implications are uncertain. To mitigate near-term tariff effects, Aston Martin accelerated US-bound shipments in Q1 2025, providing inventory cover for the second quarter. Management has also indicated that passing on higher costs may be feasible for high-margin, limited-run models, but Fitch notes that long-term margin effects remain unclear. Tariff-related cost pressure adds to existing inflationary challenges, though the company continues to pursue cost-saving initiatives. Since its 2018 IPO at a £4.3 billion valuation, Aston Martin has undergone several strategic resets. The latest, under new CEO Adrian Hallmark, who joined from Bentley Motors Ltd, prioritises profit over volume, scrapping previous sales targets and focusing instead on customised, high-margin models and derivatives of existing platforms. Hallmark previously led Bentley to record profitability, increasing its operating margins to over 20% by 2023. Still, Fitch warns that Aston Martin's 'rating headroom remains constrained,' with profitability dependent on effective execution, shareholder support, and resilience to external risks including weaker demand, particularly in China, and potential delays to new launches. "Aston Martin faces pressure from Fitch" was originally created and published by Motor Finance Online, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data

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