With all the talk about the concepts we saw in Detroit this past week, let’s travel back in time to the 2006 North American International Automotive Show and head towards the Aston Martin stand and the Rapide concept.

Ford’s then Aston Martin division showed a four door sedan essentially a DB9 coupe that has been stretched by 11.8 inches, built off the same aluminum VH architecture as both the DB9 and the two-seater V8 Vantage. It used a 480-hp; 5.9-liter V-12 engine mated to a ZF manu-matic transmission and weighed just 309 pounds more than the two-plus-two-seater DB9 coupe.

When Ford decided to skip out on Aston Martin the Rapide concept was 86’d. When the David Richards era started at Aston Martin one of the first orders of business was to resurrect the Rapide.
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Aston Martin Racing has revealed the first impressions of its new GT2 racing car.

Known as the Vantage GT2, the new car is based on the V8 Aston Martin Vantage road car. The new car will mean Aston Martin is the only manufacturer to offer cars in every GT racing category: GT1 – DBR9; GT2 - Vantage GT2; GT3 – DBRS9; GT4 – Vantage N24.

For the first time, Aston Martin Racing is designing this car to run on either standard race fuel or E85 bio-ethanol. In 2007, Aston Martin Racing successfully converted a standard DBRS9 to run on E85. Currently the American Le Mans Series allows E-85.

Aston Martin. Stirling Moss. Le Mans. Do we really need to say more?

Those three names conjure up all sorts of history inspired daydreams. The dream was the reality though, with Moss winning endurance races at Le Mans, Goodwood and the Nurburgring at the wheel of the mighty Aston Martin DBR 1. Shortly, that historic image of Moss at the wheel of an Aston will be recreated for the 2007 Le Mans Legends race which happens before the start of the 24 hours on June 16.

Please oh please people, get your videos of this historic occasion up onto the gootoobz right away for us poor sods who are stuck in North America!

Aston Martin press release after the break
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We don’t usually comment on the financial side of things in the car industry, but today’s news is too cool to pass up. Ford has announced today that their Aston Martin brand is to be sold off to a consortium led by David Richards, proprietor of Prodrive. You might recall Prodrive, they are the team that saw success in the World Rally Championship and are currently the team responsible for building the Aston Martin racing effort in ALMS and European racing series. This is really good news for high end niche manufacturer, which will now be able to focus on quicker product development.

Read the Ford press release after the break.
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Aston Martin has confirmed that James Bond will once again drive an Aston in the upcoming film Casino Royale. As agent 007’s rides have traditionally been kept secret before a new movie release, we are only getting little tidbits of info. The car is a new model called the Aston Martin DBS. The new Bond, actor Daniel Craig had the opportunity to get some seat time in his character’s new ride last week at Aston Martin headquarters.

The movie is set to open in November 2006, so it can’t be too long before spy shots of the newest Q machine appear.

Full press release after the break

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The old adage “Win on sunday, sell on Monday” is being put to use by Aston Martin following the 2006 Nurburgring 24 hour race. While the Vantage V8 finished 24th overall, even finishing a 24 hour race is really a win, especially when the car has very few alterations from what is sold on the showroom floor. To be built in limited numbers, the car will be identical to the factory race car, meaning that well heeled club types will be able to drive their toy to the track, just like the factory boys did.

Cool catch from Autoblog

It’s Father’s Day weekend and what better way to spend it, but in front of the TV watching the world’s premiere 24 hour race. Speed TV will be broadcasting 20 hours of the race, but there are other ways to keep up with the action. The official Le Mans site has up to the minute reports and pics, while Radio Le Mans offers live or by podcast.

Above, the Number 8 Audi is wheeled back to the garage this morning for a replacement differential after the sister car had problems in the warm up session.

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