We already knew that the Aston Martin V12 Zagato was scheduled to make its public debut at the Kuwait Concours d’Elegance, but that didn’t stop the Internet from finding a PDF ahead of time revealing the supercar in all its glory.

The new V12 Zagato will be available in coupe form only and will be made exclusively for just 150 lucky owners. The exotic will be hand crafted at the British automaker’s headquarters in Gaydon, Warwickshire, UK and is expected to make its first deliveries later this year.

Detailed in the PDF leak includes a full spec sheet of the V12 Zagato including the 6.0L V12 powerplant with 510-hp and 420 lb-ft of torque. According to Aston Martin, it’ll hit 62-mph in just 4.2 seconds and has a top speed of 190-mph. The engine will be mated to a six-speed manual transmission.

The vehicle will also feature four unique Zagato exterior paint schemes and will come with 19-inch wheels unique to the vehicle. More exciting in the leak are photos of the interior which shows off the custom hand-stitching, plenty of carbon fiber and the lightweight seats with six-way adjustment.

Pricing on the Zagato is extravagant as well with it sitting at around $520,000 based on today’s conversion rates (£330,000).

GALLERY: Aston Martin V12 Zagato

[Source: Aston Martin PDF via Motor Authority]

What better way to ring in the Chinese new year than with some special edition Aston Martins?

Available only for the Chinese market, 88 special “Dragon88″ models of the V8 Vantage S, Virage, and DBS will be made featuring some Chinese cultural references and iconography.

This news comes right after Rolls-Royce announced that their “Year of the Dragon” Phantom has sold out. It seems that those $1.2-million Phantoms were just right for the Chinese market, and here comes Aston to make a few sales of its own.

The Dragon88 models will be available in three color schemes: Champagne Gold, Volcano Red, and Amethyst Red. Each scheme representing a virtue like wealth and fortune, peace and protection, and “dragon fire.”

Inside, the cars will feature dragon embroidery inspired by the Nine Dragon Wall at Beihai park in Beijing.  Other identifying features include special 10-spoke dragon edition alloy wheels, black brake calipers and a Bang and Olufsen sound system.

Aston Martin has six dealerships in China, and believes that China will be their third biggest market, after U.S. and U.K. in just a few years.

Pricing and availability of the Dragon88 models is likely to be announced in April at the Beijing Auto Show.

[Souce: Jingdaily]

British luxury sports car brand Aston Martin will make its debut in the Grand-Am series on January 27th, as it prepares to take part in the 2012 Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge (CTSCC), which will be held at the Daytona International Speedway.

For its return to North American racing, Aston Martin has teamed up with Multimatic Motorsports, which are based in Toronto, Canada. The lead car in this endurance race will be driven by Scott Maxwell and Joe Foster, while the second car will be piloted by Hollywood star Patrick Dempsey, who has proven over the years that he is a very accomplished racing driver. For this inaugural event, Dempsey will be teamed-up with Chriss Porritt, Aston Martin’s chief engineer, who is very experienced with the Vantage GT4.

The first round of the CTSCC will be run in support of the 50th running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona, and this support race will run for two and a half hours, with a mandatory driver change. The Aston Martin team will be competiting in the Grand Sport Category, which features six and eight cylinder cars. Aston’s main rival will most certainly be the Audi R8 LMS, which is in the same class.

With experienced drivers and the combined talents of Aston Martin and Multimatic Motorsports, this team will certainly be among the favorites to take the race win. We only have to wait a few days to find out.

There are plenty of exotic car commercials that feature sexy women… but how many out there are targeted to a female audience (and we’re not talking about minivans and SUVs that go after soccer moms)? We’re talking about a cool car for cool women – and that’s just what Aston Martin is going after in its latest spot.

Tilted “Aston Martin Loves Women. Women Love Aston Martin,” this 87-second long featurette is made for the woman who appreciates automotive beauty and performance. You won’t see any girls in bikini tops sprawled on the car hood with a hose in one hand and a wet sponge in the other. What you will see is a DBS drawing admiration from a variety of different females as it makes its way through the streets… and none of them is in a hip-hugging mini skirt.

This one’s going out to all the ladies who love a fine automobile. Watch the ad after the jump.

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10. Porsche 918 Spyder: $845,000

The list of the Top 10 most expensive new cars is even more shocking that you might expect. Released by Forbes, you can forget the Ferrari 458 or the $300,000 Lamborghini Aventador because even at the low end of the scale these models start at right around the one million mark.

In 10th place, at $845,000 is Porsche’s upcoming flagship, the 918 Spyder. When it does arrive later this year, it will come powered by a high-revving V8 engine making more than 500 hp, mated to a plug-in hybrid system that adds over 218 hp. Porsche claims a 0-60 mph time of 3.1 seconds, with an incredible 78 mpg rating.

Aston Martin has announced a pair of V8 Vantages will be joining the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge with Multimatic campaigning at least one of them.

For those wondering who Multimatic is, they’re recognized as a world leader in composite technology and recently worked with Aston Martin to develop the full carbon fiber monocoque chassis found on the One-77. Multimatic is also well known for their advanced vehicle analysis and dynamic simulation, helping Aston Martin to bring unrivaled specialist capabilities to the One-77 model.

Another collaboration between Aston Martin and Multimatic includes their DSSV Dampers on the V12 Zagato Concept. Multimatic Motorsports is in charge of designing, engineering, building and campaigning several race cars in North America and Europe, and seeing a Vantage V8 in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge series will be a nice addition.

Aston Martin won’t be the only original ones joining the series next year either, with Audi-tuner APR Motorsport prepping their R8 to go racing.

Lamborghini won’t be the only exotic car maker debuting a convertible at the Geneva Auto Show this March, with a new report that Aston Martin is planning a drop-top reveal.

According to one source, the maker of British exotics will undress a convertible version of its V12 Vantage model. The same chassis that is shared with the rest of the Vantage lineup, the V12 model trades its 420 hp, 4.7-liter V8 for a 510 hp, 5.9-liter V12.

The same source cites Aston Martin CEO Dr. Ulrich Bez as revealing that a DBS replacement is in the pipes, making 600-hp.

GALLERY: Aston Martin V12 Vantage

[Source: GTSpirit]

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We’re getting close and closer to seeing one of the world’s best looking race cars in the flesh soon, as Aston Martin announced that they’ve begun testing their 6.0L V12 racecar with 600-hp.

In fact, the new Vantage GT3 has already logged over 620-miles in shakedown runs, preparing it to take on several race series including the FIA GT3 championships, Blancpain Endurance Series and the VLN Nürburgring Series.

The V12 Vantage GT3 is replacing the outgoing DBRS9 and weighs in at a scant 2,755-lbs. Aston Martin hopes to start delivering the race vehicle to teams in early 2012 with a cost of around half a million big ones.

GALLERY: Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3

Luxury sportscar manufacturer Aston Martin is celebrating a milestone as they now have over 1-million fans on the social networking site, Facebook.

In celebration of this milestone, Aston Martin will lets its ‘fans’ design a special one-off vehicle by answering a series of questions. The most popular answer will decide the specification of “The Millionth Fan Car.”

Aston Martin is creating some interior and exterior color schemes specifically for this special edition. As a thank you to all those who participated in this campaign, Aston Martin will send each fan a downloadable certificate of the final design.

The chosen car and design will be built at Aston Martin’s Gaydon facility in March 2012. This car will then be displayed at many public events during the year.

Aston Martin’s popularity has seen a big rise in the last six-months as over 280,000 fans have ‘liked’ their Facebook page. This might be due to their expansion in markets such as India and South America recently.

Also in celebration of this milestone, Aston Martin will reduce the price of their iPhone app from $5.00 to $0.99, but only for a limited time.

Aston Martin will be teaming up with Galpin Aston Martin of California to show off the final pre-production engineering development One-77 at this year’s Los Angeles Auto Show. This special One-77 has covered 14,000-miles including endurance testing at Nardo in Italy and the infamous Nurburgring in Germany.

Spectators to this year’s Los Angeles Auto Show will be able to check out the 7.3L V12-powered exotic in person, but unfortunately won’t get to experience the 750-hp and 553 lb-ft of torque. But we’ll all be able to admire the handcrafted aluminum body and full carbon fiber monocoque chassis.

Keep in mind that the One-77 that will be on display isn’t a final production model, and the car that will be for sale may be slightly different.

GALLERY: Aston Martin One-77