Motoring News - 14th September 2020

This week has been a highlight of recent weeks for car releases, announcements and news and therefore has prompted a news post on here for the first time since the pandemic hit the world. This week includes news of a new Nissan Z model, the first in over 10 years, the new Maserati supercar targeting itself against the Ferrari Roma and McLaren GT, a potential electrification of the world's fastest manufacturer and much more. 

The first piece of news actually comes from the end of last week, however moving into university delayed the publication of a full first look at this brand new, significant model from Italy and therefore it shall be mentioned here. It was teased a few months ago that Maserati, for the first time in 15 years, would be building a supercar and that its release would be upcoming. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, this release was delayed to last week but before the coverage of the release, this is what we knew beforehand. It would have the 'MC' nameplate as the model designator rather than a trim level such as the GranTurismo MC and therefore it would be the first car since the Ferrari Enzo-based MC12 to wear that badge. It was rumoured before that it would be taking on the Lamborghini Aventador SVJ and the Ferrari 812, though now we know that to be incorrect, as it aims for a lower bracket of supercar. Many critics of Maserati also believed that this 'new' car would simply be a rebodied Ferrari 488 or Portofino when in fact it's Maserati's first car they've built independently since Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) sold their stake in Ferrari four years ago. When it came to the release last Friday, people gathered in the former autodrome in Modena where a gathering of previous Maserati models surrounded the stage and awaited the covers coming off. When the covers came off, it is fair to say many people were shocked as to what Maserati had built. A two-seater, mid-engined supercar with a 0-60 time under 3 seconds and a 200mph top speed. The styling makes it look more like a GT car than a supercar as styling cues can be spotted resembling the McLaren GT, Ferrari Roma and even slightly the C8 Corvette. It uses a carbon fibre body which makes it extremely light and uses butterfly doors to create a look of exoticism but it doesn't look crazy which is a good thing. Maserati has always been known as a less flashy but cooler alternative to Ferrari, with more soul than a McLaren or Porsche and without the dramatics of a Lamborghini, and therefore this design is a success. The MC20 will be powered by a 3.0 V6 nicknamed Nettuno as a homage to the statue of Neptune in Maserati's founding city of Bologna. It is an extremely powerful engine for a V6 producing 621bhp and with the 200hp per litre ratio, this puts the car into V8 supercar territory. Price wise, the car will be available in the UK during the second quarter of 2021 with a price starting from £187,230 with the MC20 aiming to restore Maserati's reputation for creating supercars, with a cabrio, electric and motorsports version on the cards for the following months.

In Motorsport news, this weekend is the 24 Heures Du Mans which is one of the many highlights of the motorsport calendar as a true test of endurance and skill. However the WEC (World Endurance Championship) as a whole has been struggling to keep fans interested as the GT3/GTE category gets thinner every year and manufacturers rarely participate in works teams as Porsche, Audi, BMW and Ferrari have all pulled out, leaving Toyota as the only high profile works team in the series. In order to combat this, the WEC announced a hypercar class to begin from 2021 which to most people is a return of the GT1 category of the late 1990s and early 2000s which allowed manufacturers to make a racing version of their latest top road car and race with little regulation. Already Aston Martin, Toyota, Rebellion and SCG have applied to put their hypercars in this class and now Peugeot have released images of their first entrant to the Hypercar class. It is developing the car as a hybrid alongside Total who Peugeot worked with for 25 years of motorsport activities including 3 wins at Le Mans with cars such as the 905 Evo and the 908 most recently in 2009. They have revealed the car will be all wheel drive and will have to have a combined power output of 670bhp and under due to the racing regulations. This may only be a concept at the moment as the £20 million price cap on development could stop this masterpiece being fully developed, according to the rules there are to be 25 road going versions of the hypercars featuring the same engine as in the racer, which would mean next year, Peugeot will release a supercar based on this for the public to buy. 

Sticking with Le Mans news, Alpine have announced their bid to race an LMP1 prototype car at next year's 24 Heures Du Mans. Alpine in recent weeks have made massive steps in their motorsport endeavours having previously only run LMP2 cars in their rebooted history. A few weeks ago, after a shuffle around of Renault's management, Alpine Cars was put under the control of F1 team boss Cyril Abiteboul and he later announced Renault F1 would be known as Alpine F1 as of the 2021 season. This change also means Alpine are now one of the only manufacturers to run a team in two of the top motorsport classes, Formula One and WEC. Currently Alpine races as Signatech Alpine in LMP2 where it has been moderately successful with three class wins, two European championships and two World Championships but as of next year will run as Alpine Endurance using a chassis based on the existing Rebellion R-13 with the Oreca chassis and Gibson engine. It is also rumoured that Fernando Alonso will be given a seat in this car as he will be racing for the Alpine F1 team in the 2021 season. Previous to now and besides the LMP2 cars, Alpine have only run customer races using the Alpine A110 Cup, the A110 GT4 and the fascinating A110 Rally series so it will be interesting to see how they progress considering they only have a single model for sale as a manufacturer. 

The Volkswagen Group is planning a mass overhaul of their ownership which would involve Bugatti being sold to new manufacturer Rimac in a shock move. Rimac is a manufacturer most famous for creating the Concept One that Richard Hammond crashed during a segment of the Grand Tour which left him seriously injured and the car written off, but despite this are in the development stage of creating a new electric hypercar with over 1800bhp and a 0-60mph time rumoured to be two seconds flat. They were formed in 2009 and therefore they do not have the funds themselves to buy Bugatti from VW. However, VW own Porsche and Porsche has a 15.5% stake in Rimac and therefore it is rumoured that VW will ask Porsche to boost the stake to almost 50% in order for the deal to be carried out. It is also rumoured that with this switch, Bugatti would switch from combustion engines to electric powertrains given Rimac's knowledge into battery powered cars. This would mean the demise of the legendary 8.0l quad turbo W16 that is used to power the 1479bhp Bugatti Chiron as well as their more limited models such as the Divo, Centodieci, Pur Sport and the Chiron 300mph+. Bugatti sold 82 cars in 2019 which may not seem like much but when each model is priced at over £2million, it was a successful financial year, especially with the release of the 10 strong limited series, the Centodieci which has a price of £8million new, and the La Voiture Noire which was a one off costing £13million new. It is also rumoured Bentley, Lamborghini, Ducati and ItalDesign could be targeted next with the Volkswagen group wanting to move into electrification. 

The next car in the legendary Nissan Z model range has been teased this week via a very bright concept car known as the Z Proto. This has been designed as both a look into the future of the Z car brand and a homage to past masters. The bright yellow paint is actually a tribute to the original model, the 240Z, from 1969 as well as the later 300ZX of the 1990s. There are more retro elements in that the side profile looks very similar to the 240Z and the modern 350Z at the same time, as well as the front lights resembling the Japan only 240ZG. However, the rectangular grill, LED lights and carbon fibre side skirts do show that this car isn't just a retro show, as well as the new 19" wheels. In terms of performance, the only figures that are known about it so far are that it will be powered by a twin-turbo V6 and will feature a manual gearbox, a rare thing for sports cars nowadays. This may sound like a brilliant car to drive along the NC500 or on a cruise through the Alps, but there is the slight issue that Nissan won't sell you one. This is because Nissan have stated that due to a 'shrinking European sports car market and specific regulations on emissions' as therefore it is 'unable to build a viable business case'. This more or less means the car will not be sold in Europe or the UK which is a massive shame because it looks to be a solid car. 

This year commemorates the 25th anniversary of McLaren's legendary Le Mans win in 1995 in their first attempt with a fleet of McLaren F1 GTRs. They ended up finishing 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 13th in their first attempt at Le Mans only being split in the top 5 by a Courage C34, in what was one of the most dominant Le Mans performances of all time. To celebrate this, McLaren has commissioned five Senna GTRs each wearing a retro livery reminiscent of the five liveries the cars wore in the 1995 Le Mans. McLaren Special Operations (MSO) have revealed each car took 800 hours to handpaint after they received rights to use logos such as Gulf and Harrods to recreate them on the new model. They also have five spoke OZ racing wheels which were worn by the original cars as well as gold accents on the interior to celebrate the gold plating of the original F1s engine bay. The liveries that have been recreated include the race-winning cars UenoClinic charcoal grey colour scheme and also includes special headlights to resemble the F1 GTRs spotlights. The yellow and green GTR resembles the famous 'Harrods Car' and the Gulf, Elf and Cesar Baldaccini liveries are also made to a tee. This subseries has been labelled as the Senna GTR LM, reminiscent of the F1 LM which was a road legal version of the original GTR, and are rumoured to have cost around £1.8million each as the standard Senna GTR is just over £1million. 

Car Auction Round-Up - September 2020

 As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to blight the world and seemingly stop all events from taking place, car auctions are still continuing online or through small, socially distanced live auctions (such as the Passion of a Lifetime auction by Gooding & Co.). There are three auctions taking place in September which has taken my deepest interest as to the what the results will be as well as a lot of unique models and manufacturers that will be crossing the block. These three auctions are the Musee de L'Aventure Peugeot by Aguttes, the Bonmont Sale by Bonhams and Classic Car Auctions' September Sale. 

The first sale is the Classic Car Auctions' September Sale which will take place at Leamington Spa on the 18th/19th September with 234 lots crossing the auction block. The highest predicted seller is a 1971 Porsche 911S 2.2 which has an estimate of £75,000 to £90,000, and with 90,000 miles and a five star overall condition, this should be an interesting car to watch sell. Finished in black and with the 2.2l Flat-Six it had a top speed, when new, of 138mph with 0-60mph taking seven seconds and 180 break horsepower, making it still a capable sports car even today. The first highlight lot for me is a 2007 Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera, the second generation of the ultra-lighweight Lamborghini Gallardo. Powered by a 5.0 naturally aspirated V10 to produce 522bhp, this was built to rival the Ferrari 430 Scuderia and the Porsche 911 GT3 RS. This example is black underneath but has been vinyl wrapped in Verde Ithaca which was a colour that would eventually launch on the third generation of the Gallardo Superleggera. The name 'Superleggera' means 'super light' and is a nod to the construction style of the 350GT. This example was originally sold in Dubai, hence it is a left-hand drive model, where it spent most of its life in a private collection before making its way to the UK in 2015. With 29,000 miles on the odometer, this car is estimated to sell for £50,000 to £60,000, a truly astonishing figure considering a similar model with only 5000 miles is for sale for £80,000. The next standout car is an extremely rare model that doesn't come up for sale at all that much being the 2008 MG SV. The MG SV was a slightly failed entry into the sports car market as they never really reached mass production with only 82 being completed excluding four pre-production prototypes. It began when MG Rover acquired the failed Italian firm Qvale and continued the production of their car, the Mangusta, in the new format of the SV. It was aimed to be a new British sports car under £100,000, and it succeeded at one part with the price for the base car being £65,000. However it was not a very British car as many parts were sourced from Fiat such as the headlights from a second generation Punto and rear lights coming from the Fiat Coupe. Powered by a 4.6l V8 and producing 320bhp for a top speed of 165mph was brilliant for a sports car of that price, but unfortunately it was the low price that cost MG the most as the company fell into financial troubles and by the time they went into administration in 2005, they had only sold nine, most prolifically to Rowan Atkinson. This example has little over 2000 miles and will cross the block for an estimate of £40,000 to £45,000, over £10,000 less than the car was originally sold for. The final two cars that are highlights are rally tribute cars which may not sound very interesting like that but when the cars are examined they're both very special. The first is a 2000 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI TME. The TME stands for Tommi Makinen Edition which is a tribute to the famed rally driver Tommi Makinen who raced in the World Rally Championship for Mitsubishi in the 1990s and early 2000s racking up an impressive 23 wins in Mitsubishi cars. To celebrate this feat, Mitsubishi created a limited 2500 example run of cars which added a titanium turbocharger and a new ECU to push the car up to around 300bhp. It also featured the Enkei WRC inspired rims on the car as well as the embossed Recaro seats and the MOMO steering wheel, it is truly a tribute to Makinen's rally successes. This car has an estimate of £19,000 to £23,000 which is a massive decrease on previous results as these cars can be sold for up to double the estimate. The final standout car for me is a 1995 Rover Mini Cooper. Now these are fun little cars on their own but this example is a truly rare car I didn't know existed. This is the Monte-Carlo edition which is fitted with spotlights and vinyls on the rear and side of the car to commemorate the cars success at the Monte-Carlo Rally throughout its rally history. This was originally registered new in the UK in 1995 and has lived its life in a collection of cars including a Ferrari F40 and a Pagani Zonda. It has also been meticulously resprayed and fitted with an original interior which makes it even more special. Also as if this car wasn't special enough, there are only 200 Mini Monte Carlo editions and therefore the estimate price of £15,000 to £17,000 seems like a steal.

The next standout auction of this month is Aguttes auction of Peugeots and Citroens. This may not sound like an interesting auction but in fact this is an auction of the Peugeot and Citroen heritage collections, meaning there are some truly special cars crossing the block. The highlight sale is an ex-Sebastien Loeb Citroen DS 3 WRC car. Between 2011 and 2016, the Citroen DS3 racked up 26 World Rally Championship wins making it one of the most successful rally cars of the modern era. This example, chassis 17, took place in 32 World Rally Championship rallies between 2012 and 2016 with 11 wins, 16 podiums and only four retirements making it a reliable car as well as an extremely fast one. This was the car that Loeb used during his 9th World Rally Championship winning season and is one of the most technically advanced rally cars of the modern era with 300bhp and with 188bhp per litre, it moves deliriously quickly. It can accelerate to sixty miles per hour and back to a dead stop in under 7 seconds which is why it was such an incredible off road machine. Currently the price estimate of this car is price on application but in the history of selling modern rally cars, they can vary as a previous Citroen DS3 Rally car failed to sell but with an estimate of £300,000 to £400,000 but for sale on www.motorsportauctions.com, there is a Skoda Fabia WRC car for £42,000 meaning this sale could go either way. The next standout sale is another off road beast, but this time is a Peugeot not a Citroen. It is, of course, the 2016 Peugeot 2008 DKR16 which is an entirely different 'car', if you can even call it a car, than the Citroen DS3. Loosely based on the road-going Peugeot 2008, this example has been jacked up and completely restyled to create a Dakar destroyer. The Dakar Rally is constantly labelled one of the hardest races to exist, originally from Paris to Dakar in Senegal but moved to South America for political reasons. With 71 deaths in its history spanning back to 1979, and terrain spanning from deserts to mud and having to climb rocks and mountains at a rate of 800km per day, its a tough challenge. Peugeot were the first champions of Dakar as they dominated the early years before Mitsubishi and even Porsche arose to the challenge. But in 2016, the year of the Peugeot returned as this car won the 2016 Dakar Rally after a 25 year absense from rally raid racing and what a car they did it in. The engine was a diesel V6 more commonly found in the Peugeot 407 and the Citroen C6 but it had the underpinnings and tuning help from the Peugeot 908 HDI, the LMP1 car that took Team Peugeot to a third placed finish at the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans. The car surprisingly was rear wheel drive even for taking on the most difficult terrain in the world, but the 800nm of torque and the six speed sequential gearbox helped it to its victory. One of only four examples produced this car has an estimate of £450,000 to £550,000. This is the first Dakar of its kind to be sold at auction so who knows whether the estimate is accurate or not. The next highlight takes the word 'interesting' and gives it a whole new meaning. The Peugeot Flux is not a road legal car and also is not a production model meaning it is a concept car. Concept cars are used for car manufacturers to show off their styling department and very rarely to preview new models which will be produced. This example is a styling model designed in 2007 due to a competition Peugeot launched under the theme of PLEASE - Pleasure, Lightness, Efficiency, Accessibility, Simplicity and Ecology. The Flux was the outcome built in a 1:1 scale of the designers style, but with no working parts. It is powered by a hydrogen fuel cell and an electric motor and the body is made up of plastic and aluminium. It was even featured in the 2007 video game Project Gotham Racing 4 with a full adaptation which could be won and driven. It has an estimate for sale of £45,000 to £50,000 which is a lot for what is essentially a model. The final car worth mentioning is a 2005 Citroen C2 by Sbarro. Sbarro is a school that Citroen contacted with a challenge to fit the biggest engine they could into the smallest car of the Citroen range which happened to be the C2. This was meant to be a challenge that could hark its roots back to Carroll Shelby who put the 7.0 V8 into the AC Ace to create the Cobra and the students in this case did a remarkably job. It has been described as an 'impressive car with great potential', as it featured a 3.0 V6 which could produce just under 300bhp and with rear drive and only weighing a tonne, if it was tested it would have been a rapid car. Unfortunately with only one produced, this was never tested for its capabilities on track. This has an estimate £30,000 to £40,000 and has never been registered and it doesn't mention whether it can be registered for road usage. 

I have covered last year's edition of the Bonhams Bonmont Sale as it was the first of its kind and featured lots of seized hypercars including the first Lamborghini Veneno to be sold at auction. This sale features cars of the same quality and some incredibly unique sales as well. The first highlight cars include two Bugatti Veyrons, beginning with the 2013 Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse. Built as a targa-topped version of the Supersport, which was at the time the fastest car in the world at 268mph. The Grand Sport Vitesse features the same 1200bhp output as the Supersport but is electronically limited to 233mph, which still makes it the fastest convertible in the world. With only 92 GSVs in the world this is an exceptionally rare model and deserves the £1.4million to £1.8million price estimate. The next example is a Veyron Supersport and is finished in dark blue exposed carbon fibre with a black and blue leather interior and being one of 48 produced, it is half as rare as its targa topped variety and this one is specified as a one off unique spec. An example of the unique specification is the black badging rather than the silver badging on the standard Veyron. This has the same estimate price as the Grand Sport Vitesse but is half as rare which suggests that the car will exceed the estimate. The next standout car is a lot lower down in the estimate than I was expecting for it. It is a Lamborghini Murcielago LP670-4 Super Veloce, which is number 245 out of the planned run of 350. However, during the production of the Murcielago SVs, the production line was changed to fall in line for the new Aventador model to begin production, therefore only 186 were built. It is the ultimate version of the Murcielago which is one of the best modern V12 cars of the last 15 years and therefore it is surprising for the estimate to be as low as £170,000 to £200,000. This may not sound cheap but when compared to other cars in the auction such as a Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera and Mercedes SLR McLaren at the same price, it seems a bargain. Even moving away from auctions, in the UK there is not a single Murcielago SV for sale under £350,000 and for the same estimate as the example in the sale, there are only Murcielago Roadsters for sale in the UK. This shows how much of a bargain this example is and that it will definitely sell beyond its estimate. The next highlight is another very rare car, in fact one of the rarest cars of this auctions with only 25 examples being made. The Porsche Carrera GT is a superb car with the massive V10 which roars when pushed to the absolute limit but to have 800bhp coming from the 5.7l V10. This is where Gemballa stepped in and took 25 Porsche Carrera GTs and modified to clients standards often including a roof scoop, an electronic rear wing and a fully redesigned front and rear bumpers and side skirts. This example is finished in satin black with red accents on the rims and the headlights to almost create a devilish look to the car. The car is even rarer than before as earlier this year, a Gemballa Mirage GT was crashed in Los Angeles before being driven off and later abandoned and written off by the owner, creating of Gold Rush Rally US, who was later arrested. This has an estimate of £510,000 to £680,000 which surprisingly is less than most standard Carrera GTs are valued at which could mean there is some growth to this sale.

 This concludes the standout sales of September in the auction world, all there is time to do now is wait for the results.

References

https://www.glenmarch.com/auctions/upcoming

https://www.classiccarauctions.co.uk/auctions

https://www.bonhams.com/departments/MOT-CAR/

https://www.aguttes.com/en/home

Concours D'Elegance - New Car Releases

Today marks the beginning of one of the first major car events in the UK since the lifting of lockdown restrictions being the Hampton Court Palace Concours event. Featuring a selection of the world's latest and greatest cars, this event features 60 cars spread around the beautiful Hampton Court Palace as well as trade stands featuring the latest cars from the most prestige car manufacturers. Although, at the time of writing this, it is only the first day of the event yet there are a few cars that have been unveiled which have changed the face of the performance and rare car industry. 

2020 saw the introduction of the new Land Rover Defender which was a bold move by Land Rover as the old face Defender was one of the most iconic and superb cars ever made and therefore a restyle was always going to be a controversial move and was always going to be met with criticism. However, when the Discovery inspired styling launched with the same, if not better, off-road performance than the previous generation, it was greeted with praise and massive success. It is estimated that over a million people configured a Defender on Land Rover's website in the first week, and although the base list price is just over £40,000, it seems to be a commercial success for JLR. However, what do you do if you prefer the old shape Defender and still want a new car? Well Ineos have come to your rescue. With their new car, the Ineos Grenadier it looks exactly like a 1990 Land Rover Defender. In fact, Ineos have taken the basic shape of the old Defender but made a brand new car with state of the art powertrain and components. The design also takes certain cues from other classic off-road cars such as the Mercedes G Class, Toyota FJ40 Land Cruiser, Ford Bronco and the Nissan Patrol. Interestingly this car does not follow the convention of other retromod car manufacturers. Taking Singer 911s and Eagle E-Types as an example, to commission one of those has to require some deep pockets with the cheapest variant of either car being a Singer 911 as prices start at £475,000. Whereas with the Ineos, the list price for commission is £40,000 which is near identical to the current Defender generation. The example shown at Concours seems to be based on the Defender 110 with the long wheelbase 5 door layout and being parked alongside an original Defender 110, the Ineos seems to be wider and taller than the original and the rear of the car is similar to the rear of a Mercedes G55 AMG with the square rear window, showing the influence of other 4x4s. CEO Sir Jim Ratcliffe came up with the idea of the Ineos Grenadier after he failed to acquire to designs and tools from Jaguar Land Rover in order to continue the production of the Defender and he plans to begin production in a few years to target 25,000 units per year. 

The next debut comes from Alpine who have excelled since their rebirth with their fantastic A110 sports car, with a new edition of the A110. This release comes on the same day as Renault's restructure that has left Alpine in the hands of F1 team owner Cyril Abiteboul. The Alpine A110 was first introduced in 2017 in homage to the original Alpine A110 from the 1960s and 70s. Although the car only uses a 1.8 litre turbocharged engine, it has been praised as being one of the most fascinating engines and one of the best engines of the last few years. Automotive journalist and Grand Tour star James May owns an Alpine and stated he enjoys the fact it is so small and due to this it has supercar power with sports car looks. It came as the runner up to the Jaguar I Pace at the 2019 European Car of the Year awards too which for a sports car, is a hard to come by achievement. The latest version of the Alpine is called the Legende GT and with only 400 units to be made and a list price over £10,000 more than the base A110, is it worth the extra spend? Well, it has 249bhp which is the same as the base car, accelerates to 60mph in 4.5 seconds which is the same as the base car and a top speed of 156mph which somehow is an increase of 1mph over the standard A110. So far there doesn't seem to be much worth it for the Legende GT but it could be a limited edition similar to Aston Martin's Carbon Black editions in that only visual elements are different. This may be the case with the Legende GT as it features gold badging, 18in wheels and amber coloured interior to resemble the interiors of the vintage Alpine A110 rally car. It can be specced in three different colours being Deep Black and Blue Abyss which can be specced on the standard car and a new colour being the spec it launched in at Concours being Mercury Silver. Although it has little variation from the base car, the fact that this will be rarer than a Lamborghini Aventador SV could make it a future classic.

Aston Martin have a history of creating bespoke one offs such as the crazy Cygnet microcar with the 4.7l V8 from the Aston Martin V8 Vantage and the Aston Martin GT12 Roadster and now they have announced a new one created for an unnamed Belgian customer. The Q Division of Aston Martin, named after the character Q from James Bond, is responsible for all these one off models and the latest one is certainly one of the best looking cars of the year so far. It's called the Victor, named after Victor Gauntlett who was responsible for the rebirth of Aston Martins cars in the 1980s. It has also been unveiled to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Vantage nameplate and due to that a lot of the styling cues are taken from Aston Martin Vantage models. The body is finished in carbon fibre and has most of its styling taken from the one off Aston Martin RHAM/1 which was a touring car based on the 1977 V8 Vantage. Due to this the Victor seems very wide and also very very low to the ground to make it as aerodynamic as possible along with the duck tail spoiler. The grill is also from the previous generation Vantage. But the main talking point of this car is what the platform is. It comes from an Aston Martin One-77 prototype body which can be seen in the sleek roofline and the classic Aston Martin silver side intake but the engine is truly masterful. The 7.3 litre V12 from the One-77 was stripped out of the car and taken to Cosworth to be completely rebuilt. This raises the 750bhp power output to a scary 836bhp and this was then attached to a six speed manual gearbox, but some would say the handling platform is even better. The Victor is in fact a One-77 on a Vulcan handling platform, the Vulcan being the 24 only track only Aston Martin, and incorporates elements from the Vantage GT3 race car and the new Valhalla. Before today it was not known about so much that Aston Martin say the Pentland Green paint finished drying mere hours before its public debut. This is certainly a car that will either be highlighted as a masterpiece of automotive design or it will be hidden away in some underground car collection to never see the light of day again, and everyone not at Hampton Court is hoping for the former most likely.