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Aston Martin driving experience at ICAR raceway

$1,332,057 That’s the total (base) amount of the cars sitting before me on the scorching tarmac. I’m at the ICAR racetrack. I’m standing in front of six sinfully sexy automobiles all bred in Warwickshire, England, and all begging to be driven as hard as my body will allow. My palms are sweaty, and it’s not just the 30+ C degree weather and sunshine beating down. I’m anxious. I’m excited. And I think I might be in love with the gaggle of Aston Martins spread before me.
We know that Aston Martin owners are knee-deep in wealth. But now the British carmaker is flush with cash – and it’s beginning to show in cars like the Vanquish and Rapide S.

Patrolling the Scottish Highlands, the $287,820 Vanquish coupe and $207,820, four-door Rapide S blaze a high-velocity trail on some of Europe’s most spectacular roads. They also show Aston at perhaps the most critical juncture in its history. For 2015, these beauties are faster and stronger, soaring beyond 200 mph. A key to unlock that performance is a new, brilliantly tuned ZF eight-speed transmission that amplifies the power and glory of their 5.9-liter V-12 engine.

Aston’s knockout style, heritage and bespoke luxury are a given. But there’s still work to be done. Dragged into the modern age by its former owner Ford, Aston cranked out 4,200 cars last year — a relatively massive number for a company that has sold barely 65,000 cars in total since 1913. (Touring Gaydon, we watch expert craftsmen and women assembling cars that each require 200 hours to build, roughly eight times as long as a typical car).
Yet with Ford out of the picture, Aston badly needed a new technical partner, and found one in Mercedes-Benz. The German automaker – in return for a five-percent stake in Aston -- will supply modern infotainment systems, along with hand-built, biturbo V-8 engines from its AMG high-performance division. Those engines will help Aston boost fuel economy and reduce its carbon footprint. Mercedes’ electronics will fix another Aston sore thumb – the vexing Volvo-and-Garmin navigation unit that’s as antique and unsightly as the rest of the car is modern and beautiful.

“As a small, independent company, that access to technology is vital to us,” said Marek Reichman, Aston’s director of design.

And two years ago, the Kuwaiti financiers who owned most of Aston Martin Lagonda raised another $246 million by selling a nearly 40-percent stake to Investindustrial – the Italian company that revived Ducati before selling that motorcycle company to Volkswagen Audi. The total result? Roughly $750 million in funding to develop new Astons.

“We’ve got more investment now than at any time in the past 101 years,” Reichman says.

Rapide S, Vanquish, S