2011 in Review: The best driving experience

By John LeBlanc Over the course of any year’s worth of an auto writer’s work, you’ll find many reports of us driving new, fast cars on closed circuits and race courses. But many of these so-called “track” events are either hampered by a limited number of laps, limited number of cars, or a slower-than-hoped for […]

First Drive: 2012 Aston Martin V8 Vantage S

RONDA, SPAIN—If you pick up on the clues, it’s obvious the CEO running the very British Aston Martin brand, Ulrich Bez, used to work at the very German brands BMW and Porsche, applying a very Teutonic (i.e. methodical) approach to the perennially money-losing British brand. First, upon the German-born Bez’s arrival at Aston Martin in […]

First Drive: 2011 Aston Martin V12 Vantage

[svgallery name=”2011_Aston_V12_Vantage”] More is more Adding four more cylinders only betters Vantage’s already capable road manners By John LeBlanc CARMEL VALLEY, Calif. – One look at the latest Aston Martin Vantage’s spec sheet, and one would have thought that that ‘ol Texan chicken farmer, Carroll Shelby, had a hand in its creation. By taking the […]

Feature: Aston Martin Performance Driving Academy

Story by John LeBlanc/Photos by Aaron Kiley. ROMEO, Michigan – Exclusivity is part and parcel when you enter the realm of Aston Martin. Even in its best sales year ever, 2007, the British automaker only rolled out about 7,000 hand-made sports and grand touring coupés. To put that in perspective, Porsche sells about 1.2 million […]

First Drive: 2010 Aston Martin Vantage Coupe

[svgallery name=”10_Aston_Martin_Vantage”] Story by John LeBlanc.  Photos by Aaron Kiley. The leather-wrapped steering wheel I’m clutching is attached to a brand-new Vantage Coupé. Yet staring at that chrome-winged logo spelling out “Aston Martin,” nostalgia washes over me.

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