After a decade of building the essentially the same, admittedly gorgeous, car in various iterations, Aston Martin has confirmed that it is developing an all-new platform for the next generation of its slinky sports cars.
Aston’s current VH platform underpins everything the company currently sells, from the two-seat V8 Vantage to the stretched, V-12–powered Rapide, but despite their timeless beauty and scintillating performance, they’re all graying at the temples. According to a report via Top Gear , the company announced that it is engineering “a completely new architecture and technologies to ensure our next generation of sports cars is at the forefront of design, performance, and technology,” according to Aston Martin’s CFO, Hanno Kirner.
Few details were provided, but the new platform would complement new AMG-developed V-8 powertrains, as well as state-of-the-art technology and electronics coming from the recently inked partnership with new BFF Daimler. Amid a competitive landscape that’s never been stronger, Aston’s new products can’t come a minute too soon, but that doesn’t mean they’re imminent. The soonest any of them could feasibly arrive is 2017 or 2018.
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Provided that Aston’s stylists don’t make a mess of the successors to the DB9, V8 Vantage, Rapide and more, it seems the brand’s cars may finally have the modern underpinnings that the sexy sheetmetal deserves.
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