Aston Martin and Hackett London are holding a contest to win a free half-day of driving and instruction from Aston Martin’s trained instructors. Winning will allow you to spend a day at Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedford, England outside of London driving an Aston Martin DB9 Touchtronic, DB9 Manual, V8 Vantage Manual, and a DBS Manual. You’ll also get a ride around the Hill Route seen in the James Bond film “Casino Royale.” Winners will also get a free hotel stay and an Aston Martin racing gift bag.

You only have until the 15th of October, so hurry up and enter by going to the event’s Facebook page and RSVPing, and also following @HackettLondon and tweeting about the competition. One winner will be chosen from each entry method.

The event takes place on October 30th, so if you enter, be sure you can actually attend. If you don’t live close to Bedford, keep in mind you’ll also have to pay for transportation to the event. Entries are open to anyone in the world, but you have to be over 18 and hold a driver’s license.

We’ve been talking about the Aston Martin Rapide for a long time now, and Aston Martin has finally decided to officially unveil the car at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show. Most of what we said was negative, exclaiming about how we don’t think the car should be made, but they’re doing it nonetheless. Just like the Porsche Panamera and Lamborghini Estoque four-doors, these companies are about sports cars - not luxury sedans - and these four doors dilute the brand image.

The Aston Martin Rapide will feature a 6.0-liter V12 engine producing 470 hp, just like the DB9 coupe. A paddle-shifting six-speed “Touchtronic” automatic gearbox is standard. Almost like it’s a sports car or something… Continue Reading…

Normally, I’m not the kind of guy that’s really into sedans. Sure, you can make them do lots of wonderful things these days, but when a car gets more than two seats, my interest starts to fall off.

However, one of the four doors that did catch my interest was the “we’re going to produce it, really” Rapide from Aston Martin. It’s a very attractive car, which helps, and it promised a lot of performance, which helps some more. And it also turns out that yes indeed, this car actually will see the light of day … as a matter of fact, it was caught by a guy with a video camera in the light of day testing in Kuwait, and we’ve got the video after the jump.

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Worldwide economic meltdown? Don’t tell Aston Martin. They just opened a new showroom in Charlotte, NC. As it turns out, Aston Martin isn’t doing too bad for themselves. Unlike most of the other high-end sports car / supercar / luxury car companies, Aston Martin is no longer owned by an automotive giant - ever since Ford sold them to private company, they no longer suffer the same inevitable fate as the big auto makers.

I attended the grand opening of Aston Martin Charlotte, and had a chance to sit down with Bill Norman, Operations Manager SE Region of Aston Martin North America to chat about the dealership and future plans for Aston Martin… Continue Reading…

You’re probably familiar with supercar tours by now, which include World Class Driving, Road & Track Live, and Gotham Dream Cars. These tours let you and a small group of people take some of the wildest supercars on the road for a drive. Most of these tours travel across the US, and some travel overseas. The problem with these tours is that they range from $1500 to $6400. While this may be a fair deal for a once-in-a-lifetime experience, it’s out of most people’s price range. What most people don’t know is that there are some smaller but similar supercar tours, and they can be much easier on your wallet.

We recently had a chance to meet up with one of those groups based out of Charlotte, NC called Supercar Sensation. Started just last year, Supercar Sensation gets you into seven different supercars starting at only $200 - a much more affordable option for most. But are you going to get the same experience as the more expensive options? While it may be less expensive, could it be a lesser value than the rest? Continue Reading…

From the ‘We’re not kidding file’ comes news from that hotbed of espionage and Bondian villainy, New York, comes news that car sales in the world of exotics have gotten so cut-throat that dealers have actually started spying on one another. And this, it would seem, is a tale of not only greed, but disgruntled former employees with more than an axe to grind.

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