Aston Martin just released their newest promo video for the One-77 - their super-crazy-ultimate supercar, which kind of looks like a fish. All One-77s have been claimed already, of course, at somewhere around $1.5 million. Rumor has it that power will come from a 7.3 liter V-12 engine producing around 700 horsepower. Here’s what Aston has to say about Episode 3:

The project continues its journey of evolution and is accelerating at great pace. In this new episode, Ian Minards, Product Development Director outlines the level of detail and expertise employed throughout the project.

The underlying technological advances of this new car are clearly displayed as we reveal the finer details, both in the video, and also in a range of new high resolution photography.

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Sometime last year, a few Photoshop gurus got together and made some very funny “mini” versions of their favorite cars. The trend caught on, and soon lots of people were taking their favorite cars, and through the process of image manipulation, made them mini versions of themselves.

Below, you will find a photo gallery full of these micro machines, in all of their hilarious glory. If you have any you’d like to share, please leave a comment.

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Here’s some racing news that’s just too cool to pass up (especially when Automoblog head honcho Chris is a big Aston Martin fan): Aston Martin, sometimes competitor at the famed Le Mans 24 hour race will be competing this year, and they will be all decked out in a full blown Gulf Oil livery.

Why is this so cool? Read on.

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When Aston Martin released the hugely popular V8 Vantage in 2006, they fitted it with a 4.3-liter V8 and 380 horsepower. This wasn’t enough for many people, since the Vantage’s competitors such as the Porsche 911 Turbo and Audi R8 were easily faster. Finally AM decided to up the ante for the 2009 V8 Vantage and bore out the engine to 4.7 liters, add a high-performance Sports Package and tighten the chassis, making the Vantage a real kick-in-the-nuts to Porsche and Audi.

Not wanting to leave the 2006-2008 V8 Vantage owners behind in their 380 HP weenie-mobiles, Aston Martin created an upgrade package allowing them to increase their horsepower to 400, add around 7 ftlbs of torque, and hit a slightly higher top speed of 177 mph. Continue Reading…

2009 Aston Martin V8 Vantage

New for 2009

Since its release in 2006, the V8 Vantage had a 4.3-liter V8 which produced 380 horsepower. Much more than that, and the light-weight Vantage would keep up with its older brother, the V12-wielding DB9. In an effort to keep that from happening (and pissing off DB9 owners,) Aston Martin kept the Vantage’s power down. This made the Vantage slower than its arch rivals - namely the Porsche 911 Turbo and Audi R8. But not anymore.

For 2009, Aston Martin got fed up with Porsche owners stepping all over them with their run-of-the-mill 911s. They increased the displacement of the V8 from 4.2 liters to 4.7, upping the horsepower to 420, and increasing torque 15% to 347 lb-ft. What we have now is a full-fledged power-house. And I couldn’t be happier.

Along with the bigger engine comes a modified clutch for manual transmissions, as well as a new program for Sportshift equipped cars to change between Sport and Comfort mode which changes the car’s dynamics drastically, turning it from an excellent sports car into a comfortable cruiser. Additional changes for 2009 include a revised center console, an “ECU” (Emotion Control Unit) replacing the previous standard key, LED interior lighting, and new wheels, along with quite a few other small changes. The exterior is untouched this year (don’t fix something if it isn’t broken.)

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