Aston Martin has sought to put some fresh air dynamically between the new Vantage and its DB11 grand tourer. We head to the roads of northern Finland to get an early taste of the result.
IVALO AIRPORT IS GREAT. TINY, A PURVEYOR of two sizes of huggable toy husky, and rocking a Christmas Eve aesthetic all year round, Finland’s northernmost landing strip has something almost no other airport has: charm. Make that two things: charm, and a winter-weather proving ground literally a snowball’s throw away. Called Test World, it was snapped up by the Millbrook Group in 2015 to be an almost permanently snowy adjunct to its Bedfordshire-based facility, mainly specialising in tyre testing where grip is lower than Ant Man’s instep at this crunchy, deeply sub-zero time of year.
After an evening of beer and bear burgers at a reluctantly post- Christmas, yet defiantly twinkly Saariselkä – the region’s winter sports resort – I seem to have time-lapsed back to the softly lit airport and Millbrook’s adjacent outpost to see the dawnbreak and suck in a few litres of lung-shock to disperse the fug. Delivering a comparable system jolt is the acid yellow and black disruptor camouflage clinging to (and successfully disrupting) the sharky shape of this year’s Aston Martin Vantage. It’s being prepped for the morning’s slither ‘n’ roll around Test World’s solid-white handling circuit on bespoke cold-weather Pirelli Sottozeros, and as it’s still in the large, echoey on-site garage facility, its Mercedes- AMG-sourced twin-turbo 4-litre V8 is burbling a deeply guttural and reverberant, but assiduously Aston-adjusted, burble.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der May 2018-Ausgabe von Evo.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der May 2018-Ausgabe von Evo.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
BEST BUYS BMW M CARS
THE PERFORMANCE CAR LANDSCAPE WOULD HAVE looked very different over the last five decades without BMW. Its M division, founded in 1972, has produced some of the best driver’s cars ever to hit the road, and in the process has provided a stream of benchmark models for its rivals to chase. In recent years, stricter emissions regulations, downsizing and electrification have seen some of those rival cars falter, yet by and large BMW’s M machines have remained strong. In fact, some rank among the greatest the department has made think of the eCoty-winning M2 CS and M5 CS while others are the only options worth recommending in their respective segments. Price tags have risen with performance, however, putting those latest offerings out of reach for many, but the marque’s popularity means there are numerous earlier M models available on the second-hand market for far more attainable figures. Here are four of our favourites.
TYRE 2024 TEST
Want to fit the very best tyres to your performance car? The annual evo Tyre Test identifies the cream of the current crop
HONDA ACCORD TYPE R
A liberal sprinkling of Honda Type R fairy dust on the late-'90s Accord produced an unlikely evo icon and a genuine performance bargain
TOY STORY
Where best to store some of Toyota’s most prized and valuable racing superstars? Under the wind tunnel at its Cologne HO, of course...
POWER PLAY
It develops 819bhp. It has no turbochargers, no hybrid assistance. Ferrari describes it as the most complete GT it's ever made. And it’s so proud of its mighty V12 engine it’s named the whole car after it. This is the 12 Cilindri
THE FIRST SAMURAIS
Japan has been responsible for many of our favourite driver's cars of recent decades, but their ancestors are often much less well known. We take a look at where the big manufacturers began their performance car journeys
DEFINITELY. NO MAYBE
Three Japanese performance icons - Lexus LFA, Subaru Impreza 22B and Nissan GT-R. Over three days on some of our favourite roads we explore what makes each uniquely thrilling, but also the car culture that unites them
1V3.0
F1, P1... and now W1. The next chapter in McLaren's Ultimate Series is the British firm's challenger to the forthcoming new Ferrari hypercar and a £2million, 1257bhp, hybrid-powered, technical tour de force
Thornley Kelham European RS
One man’s dream to build the perfect Porsche 911 has resulted inthis aaticMously restored and enhanced classic. We delve into the details and take it for a drive
Bentley Continental GT Speed
The new Continental GT is the most powerful Bentley ever, and the beginning of anew plug-in hybrid era for Crewe. But is it still a benchmark grand tourer?
