The Aston Martin CC100 shocks for all the right reasons

OUTRAGEOUS. Attention-grabbing. Extrovert. Not words, chances are, you’ll have been using to describe Aston Martin’s offerings of late.

The company makes some of the most graceful motoring offerings on the market today and – right from the entry-level V8 Vantage to the reinvented Vanquish – they’re not exactly lacking in thumping amounts of torque and exhaust notes so good they induce goosebumps either. They’re all things of beauty, but shocking or genuinely surprising they aren’t. Stylistically at least all of Aston’s current range harks back to the DB9 of 2004, which in turn borrowed more than a few of its good looks from 1994’s DB7. 

That’s why the company’s latest concept car, the open-top, two-seater CC100, is such a breath of fresh air. It’s inspired by the car that brought Aston one of its greatest motorsport moments – the DBR1, which won Le Mans in 1959 – and is loud, lairy and just a little bit yellow in all the right places. Everything a brand new DB9 isn’t, basically.

The thing that really excites me about the CC100, though, is that the last genuinely eyeball-grabbing Aston concept, the 1998 Project Vantage, sired the original Vanquish three years later.

Fingers crossed we get a CC100 for the road, then!

Bond's Aston Martin DB5 looks stunning in Skyfall

YOU always know from the amount of secret agent-themed ads on telly when there’s a new Bond blockbuster on the way.

Unless you’ve been hiding in a cave for the past year you’ll already know that 007’s latest adventure is called Skyfall, and will feature Daniel Craig in his third outing as the suave secret agent, once you’ve got through Adele crooning her way through the theme song. I also freely admit I’m very nearly as much of a Bond nut as I am a car nut – even though I’ll enjoy pretty much any movie which features explosions and car chases, I always reserve a particular fondness for the Bond films.

But what’s really whetting my appetite for the new one isn’t a sultry sidekick or a spectacular storyline. It’s those publicity shots of Bond’s DB5 on the spy’s trip to the Scottish Highlands.

The DB5 has always been a fabulously good looking thing but I don’t think I’ve ever seen the quintessential Bond car in a more breathtaking setting. There’s a moody, bleak beauty to the scenery while the car obviously gives the shot a very retro feel; the classic English GT eating up the miles through the stunning Scottish landscapes.

In fact, that’s pretty much what director Sam Mendes went for, and told national media earlier this year: “I felt it was a thematic thing. It's definitely about the old and the new. And there's something about the last part of the movie which deliberately, very consciously, could have taken place in 1962.”

The thing I love most of all about these pictures is that, in much the same way the Daniel Craig movies have tried to take Bond back to basics, devoid of CGI and gadgets, so these shots take the DB5 away from being a cheesy automotive cliché and remind car nuts what it really is and what it does best; it’s a classy, handcrafted GT car, designed to wind its way over mountain passes in speed and comfort.

Forget the race against the Ferrari F355 in Goldeneye – this is what a classic Aston is all about. Fingers crossed then, with Mr Mendes appearing to do the DB5 justice in these shots, that’ll he take good care of 007 himself in the new film.

Skyfall hits the cinemas later this month. I, for one, can’t wait.

Comic Con from the vehicle perspective (Batmobiles in following posts)

 looks like the architecture was made for a bunch of sci fi - fantasy fans

 The best way to prove a Prius is green... use it as a planter.

Why is it like this? It's a prop for a tv show that opens this fall, Revolution. It's about the way America would deal with a planet wide loss of electricity in all applications. Nothing electrical has any function. Very cool show, I saw the first episode on preview night

 In the gaslamp, you can get pedi cabs that are set up for comic con related things.

 Now this movie prop with a Bugatti tag on the nose is for a movie by the guy who made "District 9" and the trailer looks like it's going to be a really cool movie. Matt Damon and Jodie Foster star in it, and its Matt's character trying to get off Earth to the huge ringworld spacestation (Ringworld by Niven) to get medical treatment to save his life... because all the best of everything got off the planet, and moved to the station.

 One Bond car a day was displayed in this booth, and this Aston Martin from "The Living Daylights" is entirely fiberglass, even the tires

 The Total Recall vehicle, wow. It's been named the year 2087 Chrysler 3000. What last years display had http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2011/08/movie-car-that-will-be-in-new-version.html was a police model, in Dodge name plate, and this one here is Chrysler. I think that is because Dodge had a Police car fleet scenario in place. Chrysler doesn't.

 from "Looper" with Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon Levitt

Aston Martin from "Goldfinger" the Bond movie

You know that more than one car are used during a movie, right? One for close ups, one for camera mount hardware, one for glamour shots and press photos, and a couple for stunts.

Well, one of the DB5 was stolen from an airplane hanger in 1997, and hasn't turned up yet

On display to sell, Lambos, Astons, Rolls and Porsches... about what you'd expect at a mansion

an old Aston Martin at the Desert Classic Concours De Elegance 2012