Just a few months after unveiling its new DB12 “super tourer” coupe, Aston Martin has introduced the convertible version, called Volante. The British automaker first used the Volante name on a special run of 37 DB5 convertibles in 1965 and has used it on its convertibles since. The name is Italian for ‘flying’ or ‘moving lightly and quickly.’ The 671-horsepower DB12 Volante can certainly do that. The newest Aston Martin would seem to have just two direct rivals, the Ferrari Roma Spider and Bentley Continental GTC. Which would you choose?
Revered by Corvette enthusiasts, the 1963 Sting Ray, especially when equipped with the fuel-injected 327 engine, remains a legend among the car’s 70 years of production so far. The radical new design covered a new, more advanced chassis than the first-generation Corvette had, and both performance and refinement edged closer to the European GTs. Sales soared, and the “fuel-injected Sting Ray” ended up in pop songs. Gooding & Company’s Pebble Beach Concours d’ Elegance® auction is offering a multiple-award winner with a pre-sale estimate of $250K-$300K.
Aston Martin bills its new DB12 grand tourer as a “super tourer” because, the British automaker says, “grand is not enough” to describe the DB11’s successor. Marketing fluff aside, the new DB12 appears to be a super new entry into a segment where its closest rival is the Ferrari Roma. The overall look will be familiar to Aston fans, and the interior steps up to a “super” level of grand touring luxury and tech. The Mercedes-AMG twin-turbo V8 gets a boost to a very super 671 horsepower, easily exceeding the DB11’s V8 and V12. Customer deliveries start in fall.
When Lamborghini puts the “Performante” badge on a vehicle, you can be sure it’s the hottest version and ready for some track thrills. The Urus Performante lives up to that badge’s promise, but at a cost in both extra dollars and reduced comfort. This carbon-fiber-festooned hooligan is meant for pavement only. For Lamborghini purists, having an exotic SUV with plenty of room that also thrills in track driving might be worth the sacrifices the vehicle demands.
You can’t get a manual transmission from Ferrari or Lamborghini today, but collectors are willing to pay hefty premiums for their last stick-shift models. This trend specifically applies to the cars that offered the choice between the real manual and the “robotized” manual, which Ferrari called F1 and Lamborghini called E-Gear. Today, a Ferrari F430 with the stick-shift can command a 100% premium over the F1 model. Some independent shops are even providing conversions back to full manual transmissions. Is that a wise purchase?
BMW’s Z8 is the kind of car that many wish BMW would build again. Two of those cars – a standard BMW Z8 and the Alpina version, called the BMW Alpina Roadster V8 – recently sold earlier this month at RM Sotheby’s Miami auction. Offered by two different owners, and both with under 23,000 miles, each car sold for exactly the same price: $229,600. Read the backstory on the Z8 and the Alpina Roadster.
Ferrari’s Purosangue – the car designed to lure SUV buyers while “not being an SUV” – has been revealed. The Purosangue is the largest and most luxurious Ferrari ever made, with a dry-sump 6.5-liter V12 that goes from 0 – 100 km/h (62 mph) in 3.3 seconds. Ferrari has not yet announced the price, and says it wants to limit Purosangue’s sales to 20% of its total volume.
Auction sales from Monterey Car Week totaled a record-setting $469 million; more than $126 million than last year’s total. RM Sotheby’s three-night auction accounted for more than half of that total, setting a record with a staggering $239.2 million in sales. Catch up on results from all the auction houses.
Monterey Car Week 2022, including the Pebble Beach Concours d’ Elegance®, is just days away, and our regional sales managers have made their annual “Cars to Watch” selections, covering a broad range of classic vehicles. Their picks include a 1995 Ferrari F50 (pre-sale estimate of $4.5 – $5.5 Million); a 2010 Porsche 911 GT3 RS 3.8 ($250K – $300K); and even a 1962 Volkswagen Type 2 Deluxe Microbus ($140K – $180K). Perhaps some of your favorites are among their picks.
