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Wunderkind   Wunderkind is offline
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Re: Aston Martin AM V10 Concept - 04-11-2008, 11:08 PM

Looks a lot like the Jagauar XJ220 and the Bentley Hunaudieres concept car.

The car in the renderings is a mid-engined concept. Why does it need the two holes in the bonnet?

I hate to point this out. The two holes on the bonnet that have become ubiquitous on all current Aston Martins actually started out as a BAD mistake with the Vanquish.

The aluminium/carbon fibre spaceframe chassis of the Vanquish was designed by Lotus engineering. The chassis consisted of an aluminium tub and a carbon fibre frontal section that carried the engine and the suspension subframe. The early Vanquish testing mules did not have the two holes on the bonnet because they didn't experience the extremely high temperature in the engine compartment until during the later stages of hot weather testing.

The engineers found the high under-bonnet temperature was putting the carbon fibre chassis members at risk and they had to put those two unsightly holes into the bonnet to help expel the heat from the engine compartment.

Lotus engineering took a lot of flak from Aston Martin and Ford for that debacle and they were subsequently excluded from later projects. Lotus was not involved with the design of the current VH platform.

These infamous holes in the bonnet ruined the lines of the Vanquish. But people seemed to have grown to like them and have even become the trademark styling elements of Aston Martin.......... I personally hate them.

I hate the Aston Martin Vanquish. It looked okay but it was riddled with mistakes (the semi automatic gearbox was laughable) and reeked of mediocrity (the V12 was just two outdated Ford duratec V6's put together). The interior was a sorry sight to say the least (sorry Ian).
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