Aston Martin Vanquish Centenary Edition, 2013

 

 

• Aston Martin Vanquish Centenary Edition, 2013

The Iconic British sports car brand Aston Martin is marking the start of its 100th birthday celebrations - 15 January - with the unveiling of a bespoke new Aston Martin Vanquish Centenary Edition.

The luxury brand's ultimate GT car showcases a painstakingly created Centenary Edition specification that will be available worldwide on just 100 examples of each of the car maker's model lines: V8 Vantage, DB9, Rapide and Vanquish.

Featuring a unique graduated paint finish, solid sterling silver Aston Martin wing badges with tailored 'trans flux' enamel inlay and a special Aston Martin hallmark, the exterior represents an exclusive new celebration of the company's 100-year history.

A Centenary Edition Aston Martin is identified inside by its exclusive and luxurious treatment. Deep Soft black leather - previously featuring only in the One-77 hypercar - with contrasting silver stitching, a special silver thread embroidery of the Aston Martin wings in the head restraints and solid sterling silver sill plaques individually numbered with an Aston Martin hallmark are among the features unique to the car.

Each Centenary Edition model will also be supplied with a unique presentation box containing a number of exclusive gifts to mark the first 100 years of the company. These include two glass keys, two bespoke key pouches made from leather matching the car's interior trim, solid silver cufflinks featuring the Aston Martin script, solid silver Rollerball pen and high quality Bang & Olufsen headphones.

The gift box will also include a silver polishing cloth to help owners ensure the silver centenary wings badges and sill plaques on their car keep their lustre.

Some specification details will vary market by market around the world but all cars will, as ever, be painstakingly handcrafted at Aston Martin's global headquarters and state-of-the-art manufacturing facility at Gaydon, in Warwickshire.

The process of creating the unique Centenary Edition paint finish, for instance, clearly demonstrates the brand's commitment to bespoke luxury. Adding an average of 18 hours to a paint process that can already take more than 50 hours to complete, the unique graduated finish is meticulously built by adding special 'tinters' to create the darker inner colour. This custom-made mixture is then applied to each panel by hand, using a special mini-jet spray gun.

Alfa Romeo Gloria Concept, 2013

• Alfa Romeo Gloria Concept, 2013

The European Design Institute (IED) of Turin is presenting the world première of 'Gloria', the concept by the Master in Transportation Design in collaboration with the Alfa Romeo Style Centre. The prototype represents the sports spirit and Italian style of a brand with powerful international appeal, whose products have brought the beauty of Italian design into the wider world. It was 1966 when the Spider Duetto in the film The Graduate reinforced the mythical image of the car manufacturer in the United States. Today, the Alfa Romeo Gloria Concept is intended as another international challenge, again looking overseas, to the American and Asian markets.

The European Design Institute of Turin, thanks to the support of and vicinity to the Fiat-Chrysler EMEA Design Center, has had the opportunity of 'training' its young car designers on the subject of: "conceiving an Alfa Romeo saloon to communicate to the American and Asian markets". In effect, the saloon remains a symbol of elegance and prestige for these markets, associated with the idea of comfortable space both at the front and the rear, expressed by the length of the model. In particular, the Alfa Romeo Style Centre participated with passion in the various phases of the project: from the product brief to the brand's historic collection, and from the first style proposals up to the development, in clay, of the model in 1:1 scale.
 

4700 mm long, 1920 mm wide, 1320 mm high and with a wheelbase of 2900 mm, Alfa Romeo Gloria Concept is a sports saloon with decisive lines that run down the side to the rear end. It would be propelled by a state-of-the-art V6 or V8 biturbo engine on the road. The bonnet powerfully evokes the Alfa Romeo shield through the lines of the car, which highlight the three-dimensional aspects of its form. The leather strips at the front recall the memorable leather straps for the luggage compartments of the brand's historic cars.

Alfa Romeo Gloria Concept springs from the work of twenty students on the Master programme (2011/2012 academic year) from both Italy and other countries and cultures. The concept is the result of a process that simulated a real work situation: from the brief of the Alfa Romeo Style Centre and the style research up to the twenty design proposals developed in 1:4-scale clay models. From all the models, the one that corresponded most closely to the initial brief provided by Alfa Romeo was chosen. The entire class of students, divided into groups but highly involved and motivated, then worked on the final project in full scale.

The 'Master of Arts in Transportation Design - work experience' is a highly specialised educational course, which prepares skilled automotive professionals who can tackle the world of work thanks to an ongoing relationship with style centres and companies. In fact, the model was created thanks to the contribution of Cecomp, 2013 main sponsor and an important enterprise in the area which has collaborated with the Institute in prototyping processes for many years.

Having reached its tenth attendance at Geneva, for 2013 the European Design Institute offers the possibility of experiencing at the stand the integration of the full-scale model with augmented reality. The concept reproduced on the iPad in a virtual environment, where it will be possible to interact with it, choosing between five models of rims and five body colour to try out, replacing the real ones. The five rims are the result of a teaching project developed in collaboration with OZ Racing who, as sponsor of the Gloria's 20" rims, asked the Master students to design a series of proposals. Five of these were selected for the virtual interactivity. The five rims will also feature in a kind of talent contest that IED and OZ Racing will launch at the stand via the app and on the web to decide the winning project, with the most interesting design.