Recently in Aston Martin Category

Back in ooooohhh….. March I think now, I had a piece of English heritage, the Aston Martin DB9 to spend some time with over 3 days.

At the time I took Sanna and Damien away for a day trip with it up to Lake Macquarie. I remember Sanna being squished up in the tiny back seats but she still came all the same, although she got some neck ache from it in the end. We had a good time and Damien fulfilled one of his dreams to have a go in a Aston Martin his dream car.

Over the 3 days I wrote a review up on the car and it is finally published up on TheMotorReport magazines website. The editors hacked my wording around a bit this time but I'm very happy with the results from the photo shoot which was done around Sydney Olympic park over a long hot morning. Click the Aston Martin image above to go to the full review.

Here are a couple of behind the scenes photos from our time shared with the car:

Sanna squished up in the back trying to use the tiny rear seats

Damien fulfilling one of his dreams

Took the Aston Martin DB9 out at the weekend, covered 500km's over 2 days in the end. The DB9 being the current Aston Martin range topper was a good car to be enlightened to the whole Aston Martin experience for the first time. Great long distance tourer, a sports car it is not. There were a couple of times I pushed it a bit too hard and it became unsettled (loosing traction), the stability control kicking in and fixing things up quickly and effortlessly. Speeds and corners I could push the Elise or Audi R8 through hard, the DB9 got upset with me.

Still as a GT it was amazing, it reminded me a lot of my dad's BMW 535 with its effortless torque and its relaxing ride, the DB9 has 80% of its torque from just 1500rpm, beautiful to drive with.

I managed to kerb it doing a reverse park during a photo shoot at Olympic park yesterday and made a 6cm rim scratch. Before the club called I phoned around for 3 quotes to fix it to prepare myself for the shock and they were all around $250-$300 to fix it, amazing. The club called mid-morning and they said they noticed a large scratch on the alloy which was fresh. They said no worries, just put it down as wear and tear basically, I thought that was a pretty good call of them.

Yesterday during the photo shoot a friend arrived with a lovely example Lotus Esprit Sport 350 he bought last week. Only 5000km's on the clock, only 45 made worldwide and only 1 in Australia. The Sport 350 was the 2^nd to last rare edition Lotus made specials before shutting down the Esprit production line. A few cyclists in their 40's turned up and it was obvious to them this was a childhood poster dream of theirs as they were growing up; they were besotted by the car.

Later this week I'll be lucky enough to get a road test of the Lotus Exige CUP 260 before it gets transported down to Tasmania for Dean Evan's to race in the famous event. I think Lotus are super keen to get me into it to give me and Sanna a drive before it goes to Taz to act as a Lotus PR machine.

That's my ramblings off my mind for now...