Aston Martin celebrated its centenary at the weekend with the debut of the CC100 Speedster Concept - a car that echoes the past with styling cues from the iconic DBR1 and looks to the future with glimpses of possible future design directions.
The six-litre V12-powered concept made its world debut with a lap of the famous Nordschleife at the 24 Hours of Nürburgring endurance, accompanied by the 1000km race-winning 1959 DBR1 with British racing legend Sir Stirling Moss at the wheel.
The CC100 was designed and built in less than six months at Aston Martin's headquarters in Gaydon.
Chief Exterior Designer Miles Nurnberger explained: “The brief was very simple, yet enormously testing: create something that reflects the 100 years of Aston Martin heritage and signals the future of the brand.
COMPLETE FREEDOM
“The idea of an speedster - echoing the Le Mans and Nürburgring winning cars of 1959 - was a natural, after which design director Marek Reichman gave us complete freedom to shape this car.”
By roadster standards it's a big car, almost four and a half metres nose to tail and more than two metres wide, showing just how flexible Aston Martin's vertical/horizontal aluminium engineering system can be, while the body and interior were moulded in carbon-fire by low-volume specialist Multimatic.
The drivetrain is straight off the 'big gun' shelf, using the latest- generation AM11 naturally-aspirated V12, mated to a six-speed, hydraulically actuated, sequential manual transmission with paddle shift, which will take the concept from 0-100km/h in a little more than four seconds, with a top speed limited to 290km/h.