Events and Trips

Category Archives: Events and Trips

The Aston Martins at Cars & Coffee in Wassenaar, the Netherlands

This year’s second Cars & Coffee meeting of the Dutch Cars & Business club was held on Sunday May 5. The weather was amazing, so this time over 50 members (and their cars) gathered in Wassenaar, at the “de Wittenburg” castle. Many exotic cars were present, including six Aston Martins: a DBS, a DBS Volante, three different V8 Vantages and one V8 Vantage Roadster. What? No red V12 Vantage in Fire Red or blue V12 Roadster? Nope, not this time. For this meeting I decided to bring my Black and Yellow italian beauty, front left in this photo:

Two classic Astons at the Kroymans “Licensed to Thrill” event

The original DB5 that featured in Skyfall, plus the A3 (the oldest Aston Martin still in existence), together in one place. That was the main attraction of the Kroymans “Licensed to Thrill” event, held in Hilversum the Netherlands in the past two days. I really enjoyed taking pictures of these classic beauties (and of all the visiting modern Aston Martins in the parking lot). Here’s some of the photos I took of the 2 classic Astons.

Taking Agent #002 to Monaco and back

I have just returned from a great trip in “Agent #002”, my Cobalt Blue V12 Roadster. Six days of driving, from Amsterdam to Monaco and back, 3,000 kilometers in total! The trip was organized by Cars and Business, a Dutch car club for owners of sports cars and super cars of all brands, not only Aston Martins. 2 Astons (my V12 Roadster and a DBS Volante), 3 Ferraris, 3 Mercs, 3 Porsches, 1 Audi and 1 Rolls, driving from the Netherlands to Luxembourg, through France, through Switzerland, then Italy, back to France, to finally arrive in Monaco. So please excuse the occasional german or italian cars appearing the pictures below 🙂

The Astons at Top Marques Monaco

Last weekend, as part of a 6 day road trip, I was in Monaco and had the chance to do a quick visit at the Top Marques show. I wasn’t too impressed with the show. It’s quite small and sadly the emphasis seemed to be on tuning (I can’t believe how many full-carbon-body cars I saw there…). Anyway, the local Aston Martin dealer, British Motors, had a stand at the show too, displaying 4 Aston Martins, a Vanquish, a V12 Vantage Roadster, a new DB9 and a Cygnet. (I don’t have any pics of the Cygnet, sorry!).

An attempt at drifting in my V12 Vantage

At last Saturday’s Spring Event, a nice piece of tarmac had been prepared for drifting. So I took the Fire Red monster and tried my best. I have some experience with drifting, in several different cars (Porsches, several different Astons, my BMW 1M, etc…) and have become moderately good at it. I had never tried in a V12 Vantage though, so this was an excellent opportunity. However, it turned out that this certainly isn’t the easiest car to do a controlled drift in. The short wheelbase, the enormous amount of torque from the V12 on the rear wheels… Even my drift-instructor had trouble getting this beast under control on the wet tarmac. Anyway, here’s a video of my attempts, shot by TwinCharched, using two GoPro camera’s attached to the car, combined with some external footage.

The Astons at the Spring Event 2013

Last Saturday, on April 13, the 2013 edition of the Spring Event was held at the Weeze Airport in Germany. My wife and I were there, the misses driving our yellow italian thingy, while I took the red V12 Vantage. Several other Aston Martins were present at the event, including a V8 Vantage, a V8 Vantage Roadster (in Vicks Blue!), a DB9 Volante and a very nice DBS Volante. Sadly, or maybe not, I was too busy enjoying my cars on the tarmac to take pictures (stay tuned for a video of my attempts at drifting the V12 Vantage!). But luckily hundreds of other photographers were present, so here’s a selection of their photos of the Aston Martins at the Spring Event.

17 Aston Martins gather at Dutch “Power Beauty Soulmates” meeting

The “Power Beauty Soulmates” (or PBSM) is a Dutch Aston club that meets every first Sunday of the even months. So last Sunday, April 7, PBSM members were invited to meet at the GeoFort in Herwijnen. The weather was great, so a lot of Aston Martins turned up, 17 in total. The owners of the GeoFort let us park our cars on the fort area itself, resulting in a nice row of shiny Astons. Here’s a selection of the pics I took.

Geneva 2013 – DB9 and DB9 Volante

I have never been much of a DB9 fan, but I must admit that I really like the looks of the new 2013 DB9. Subtle changes, but they fully bring this car up-to-date again. I haven’t driven it yet, the specs are promising though. In terms of power, the new DB9 is now at the same level of the retired DBS: 517 hp and a max torque of 620 Nm. In Geneva, Aston Martin displays both a DB9 (in the beautiful color Ming Blue) and a DB9 Volante (in the kind of boring color Amethyst Red).