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My Astons

The license plate dilemma

I think this is a dilemma most sports cars owners recognize: where to place the license plate on the nose of your car without ruining her beauty? Every country has its own laws and regulations on where to place the license plate, how big it must be and what must legally be on it. In the Netherlands, we’re doomed with license plates measuring 52 centimeters wide and 11 centimeters high. Included on the license plate is the EU symbol or NL (Netherlands) sign. Only legally approved plates may be mounted on the car’s front and rear. For cars, one exception is made for American plates which are smaller in width but still 11 centimeters high. To be legally allowed to place the smaller plates on your vehicle, you have to have permission from the RDW, the Dutch Traffic Organization. Only a very small minority of imported or classic American cars are granted this 18:2 plate. And now for the dilemma.

My first Aston: a V8 Vantage Roadster

Up until 2009, I was a Porsche guy. But after two 911 Turbo’s, I felt it was time for something different, something more exciting and more exclusive. This is what I ultimately decided on: my first Aston Martin, a V8 Vantage Roadster (4.7).

Power, Beauty and Soul in red and white

It’s a Sunday, no Aston Martin news today. So here’s some pictures I took yesterday of my own V12 Vantage (in Fire Red) posing with his little open top brother, my V8 Vantage S Roadster (in Stratus White).

Carbon fibre upgrades for my beauties

This week I gave my British beauties a nice cosmetic upgrade with some extra carbon fibre goodies. On both my Vantage S Roadster and my V12 Vantage the regular chrome side strakes have been replaced with carbon fibre side strakes. On top of that, the V12 Vantage was fitted with a carbon fibre gearshift surround, again replacing the regular chrome unit.

Meeting the maker: Barry Griffin

One cool thing I like about Aston Martins is the small plaque under the bonnet that says: HAND BUILT IN ENGLAND FINAL INSPECTION BY followed by the name of the “final inspector. My first Aston (a V8 Vantage Roadster) was inspected by SIMON WARD. The plaque in my current V8 Vantage S Roaster says PAUL GODDARD. But the final inspector of my favorite car, my V12 Vantage, is BARRY GRIFFIN.

Welcome to Aston dash Martin dot com !

Hi there and welcome to aston-martin.com! Let me introduce myself first: I am Alwin. I am an Aston Martin fan and the proud owner of two of these British beauties (I will tell you more about my own Aston’s in future posts). My day job is running a software company and managing its’ many websites. But next to that, my wife and I run the website of the dutch Aston Martin owners club Power Beaty Soulmates. And it’s through my work for that PBSM site that I found out that I really like writing about my passion: fast and beautiful cars, and Aston Martin in particular. I figured, why not take my writing one step further and create my own car blog site. One that is completely focused on Aston Martin only. So I got hold of the “aston-martin.com” domain, created this blog and here we are! My plan is to post Aston Martin news and rumors, plus reviews of Aston’s I have driven. All from the perspective of an Aston Martin owner and intermixed with my personal Aston story. But to be honest, I have no idea where this is going and how it will turn out. Let’s just get started and take it from there 🙂 I hope you will like my Aston related ramblings. Let me know what you think in the Comments sections!