Maxxd.com – Modified and Performance Car News

  • The Aston Martin badge is forged in fire at 1,472 degrees

    A lot goes into making the winged badge on the hood of every new Aston Martin. While most automakers have moved to common plastic, each Aston badge is still handmade from metal. This video from YouTube channel MrJWW shows how it’s done, for a special-edition DBX, in this case.

    A 200-year-old British company called Vaughtons has been making Aston badges since the 1960s. The company has also made medals for the Olympics and Premier League soccer, as well as badges for the first-class suites on the Titanic.

    Each badge starts as a metal blank. These blanks are stamped multiple times in a machine press, but because the material will only move so much while cold, it’s also heated to 1,472 degrees Fahrenheit in between stampings (called “blows” in the business) to make it softer. This process, called annealing, brings out all of the detail.

    2020 Aston Martin Vantage Coupe

    2020 Aston Martin Vantage Coupe

    Each badge can go through the press up to 14 times before it’s ready to go on a car, with six rounds of annealing in between. After that, excess material is trimmed off and the badge is sent for finishing.

    With the basic shape achieved, the badge is cleaned using both ultrasound, and an electrolytic process that uses a mixture of soap and cyanide. Badges are then plated and finished, before being sent to the factory to be mounted on cars.

    Aston Martin isn’t the only automaker that treats its badges like fine jewelry. Every Bugatti “macaron” badge is made from 150 grams of sterling silver, and takes 10 hours to make.

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  • One-off Bentley Flying Spur Reindeer Eight is Santa’s new sleigh

    Looks like Santa Claus is getting a new sleigh. According to Bentley, Santa has worked with the company’s Mulliner personalization division to order a one-off Christmas-themed Flying Spur dubbed “Reindeer Eight.”

    Bentley revealed the customized Flying Spur V8 last Friday, complete with a 3D-printed reindeer hood ornament in place of the traditional “Flying B.” The paint color is called Cricket Bauble, a Christmas-themed play on Bentley’s Cricket Ball dark red paint. A diamond graphic running along the bottom of the car represents snow-covered mountains.

    To be clear, Bentley actually built the car for the fictional St. Nick.

    The sedan boasts a carbon diffuser, carbon side sills, and a trunk-lid spoiler for “maximum aerodynamic performance at cruising altitude,” Bentley said in a press release. The rest of the exterior brightwork is gold, along with the 22-inch wheels.

    Bentley Flying Spur Reindeer Eight

    Bentley Flying Spur Reindeer Eight

    Leather seats with hand-applied cross stitching get heating, ventilation, multi-mode massage, adjustable bolsters, and top tilt—a feature that should come in handy for Santa’s long one-night journey. The Bentley Rotating Display also has Santa’s “naughty and nice” list pre-loaded into the navigation system, while the wood veneer on the dashboard depicts the North Pole at night.

    Bentley didn’t mention any mechanical changes, so instead of eight reindeer, this sleigh gets eight cylinders. The twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V-8 produces 542 horsepower and 568 pound-feet of torque. Bentley previously quoted 0-60 mph in 4.0 seconds and a top speed of 198 mph.

    “What fun it is to ride in a 542 horsepower sleigh. Plus, there’s space in the back for all my subordinate Clauses. I’m looking forward to putting 41 million miles on the clock before the end of the year,” read a quote Bentley attributed to Santa.

    The Flying Spur’s all-wheel drive should help Santa deal with winter weather, but with an EPA-estimated 15 mpg combined, he may lose a lot of time to fuel stops during his annual sojourn.

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  • New documentary details Chevy’s development of the mid-engine Corvette

    It may seem like a lifetime ago, but the start of the 2020 model year saw the introduction of the C8 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray—the first mid-engine production Corvette in the nameplate’s history. Chevy now has the first installment of a two-part documentary detailing the car’s development.

    Chevy has teased the idea of a mid-engine Corvette for decades with various concept cars and prototypes, but it finally pulled the trigger on a production version because designers and engineers felt the existing front-engine design had reached its limits.

    The decision to go mid-engine wasn’t made abruptly. Design work on the C8 Corvette began in 2011, before the last front-engine Corvette had even launched, Corvette exterior design manager Kirk Bennion said in the documentary.

    2020 Chevrolet Corvette 2LT

    2020 Chevrolet Corvette 2LT

    As with any new car, designers went through many iterations before arriving at the final C8 shape, building multiple scale models and three full-size clay models as part of the process.

    The resulting design has the proportions of an Italian supercar, but with a good ‘ole small block 6.2-liter V-8 behind the seats. The naturally aspirated engine known as the LT2 produces 495 horsepower and 470 pound-feet of torque, giving the Stingray a quoted 0 to 60 mph time of 2.9 seconds. We were so impressed that we named the latest Corvette a Motor Authority Best Car To Buy 2021 nominee.

    Chevy isn’t done, either. We’re expecting new Z06 and ZR1 models, and possibly another variant named Zora, after Corvette godfather Zora Arkus-Duntov. That version will get a 1,000-hp hybrid powertrain, Hagerty reported earlier this year. It’s unclear when these more potent Corvette variants will show up, but in the meantime, part two of Chevy’s documentary premieres on YouTube January 4, 2021.

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