No official announcements have been released by Aston Martin with regards to its plan to upgrade the V8 Vantage for model year 2010 however, according to a source who spoke with Car Magazine, the refreshed series is already available for orders.

Expect the first models of model year 2010 Vantage V8 to start to be delivered in the first few months of 2010. Pricing for the coupe starts at £83,191 ($135,100) while the Roadster is priced from £91,021 ($147,800). According to the source, the Vantage can also be customized with 10-spoke forged 19-inch alloy wheels with diamond turned and silver finish, lightweight seats with kevlar and carbonfiber construction, clear rear lamps, N400 sill design, magnum silver bonnet and side strake meshes and 1000W B&Q hi-fi system. Continued after the jump!

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Sportscar maker Aston Martin will be releasing new models, new engines and special editions next year in the UK however; chairman David Richards is not expecting that it will reach the sales levels it had been experiencing two years ago.

Despite the upcoming arrival of the new four-door Rapide, Aston Martin said that it won’t attain the levels it had in that year, which had sold 5,500 cars. Richards said that those levels most likely won’t be reached until 2012. The four-door Rapides, which were built by Magna Steyr in Austria, is expected to achieve sales of about 4,000 units this year. Continued after the jump!

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Former Tesla Motors and Harley Davidson executive Michael van der Sande joined Aston Martin to the newly created position of chief commercial officer. Van der Sande is tasked with strengthening all commercial areas at the British luxury sports car brand.

The new job will bring Van der Sande to the company’s headquarters in Gaydon, England and next to its chief, CEO Ulrich Bez, says Automotive News. Bez told to the press that Michael will help Aston Martin to further develop its presence around the world. This move comes after Aston Martin’s sales have been hit by the economic crisis… the company build only 1,415 cars, compared with 4,480 the year before!

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As you may know already, the recession made a big hole in the pockets of almost all the automakers around the world and killed some future plans. Still, it appears that the hard financial times are beginning to disappear and car makers want to make everything possible to recover the money they lost.

One of these automakers is Aston Martin who is now trying to build a more expensive city car, based on the Toyota iQ. The new car, dubbed Cygnet, is the solution that Aston Martin sees in a crowded city and it is currently planning to bring it on the streets in 2010. The parts for this new vehicle will be shipped by Toyota to Aston Martin’s Gaydon, England, plant while the interior will be entirely manufactured by the British manufacturer. Regarding the price, it appears that the vehicle will sell for about $32,000, double the iQ’s price and a big amount we’d say, for a small city car…

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Aston Martin’s future is blurry after it had been reported that Kuwait’s Investment Dar, which owns half the company, confirmed that it had problems refinancing its debt. Affected by the economic downturn, Investment Dar said that it has signed an agreement with investors and creditors to freeze claims, allowing it to have more time for restructuring.

In 2007, a consortium led by Dave Richards bought Aston Martin from Ford for £480 million to get the majority stake. Part of the funding for Dar’s 51% stake came from a number of international banks that had agreed to a sharia-compliant loan. Following reported debts of more than $3 billion, Kuwait’s central bank appointed a temporary administrator to oversee business at Investment Dar. Over the weekend, a standstill agreement was reached where Dar agreed to complete “a variety of undertakings to the consenting banks and investors, including the appointment of a chief restructuring officer.” An Aston Martin spokesman said that nothing had changed at the company. He confirmed that he still has “strong ongoing support” from its shareholders.

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At the Nurburging race track, Aston Martin’s LMP1 entries claimed first, second and third places at the ADAC’s 1,000km race. The triumph marked 50 years since its first win at the event in 1959, with the DBR1. Leading the race from the beginning was Aston’s 007 car, which held such a distant lead that the team had time to tweak its rear aero-kit. This only increased its gain over the other cars. German driver Stefan Mucke posted the fastest lap of the race with 1 min 44.1secs. British driver Darren Turner placed second in the 009 car. Team Principal George Howard-Chappel said that the win is a “tribute to the team, the drivers and the whole organization.”

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It’s unconfirmed but Aston Martin is said to be working on a more extreme version of its lightweight DBS super-GT. Rumors originated from the tracks of Nurburgring where Aston Martin has been seen testing new aerodynamic elements for the current Bondmobile of choice.

Being speculated is a package that would potentially comprise a revised suspension, an updated body kit and some mild performance enhancements. Some are hinting that Audi could follow the same route as it did with the Vanquish. After it had been on the market for three years, Aston Martin released the upgraded Vanquish S. The faster version upped the 5.9-liter V12’s output from 460 horsepower and 400 lb-ft of torque to 520 and 425, dropping the 0-60 sprint from 4.4 seconds down to four flat while increasing the top end from 196 to 204 mph. Improved aero and bigger brakes were also part of the package.

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Two Aston Martin cars will be racing 1,000 km and 215 laps at the first ever Le Mans Series night race this Saturday, starting 7:15 pm local time at the new Autodromo Internacional Algarve in Portugal.

Participating in the 6-hour race will be Aston Martin’s LMP1 GT cars: the 007 to be driven by Jan Charouz, Tomas Enge and Stefan Mucke; and the 009 car entrusted to Harold Primat, Miguel Ramos and Darren Turner. Aston Martin Racing team principal George Howard-Chappell said that Aston Martin is happy to be racing again and that its goal to win the races should be of reach now without the factory diesel cars.

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A pre-production One-77 supercar will be appearing in Germany’s Nurburgring. Aston Martin is building its development version, which at present is just a running prototype to be exhibited at shows. Chris Porritt, One-77 program manager, says the next stage of the car’s development is to build a pre-production version for fine tuning at the ’Ring.

The One-77 will be going into production in spring next year, with the first customers receiving their cars in mid-2010. Forty confirmed orders have now been taken for the One-77, each of which takes three and a half months to build. Customers for the car come from as far as China. Porritt says the One-77 has a downforce-enhanced drag coefficient of “just under 0.40”, which is comparable with that of the Porsche Carrera GT.

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For a while, it appeared as if Aston Martin can do no wrong. But then they unveiled the Lagonda SUV Concept last March in Geneva that was coldly received by the automotive media. Now it is reported the entire project has been put on hold. Chief executive Ulrich Bez say that the decision was “purely financial” however, other sources believe that it was the poor reaction that killed the project. Nevertheless, a new concept might be revealed before the year ends if Aston Martin Lagonda chairman David Richards had his way.

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