D. Wiggs' Garage

In my opinion, the One-77 is the greatest GT car ever created; bar none.  If it didn’t cost $2,000,000, I would have one in my garage.  This car is automotive perfection.  A One-77, a Veyron Pur Sang, a Zonda F Roadster, and an Lp670 SV would be my ultimate 4-car garage!

The Aston Martin One-77 has been a long time coming. The super-expensive British supercar has been teased and teased, Aston even having gone so far as showing the car’s form on the auto show circuit, only leaving it under a cloth throughout the show. Aston Martin set up a dedicated website for the most powerful production Aston Martin ever, which can still be found at www.one-77.com. In March we got One-77 technical specs and pre-production performance numbers. Now the cat is finally out of the bag, with Aston’s showing of the final One-77 production car design at the Italian Concorso D’Eleganza Villa D’Este design-centric autoshow.

Carrying a base price of a cool EU 1 million and headed for final production in a limited run of only 77 units, the One-77 is undoubtedly targeted at the type of attention-seeking car customer probably not too affected by the global economic recession currently gripping the auto industry as a whole.

Aston Martin’s full design muscle was directed toward the One-77′s development, being the first truly all-new Aston model in years. The proof is in the pudding, as the Aston Martin One-77 production model just won one of the industry’s most coveted design awards, the Concorso d’Eleganza Design Award for Concept Cars and Prototypes at Como Lake, Italy.

Let’s talk numbers. The One-77 carries a 6.0 liter V12 tightly based on the powerplants used in the V12 Vanquish and newer V12 Vantage, but reengineered completely for this application to produce more than 700 horsepower. Aston Martin says the One-77 was developed with DTM series race cars in mind, and if the new supercar proves as capable on the road as it looks on paper, those 77 examples should be snapped up real quick.

All that power is thrust upon the poor rear wheels through a new 6 speed true sequential manual unit Aston promises will trickle down through the rest of its product line. The striking 20 inch wheels, carrying huge Pirellis 335mm across out back, wrap new Carbon Ceramic Matrix brake technology which promises increased cooling by transmitting less kinetic energy as heat through the brake fluid and system.

With a promised curb weight of around 1500kg, the One-77 will do the 0-60 run in less than 3.5 seconds, with a top speed in excess of 200 mph. Due to the car’s rarity, expense and beauty, your average Aston Martin One-77 owner will probably never have enough road to hit 150 let alone 200 mph or a race track. In an auto industry finding 100-year-old companies suddenly going bankrupt, is the One-77 at all relevant?

Official Aston Martin press documents speak of “extraordinary workmanship and money-no-object commitment to quality”. It is a safe bet Aston will lose money on this car, but if the British marque can financially weather this storm and continue to make truly exceptional sports and GT cars, the real winners are the well-heeled enthusiast community. Three press releases follow detailing every aspect of the One-77 experience.