The striptease-style release of information and images is becoming a favorite way for automakers to play the media fiddle and build up hype as they launch key new models. As with Chevrolet with its Volt, Lamborghini and its fabulous Estoque, and Porsche with the controversial Panamera , Aston Martin is introducing us to its first million-dollar super-sports car, the One-77, bit by precious bit, using the Paris Motor Show to hand out a second sketch that’s only slightly more detailed than the first sketch it handed out a couple of months ago.
The new, rear-three-quarters computer rendering shows the One-77 as taking on the proportions that have worked oh-so-well for recent Aston products and then adding a bit of teenage-boy fantasy for a level of visual drama no Aston has ever achieved before. The exceedingly rare car (only 77 will be built) will feature active aero bits, aluminum body panels, and a carbon-fiber monocoque body. Under the louvered hood will be a 7.3-liter V-12 with more than 700 horsepower, trumping the current DBS flagship’s 5.9-liter V-12. In our latest test, we clocked the 510-horsepower DBS running 0–60 mph in just 4.3 seconds.
We won’t see the 200-mph One-77 in the flesh until the official rollout at the exotic-heavy Geneva Motor Show next spring. Until then, we’ll probably get more of these annoying little teasers.
One question, though: Has James Bond even seen it yet? Aston said they’d tell us, but then they’d have to kill us.
