17 June 2009

One & Only N400 in Town





This is the only Aston Martin N400 in Singapore. Our example is in Karussell Orange, with Bergwerk Black and Lightning Silver as other colours available from the factory. Rather pretentious names for paint jobs, if you ask me.

The N400 is essentially a limited edition V8 Vantage, getting a 400bhp 4.3-litre engine, uprated suspension, some visual tweaks and a host of extra equipment, too. The model also gets restyled sills, silver air intakes and a new grille. Lightweight 19-inch alloys and clear rear lamp lenses complete the visual updates.

Available in Coupé or Roadster trim, only 240 examples of each body style will be made.

Specs wise, tweaks to the engine management and an air intake system taken from the flagship DBS liberate an extra 20bhp from the 4.3-litre V8, taking power to 400bhp, while torque rises from 10Nm to 420Nm. The 0-60mph sprint is identical at 4.9 seconds and top speed is up only 2mph to 177mph.

They are being built to celebrate Aston Martin’s participation in several editions of the gruelling Nür­burg­ring 24 Hour races, in which the company used a near standard production V8 Vantage called the N24. As such, the N400 has spent thousands of miles being fine-tuned at the famous German track, with a Nür­burgring circuit map on the armrest in case the owner forgets.

Aston now claims the N400 is among only a handful of production cars that can lap the circuit in less than eight minutes. I can almost hear the GTR fans shout 'BIG F**KING DEAL' but for supercars of this calibre, out-and-out track time comparisons are almost meaningless. The cars can go below 8 minutes, but how many of us got the skill to do a 8 minute Nür lap?

Source: Autoexpress.co.uk
Photo credits: Eugene Seow

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