'It kind of warms your heart when you go to a place where people genuinely want to have a conversation with you and want to know who you are. It's very different from what I'm used to, living in a place like San Francisco, where people just kind of do their own thing and you go about your business.
One of the last holdouts of V12 engine production has been Aston Martin with its twin-turbocharged 5.2-liter unit in the DB11 and, now, as a farewell, in the V12 Vantage, after a 15-year run, according to an announcement made by the company on Wednesday. The 2023 V12 Vantage will be strictly limited to 333 units, and it's already sold out.
The world used to be filled with magic and mystery and V12 engines. There's still plenty of the former two, but the latter is rapidly going the way of the thylacine, and while we get it -- it's hard to justify the cost and complexity of a big V12 engine in a world where going electric makes a lot more sense -- we're still sad to see them go.
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And Dean Wells was grabbing attention for another reason on Saturday, as he surrounded himself with twerking ladies at a party held by tobacco tycoon Travers 'Candyman' Beynon at the Candyshop mansion in Queensland.
A 2017 video posted online showed a group of armed people, reported to be Wagner contractors, torturing a Syrian man, beating him to death with a sledgehammer and cutting his head before mutilating and then burning his body.
The V12 Astons have been since the DB11 came out, but we are genuinely looking forward to this leaner, meaner swan song of a car, and while we wish it could be had with a different gearbox, we expect it will still be a real experience to drive.
Those aero tweaks include a wider body, a big wing at the back and a new, vented hood. The overall look is pretty aggressive, befitting a car wearing the Vantage name, and Aston claims it produces 450 pounds of downforce at 200 mph, which is pretty good for a road car. The majority of the new body bits are made of carbon fiber to help cut weight. Aston also made the exhaust out of 1mm-thick stainless steel tubing to shave nearly 16 pounds off the car compared to the exhaust in the V8 Vantage.
The V12 Vantage also gets some extra goodies for its last go around the carousel. It will be the most powerful Aston Martin Vantage ever with 690 horsepower and 555 pound-feet of torque. Those figures, plus new aerodynamic body tweaks mean that this Vantage is good for 200 mph and will make the sprint to 60 mph in 3.4 seconds. An eight-speed ZF automatic transmission is the only gearbox on offer, though Aston claims it's been recalibrated to be more sporty.
The terrifying group went viral in 2022 after a video of members beating a deserter to death with a sledgehammer spread online, has allegedly offered to help Haiti's embattled government take on violent gangs, the documents detailed.
Aston has made handling a priority for the V12 car and, as such, has increased its body stiffness by using added bracing for things like the fuel tank, the strut towers and more. Spring stiffness was also increased, so don't expect this thing to ride like a DB11. Carbon-ceramic brakes are standard on the V12 Vantage, which, in addition to resisting brake fade in repeated high-speed stops, also shave around 51 pounds of unsprung weight from the car.
He recalls: 'It was bittersweet in a sense because the weather was so tough to deal with that the wind, I mean, there were 60mph winds at times where you could barely stand up... you could barely set up a camera. And it rained, I think, every single day that I was there, for about two weeks.
While a defence pact between Taiwan and the United States ended in 1979 when Washington severed formal diplomatic ties in favour of Beijing, a close military relationship endures and the United States is Taiwan's main foreign source of arms.
'This is a very interesting sign that there's a degrading of their capabilities,' Candace Rondeaux, an expert on Wagner who is a senior director at New America, a Washington think tank, told the New York Times.
Tourists can visit New Zealand from April 12 and this timelapse video and accompanying stunning images are jaw-dropping reminders of the eye-popping sights awaiting them when they venture out and explore the country's landscapes.
When it came to his favourite location in New Zealand, Shainblum said it was tough to pick one but Milford Sound - a fiord in the southwest of the South Island - made a big impression with its 'striking cliffs' and 'pouring' 1,000ft waterfalls
China describes Taiwan as the most sensitive and important issue in its relations with the United States, and the topic is a constant source of friction between Beijing and Washington. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Robert Birsel)