Aston hypes its own hypercar

No, not a sci-fi character played by Leonard Nimoy (or, more recently, Zachary Quinto) and no, it's not a vast delta-winged Cold War bomber. Aston Martin is about to go down the hyper-performance track car route with a strictly limited model known as the Vulcan. Teased ahead of its debut at the geneva motor show, the Vulcan is set to use the ultimate version of the long-lived Aston V12 engine. It will be enlarged in capacity (to around 7.0-litres) and power will rise to a whopping 750hp, although Aston hasn't yet said if it will give the car any hybrid electric boost. Still, not bad for an engine originally based on a mid-nineties Ford Mondeo V6.

The chassis will be almost all carbon fibre, with some aluminium components for high-strength sections, and the aerodynamic package will be on the extreme side of, er, extreme. In an unusual move for an Aston Martin, which is more usually the home of crystal keys and quilted leather, the cabin will be pared back to the barest of bare essentials in order to keep weight to a minimum. Fewer than 30 Vulcans are likely to be built, and just in case you weren’t excited enough, Aston has released a teaser video giving some hints as to what the Vulcan will sound like… http://youtu.be/ktD_ueZtReg