Car Of The Day: November 13, 2010

Today's car of the day is Majorette's '95 Aston Martin DB7.

The Aston Martin DB7 is a grand tourer which was made by Aston Martin from September 1994 to December 2003. The grand tourer was available either as a coupé or a convertible. The prototype was complete by November 1992, and debuted at the Geneva Motor Show in March, 1993. The six-cylinder DB7 was positioned as an "entry-level" model below the hand-built V8 Virage introduced a few years earlier. The DB7 was the highest production Aston Martin model ever, with more than 7,000 built before it was replaced by the DB9. The DB7 was styled by Ian Callum and Keith Helfet, and it is widely considered a beautiful and timeless automotive design.

For more information and pictures of the real car please visit: Aston Martin DB7

Here's an example picked up back when Majorette was readily available at retail in the United States.  This was purchased when it first came out, so I would have been a teenager at the time.  As you can see, teen Swifty took much better care of his cars than little Swifty did.

The DB7, known internally as the NPX project, was made mostly with resources from Jaguar and had the financial backing of the Ford Motor Company, owner of Aston Martin since 1988. The DB7's platform is an evolution of the Jaguar XJS's, though with many changes. The styling started life as the still-born Jaguar F type (XJ41 - coupe / XJ42 - convertible)designed by Keith Helfet. Ford cancelled this car and the general design was grafted onto an XJS platform. The styling received modest changes by Ian Callum so that it looked like an Aston Martin. The first generation Jaguar XK-8 also uses an evolution of the XJ-S/DB-7 platform and the cars share a family resemblance, though the Aston Martin was significantly more expensive and exclusive.

The DB7 was engineered in Kidlington, Oxfordshire, by Tom Walkinshaw Racing on behalf of Aston Martin. The production engines continued to be built in Kidlington during the life of the vehicle.

With production of the Virage (soon rechristened "V8" following Vantage styling revisions) continuing at Newport Pagnell, a new factory was acquired at Bloxham, Oxfordshire that had previously been used to produce the Jaguar XJ-220, where every DB7 would be built throughout its production run. The DB-7 and its relatives were the only Aston Martins produced in Bloxham and the only ones with a steel unit construction inherited from Jaguar (Aston Martin had traditionally used aluminium for the bodies of their cars, and models introduced after the DB-7 use aluminium for the chassis as well as for many major body parts).
The convertible Volante version was unveiled at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in 1996[1]. Both versions have a supercharged straight-6 engine that produced 335 bhp (250 kW; 340 PS). In the United States, the Coupé sold for $140,000, and the Volante for $150,000. Works Service provided a special Driving Dynamics package, which greatly enhanced performance and handling for drivers who wanted more than the standard configuration.