Aston Martin Superleggera

[JohnG1]

I bought a coffee table book on Aston Martin and along with the regular cars were a few Superleggera models.

What do folks think about Aston Martin taking that label back from Lamborghini and offering a lightweight V8 or even better a lightweight V12 Vantage???

[williamp]

I think you're a bit confused. In the late '50s the term "superleggera" was a brand name belonging to the Touring company of Milan. They styled the DB4 and used their patent "superleggera" system to build the bodywork- a series of small bore tubes made the bodyshape, and the aluminimum panels hung from these tubes. It made the bodywork light but very strong.

Aston used this system under licence to build the Db4 and 5, and as part of the licence deal had to put superleggera badges on the front- one each side. The DB6 was not built using the superleggera system but the licence remainded in place, so the DB6 still had to use the badges

The proposed DB6 replacement, called the DBS did have the suerpleggera system and was designed by Touring. However they went bankrupt, so Aston stopped using the badges on their DB6 cars. The DBS model never went further then two prototypes, and Aston designed their own repalcement, using a modified DB6 chassis and body designed in-house. Confusingly, it was also called the DBS. This, and the DBS V8 led to the V8's of the 70s and 80s.

[cardigankid]

As williamp says.

But since Lamborghini now seem to use the term Superleggera freely, presumably Aston could too.