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Interesting test drive reminiscent of the 1973 Ford/Mercury Marquis Continental Airlines pilots test drive

Aston Martin Rapide S: Pilots Put James Bond Car to the Test

Danbury, Connecticut—It isn’t too hard to understand why Learjet and Aston Martin would pair up to celebrate their anniversaries in 2013; Fifty for Lear, 100 for Aston Martin. But let’s face it, only a privileged few have the opportunity to fly on a Learjet or drive an Aston Martin. Aside from exclusivity do other commonalities exist between flying a plane and driving a high-end car? As it turned out, I’m not the first person to wonder about that.

Forty years ago, Ford Motor Company assembled a group of 50 Continental Airlines pilots to compare the Mercury Marquis to a Rolls Royce, an automobile worth $147,000 in today’s dollars. Ford was planning an ad campaign based on the expert opinion of these men whom they described as “professionals with acute sensitivity to motion, vibration and noise.”

Captains Jim Hughbanks and Jim Farrow, now retired, were two of the pilots who made the drive at Colorado’s Red Rock Park. …

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