Several months ago, Aston Martin and Mercedes-Benz high-performance division AMG announced a technical partnership without saying exactly what the two planned to develop. Fortunately, the automakers have now made this technical marriage official: new V8s. The agreement involves Mercedes-AMG building a new V8 for the next generation Aston Martin Vantage, and in return Mercedes will take five percent equity in AM.

This technical partnership expands further regarding the supply of electric and electronic systems as well as future areas of cooperation. This is obviously very good for AM because its current 4.7-liter V8 was developed during the Ford ownership era. By having an AMG do a bulk of the engineering and development will save AM huge sums of money it likely doesn't have. Mercedes must also see potential in AM, otherwise it wouldn't have agreed to that equity stake. Nevertheless, we have the comfort of knowing that the next-gen Vantage will have an AMG V8 under its hood. What's still unknown is whether AMG will have a hand in developing a replacement for the also aging 6.0-liter V12.