Despite designing and building some truly fantastic high-performance sports cars, Aston Martin has been using a dated platform for some time now. The reason? It costs a boat load of money to develop a new one. Until somewhat recently, AM simply didn't have the cash available to make this happen; it had to make do with updates to its aging VH architecture, which underpins its current models.

But today there's some really good news: AM's chief financial officer has just announced that due to strong sales in 2013 (an 11 percent increase over 2012), there's enough money available to develop a next-gen sports car platform. Another reason why AM can spend the money this way is because of the recent AMG engine supply deal. That alone will save an insane amount of money for AM. The combination of AMG engines and electronics with a newly developed platform may very well be the formula that helps AM become a better Ferrari and Porsche fighter.