Canceled, then revived as an Aston, the big 2+2 grand tourer actually rode on a chassis derived from the one that underpinned the the V-12 coupe from Coventry. The first ones to hit dealerships for the 1994 model year were powered by a supercharged version of Jaguar's AJ6 3.2L inline six, rated at 335 SAE net horsepower.
For 1999, the coupe got its styling zhuzhed up a bit, the Vantage tag appended to its name, and a honking big 5.9L DOHC 48-valve Aston Martin V-12 shoehorned into the engine bay. This motor belted out 420 horsepower and made the DB7 Vantage a seriously fast car, even if its two-ton curb weight kept it from being blindingly quick.
In 2001, Aston launched its new halo car, the Vanquish, which looked for all the world like a steroid-enhanced DB7 V12 Vantage, distinguished externally mostly by the bulging haunches needed to enclose the monstrous 285/40 ZR 19 rear tires, but under the skin had a completely unique aluminum chassis with a central carbon fiber backbone, developed with input from Lotus.
Intended to go head-to-head against the Ferrari 550 Maranello, the Vanquish was a limited production (300 cars/yr) vehicle with an astronomical price tag and performance to match.
The V12 in the Vanquish was bumped up to 460bhp and zero-to-sixty times were in the mid fours with an honest 180mph top speed.
New, that Bowland Black coupe in the photo would have set the buyer back an eye-watering $235,600, or more than four hundred long in today's coinage. It was photographed with an Olympus OM-D E-M1X and an M. Zuiko Digital 12-200mm f/3.5-6.3 zoom lens in October of 2024.
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