MODEL HISTORY

The Vanquish was born from the 'Project Vantage' concept that Ian Callum oversaw for Aston Martin at TWR. That car was shown at the 1998 Detroit Motor Show and Aston Martin boss Bob Dover was soon tasked with making the budgets work so that it could be turned into a production reality.

The team managed to do just that and the Vanquish was unveiled at the 2001 Geneva Motor Show. Beneath Callum's muscular lines was an updated version of the 6-litre V12 engine that had first been seen in the DB7 Vantage. It produced 460bhp and drove through a six-speed paddle-shift automated manual transmission, and was mounted in a bonded aluminium composite chassis that was developed with Lotus.

The Vanquish won plaudits for its styling and for the noise from the V12, and a revised Vanquish S model was introduced at the 2004 Paris Motor Show. It boasted all of the features from the previously optional Sports Dynamic Package, including stiffer suspension and larger brakes, while power was boosted to 520bhp via a higher compression ratio, new cylinder heads, a revised injection system and a remapped ECU.

That was enough to push the Vanquish S to 200mph thanks to revised gearing, and from 0-60mph in 4.6 seconds.

'This, finally, is the definitive front-engined two-seat British super GT,' said Chris Harris when he tested the revised model for Autocar. 'The changes are subtle; the cumulative effect they reap more significant than I'd expected … It would be a delight to wake up every morning with a Vanquish S on your driveway.'

The first-generation Vanquish was built until 2007 and was the last model to be produced at Aston Martin's historic Newport Pagnell factory. By the time the second-generation Vanquish came along in 2012, Ford had sold the marque to a private consortium led by David Richards and it had relocated to its current facility at Gaydon.

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