A Guide to Works Service Special Projects
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A Guide to Works Service Special Projects

A Guide to Works Service Special Projects

By 1992, things were starting to slow with sales of the Virage and even the introduction of the Volante didn't make too much difference. The economy wasn't picking up and demand was dropping. Thus it was down to the Customer Service Division (now Works Service) to step in and try to bring in some money by offering upgrades and conversions as they had always done. So we got the 6.3 Virage, and the Shooting Brakes and the four door Virages. Although the four (and five) door Virage were announced to the public no-one outside of AML knew that a few were built for a wealthy overseas customer. Following on from these, WS continued working on ultra exclusive unique coachbuilt cars for the wealthiest people in the world but in total secret.

A Guide to Works Service Special Projects

Indeed, it has been said that one customer in particular bought so many cars, that AML would not have survived without his patronage. I won’t be so rude as to say who the customers were but I’m sure you can guess. The first indication that anything was built was in an article in the the Autocar magazine, 2nd September 1998 where someone undercover took pictures in a warehouse full of exotics in South East Asia – you must get a copy, trust me. More recently, small pictures have appeared in ‘Works Tourque’, the magazine sent out to customers of Works Service. But effectively, the specially commissioned Works Service cars have remained hidden and an almost total secret…………until quite recently.

The cars were first seen in a 2007 book, Aston Martin, Power, Beauty and Soul, written by a friend of mine called David Dowsey. Those pictures first seen in the book have now been made available to me by Aston Martin and I’m very happy to be able to share these with you over the next few weeks.