The cost of the body conversion, chassis modifications and 6.3 engine (if specified) was dependant on individual specification but I believe it well exceeded £100,000. Thus with the cost including the original car was in the order of a quarter of a million pounds.

A line up of four ‘V-cars’ at the 2005 St Georges Day event at Windsor Castle

Before the introduction of the rare V8 Vantage Volante special edition, these cars represented the fastest and most powerful open Aston Martins. Indeed, they are very easy to confuse with the later supercharged cars, although there are a few clues to assist the enthusiast. The 6.3 conversions usually have the 18 inch OZ split rim wheels, square side indicator repeaters and Citroen CX type door mirrors. Also the 6.3’s have a different profile to the rear wheel arch extension to the later true Vantage Volates. The photographs on this page represent three of the six known cars to have been rebuilt with this body style. One car is unique because in addition to  supercharged Vantage front and rear styling, if features Vantage sills and Vantage profile to the rear wheel arch.

This particular example was owned by AML from new but driven by HRH The Prince of Wales until about 2006. It was then retained by the factory until 2012 when it was sold at the Bonham’s AM Works auction for the ‘princely’ sum of £119,100 including premium. It is finished in the Princes favoured colour combination of solid British Racing Green with Mushroom hide interior without a contrasting piping colour. It also has manual transmission, really quite rare for a Virage Volante.

Initially peak power was quoted as 465 bhp but was revised in 1993 with the adoption of a high lift cam and solid tappets to 500 bhp @ 6000rpm and 480 lb of torque @ 5800rpm – that’s a 60% increase from the standard engine. The 14 inch ventilated and cross drilled disc brakes with four cylinder racing callipers, also derived from the AMR1, were at the time claimed to be the largest fitted to any production car in the world.

Many of the hand-crafted aluminium body modifications related to the 6.3 are well evident in the photographs; substantially flared wheel arches, deep front air dam, boot mounted spoiler, extended sills, extended rear valance and side air vents. The side air vents were a feature of the initial Virage design but were not used on production cars at least initially. They reappeared with the 6.3 and later Virages and also on the Volante and Vantage. Stylish split rim five spoke 10.5*18 inch OZ alloy wheels with 285/45 ZR Goodyear Eagle tyres ensure more than adequate grip and traction. A small number of cars were also modified to 6.3 cosmetic specification retaining the 5.3 engine in unmodified form. These are known as 6.3 Cosmetic or Virage wide body.

Driving through a five or six speed manual ZF gearbox, or three speed automatic transmission, the extra power is sufficient to power the Virage 6.3 to 175mph, with 0-60 and 0-100mph acceleration taking just 5.1 and 11.5 seconds respectively.

Among the photographs below is a 6.3 Virage, photographed at Stratton Motor Company during 1998. It features attractive Vantage style front and rear bodywork, modified at the long established Aston Martin Heritage dealership near Norwich. This is a later picture of the same car pictured at the top of this page.

All the examples that I have seen also have the 6.3 air-dam fitted. The interior was trimmed with saddle brown Connolly hide matched to beige and green leather for the roof lining and interior door trims. Instead of burr walnut, there was extensive use of burr elm on the instrument and and fascia panels. A brass plate, affixed to the fascia panel contained the chassis number and name of the first owner.

The engine was based on the standard 48 valve V8 Virage unit but with a more efficient design of the 32 valve cylinder heads (sometimes described as ‘Vantage cylinder heads’) and new electronic engine management system, designed to give an extra 20bhp (a total of 349bhp) together with a reduction in emissions. The Limited Edition Coupe was available with either a 5 speed manual or 4 speed automatic transmission at a cost of £137,500. In all, a total of nine cars were built, all with consecutive M*AML number plates. Although the official name Limited Edition Coupe did not use the Virage moniker or have Virage badging, it’s easier to describe these cars as Virage Limited Edition Coupe.

One particular Limited Edition Coupe was upgraded to RSW 7 litre turbo spec with a reputed 720 bhp.

Taking inspiration from Red Bull Racing’s distinctive race livery, the special edition is finished in  deep Mariana Blue paint finish as standard although optionally, the car can also be finished in gloss Tungsten Silver or satin Mariana Blue too.

Also fitted as standard are a carbon fibre splitter, diffuser, grille and side strakes. Red infills on the carbon fibre grille and yellow calipers complete the iconic Red Bull colour scheme.

Inside are further sporting features, including Red Bull Racing headrest embroidery, carbon fibre trim inlays, and a colour-coded leather steering wheel complete with 12 o’clock accent stripe. Customers may opt for their sill and final inspection plaques to be signed by either of the two 2017 Red Bull team drivers, Daniel Ricciardo or Max Verstappen.

Deliveries of the Bed Bull Racing Vantage began during the second quarter of 2017.

With the absence of the large width Vantage wheel aches, the V8 Coupe is both subtle and elegant. The end result of the work was a better looking, better performing update of the Virage. Some even  say, that the V8 Coupe is the car that the Virage should have been. The 32 valve engine, still with a capacity of 5340 cc is a non-supercharged version of the Vantage unit producing 349 bhp and 369 lbft of torque give the car a claimed maximum speed of ‘over’ 155mph and a zero to 60 time of a mere 5.9 seconds. A four speed automatic transmission was fitted as standard; no car was built with a manual gearbox what-so-ever although some cars have had one retrofitted.

The six spoke OZ Saturn alloy wheels have slimmer spokes than that of the Vantage and are shod with Pirelli P Zero 255/50 tyres although it is possible to see V8 Coupes with the Vantage OZ 6 spoke wheels or indeed the fancy hollow spoke Dymag wheels. It is also quite possible to see Vantage matte black grilles fitted on V8 Coupes too.

Very few changes were made during the production of the 101 cars. From chassis 79045, the door mirrors were changed from those sourced from the Citroen CX to one from Jaguar. From chassis 79080 (and including 74) the door handles changed to the flush Ford Mondeo type with integral keyhole and also the seats had electrical controls mounted on the squab.

The V8 Coupe is well sort after by collectors and enthusiasts looking for a true coach built Aston Martin. With out the complication of superchargers, servicing and fuel costs are less and a very limited production run fuels demand.

The only theory that I have with this car is that it was especially built for the use of AML partner, Red Bull Formula 1 and was so well received, that Aston Martin decided to offer it as a special edition model.

With beautiful silver coachwork, all black Connolly upholstery and black hood, the Volante was offered for sale together with a matched set of Cartier diamond, ruby and emerald jewellery, which itself was valued at almost $1.0 million. The car featured 6.3 cosmetic coachwork, standard 5.3 litre V8 engine and automatic transmission.

The car was photographed at the 2022 AMHT Festival held at the Brooklands Museum.

What was sure was the Newport Pagnell site was too small to be developed and a new factory was needed. It wasn’t until the sad departure of Victor Gauntlett from AML in October 1991 and with Walter Hayes at the helm, the car that was eventually to become the DB7 began development. Initially the car was known internally as Project NPX (Newport Pagnell eXperimental) but gained the DB7 moniker following the agreement of Sir David Brown. The TWR (Tom Walkinshaw Racing) Group was given the  responsibility for design, engineering, development, certification and homologation of Project NPX. TWR already had with a long history with the Jaguar marque, especially the XJ-S, a car very closely related to the DB7.

The completed DB7 was finally displayed to the eager public at the Geneva Salon in March 1993, although deliveries didn’t start until September 1994. Initially at least, the press tried to focus on it’s Jaguar XJ-S origins (although it owes as much to the dead F-type XJ41 and 42 project), but now no one can be in any doubt that the DB7 is all Aston Martin. The DB7 will always be greater than the sum of it’s parts, and it has in time, become a quintessential Aston Martin.

The Jaguar derived and TWR developed 3239cc six cylinder powerplant was augmented with an Eaton supercharger, sufficient to produce 335bhp. This allowed the DB7 a claimed 161mph top speed with acceleration to 60mph in just 5.7 seconds. To many, the Ian Callum designed DB7 is the most beautiful car in the world. In an business sense, it is the car that saved AML and became was the most successful Aston Martin by the time production ended in 2003.

The first images are of the important pre-production prototype DB7 taken outside the AMOC marquee at Coys Historic Festival, Silverstone, 1993, soon after it’s appearance on the AML stand at the Geneva Salon. The interior of Oxblood and Parchment leather perfectly complements the BMW metallic grey paintwork. For a while, the car was on display at the Museum of Road Transport in Coventry before it was transferred into the care of the Aston Martin Heritage Trust. The car actually has no working engine or gearbox.

Also below there are some pictures that were taken of the DB7 i6 prototypes that were used during crash testing. These were in store at the back of the Newport Pagnell factory up until around 2005 when they were removed for destruction. I took these pictures when visiting the Bonhams auctions in the early years of the new millenium.

Cosmetically, the Virage coupe coachwork remained as standard, the extensive rebuild concentrated on a major mechanical update as well as an enhanced interior, with an arraignment quite unique to the model.

The following are believed to be the key changes 

• /89 spec engine rebuilt to /95 spec
• New Weber/Marelli Alpha Plus engine management system
• Increase of peak power to 349 bhp
• Three speed gearbox replaced by the 4 speed Torqueflite
• V8 Coupe OZ ‘Saturn’ wheels
• Pirelli P Zero 255/50 ZR18 tyres
• Late specification Virage interior with air bag steering wheel
• Deletion of the VIC computer
• Unique LED gearbox marker lights in the dash
• Unique centre console layout