The car, based on a pre-production V12 Vanquish, was first shown to the public at the Geneva Salon in March 2004 – although at the time, there were no concrete plans for production. CAR Magazine, May 2004 very much doubted that this car would reach production, whereas, AutoExpress magazine of 21/4/2004 was confidant that a run of 99 production cars had already been sold at a price of £240,000 – how wrong could they be. I was personally very impressed by the Zagato V12 Vanquish and I was sure that there would be a small production run – but sadly not. In the end, it proved difficult to adapt the Roadster to compensate for the removal of the roof and to ensure the occupants would be safe if the car rolled over. 

This unique car which had for a time, a home in the USA is rarely seen in public, although it was shown at ‘The Quail, a Motorsports Gathering’ in  Carmel, CA during August 2013 where Aston Martin were a featured marque.

The only alternative to the Zagato built roadster is the convertible version of the V12 Vanquish offered by Newport Convertible Engineering in the USA.

Following the 2004 Geneva Motor Show, the Jet 2 slipped from public view and was retained by the designers, Bertone. Then without any warning, Jet 2 was shown on the Bertone stand at the 2013 Geneva Show alongside the new Rapide based Jet 2+2. It still looked good, the most noticeable changes were that the colour had been changed from silver to gold and the interior had benefited from a retrim. Also quite curious is that the car now appears to have a lift up tailgate. Looking back on the 2004 Geneva show images, it becomes obvious that originally, the boot could not in fact be opened.

A little later in 2013, Jet 2 joined the original 1961 Bertone Jet and the brand new Jet 2+2 during the Aston Martin Centenary Celebration at Kensington Palace in July. This was the very first time that all three Bertone Jet cars have ever been seen together.

So, if you want to be able to lower the roof on your V12 Vanquish, you have two options, try to persuade Zagato to build you one of their open top V12 Vanquishes, or contact NCE and let them work on your car.

NCE have also shown renderings of the convertible Rapide S although so far as is known, no car gas so far been converted.

The Ford Motor Company, owners of AML came to a special agreement with EON productions and MGM whereby no money apparently has changed hands. Ford provided the cars (seven V12 Vanquishes for 007, Jaguar XK8’s for the villain and Ford Thunderbirds for the female lead, Jinx, played by Halle Berry plus assorted other Jaguars and Land Rovers) . In addition to having their cars on screen, Ford agreed to provide advertising support for the film which was released on the 20th November 2002.

Now 7 V12 Vanquishes are a large number of motor cars but there was a good reason for this. Four pre-production cars were especially re-constructed to provide the special effects, leaving three more standard production (or ‘hero’) cars for use for close ups and interior shots. These were identical production cars (with sequential chassis numbers 500172, 500173 and 500174) were finished in Tungsten Silver with charcoal leather interior together with a brushed aluminium centre console. These cars were not fitted with any special modifications what-so-ever.

The four special effects cars needed to be fitted with a four wheel drive system for the action sequences shot on a frozen lake in Iceland. The Vanquish bodyshells were fitted with 300 bhp Ford Boss 302 V8’s mounted as far back in the chassis as possible. This allowed sufficient room for the fitting of a front differential and drive shafts from the Ford Explorer, plus space for weaponry behind the grille. The 120 mph Aston/Ford performance 4WD hybrids were also fitted with roll cages for safety reasons – good job really as two were destroyed during filming. Since the frozen lake was only just thick enough to drive on following a ‘warm’ winter, concealed flotation devices were also fitted in case the ice gave way under the cars. One special effects car was damaged beyond repair in Iceland when it lost control and hit an iceberg trapped in the ice, the second after it was filmed sliding along on it’s roof. I believe that the two remaining special effect Vanquishes are still owned by Aston Martin and are displayed on rare occasions. On display during the opening of the Gaydon factory in 2003 was one of the (unidentified) survivors, which does not appear to have the missiles hidden in the grille and only has the machine guns placed on the bonnet. The second car, preproduction Vanquish PP13 has 4 front firing grille missiles, machine guns that can be raised or lowered through the bonnet and a full roll cage. One interesting feature of the 4WD Vanquish was the automatic gearbox that allowed for 120mph in both forward and reverse.

Following filming, one of the special effects cars was shown at the 2002 British Motor Show together with the Jaguar and Thunderbird. The hero cars were also put to work on film and product promotion. Below is illustrated one of those cars on display in Harrods shop window. The AML/Bonhams auction in May 2003 saw a unique opportunity to acquire one of the three ‘hero’ cars from the film. Chassis 500172 was offered for sale in ‘as new’ condition with minimal mileage and full provenance from EON (007 film producers) and AML. After strong bidding, the hammer fell at £190,000. Unbelievable that at the AML/Bonham’s auction just a year later, a second ‘hero’ car, chassis number 500173 was put up for sale. Here is 500173 displayed at Works Service reception complete with dummy machine guns. When the hammer fell, the price was just £144,500 for this ‘as new’ Vanquish with 007 provenance. When viewed against chassis 500172, it appeared very good value indeed.

Not so clearly visible, but of great importance were the new anti-lock ventilated and grooved Brembo discs – 355mm (front) and 330mm (rear) – with uprated competition-derived Pagid brake pads. These were balanced with Electronic Brake force Distribution (EBD) is used to re-balance front and rear braking forces under different loads.

The 2004MY V12 Vanquish was the last example of the regular car until the uprated V12 Vanquish S was introduced at the 2004 Paris Motor Show.

Project Vantage featured a new 6.0 litre V12 engine with a claimed output of 450 bhp, initially proposed for installation into the 1993 Lagonda Vignale and Ford Indigo prototypes. In addition, the gear box was an F1 derived paddle shift system – what would become another Aston Martin first. It was built on an aluminium tub and was clothed in composite panels, not aluminium as would have been expected.

Performance estimates were perhaps a little optimistic with a projected 200mph top speed and 60mph coming up in 4 seconds, performance only seen eventually in the V12 Vanquish S of 2003. Penned by the Scot, Ian Callum, the car is strongly influenced by the DB7 (also the work of Callum) and also the DB4GT Zagato. Indeed, when I first saw pictures, I thought that it was the Vantage derivative of the DB7 which actually appeared a year later.

Following display on the concept lawn at Pebble Beach in August 1988, there were only two British public appearances of Project Vantage was during 1998, at the Hurlingham Club and at the AMOC race meeting at Donnington Park during October. At Donington, the car was enclosed within a tight rope cordon, so clear photography was difficult. Fortunately the car was displayed in the AM Works Service Reception during Autumn 2003 in the company of a V12 Vanquish which allows for direct comparison. Remarkably, the Project Vantage was a true glimpse into the future as the V12 Vanquish remained faithful to the concept. It remained the property of the factory and was rarely seen, the exception being the 2014 UK Vanquish day at AM Works, Newport Pagnell.

Aston Martin Project Vantage at the 2016 Bonhams Works auction

This very special piece of Aston Martin heritage was finally sold off by AML by Bonham’s auctioneers during the annual Aston Martin Sale at Works, Newport Pagnell in May 2016. The car had deteriorated to an extent during extended storage and was only operable so far as to be able to manoeuvre at low speed. One hopes the new owner will be able to bring the car back to its former glory.

The car has been designed by Francesco Boniolo by his design house of the same name. His design has been both influenced by the coke bottle shape of the DBS and also to British WW2 fighter aircraft such as the Spitfire and Hurricane.

The coachwork has been finished in traditional British Racing Green and the interior covered in lobster-coloured leather interior by Pineider and bamboo wood finishing on doors and dash. The roof, just like the concept Rapide, is of full length ‘Isolite’ glass which can be turned opaque at the touch of a button.

If you have an interest in unique coachbuilt cars, the best website to visit is coachbuild.com.

Many thanks to Quality Cars for use of these photographs.

I took these photographs on days when the staff car parks were open for visitors to the annual Bonham’s auctions – I don’t want anyone to think I was trespassing without permission or anything. Gradually over the years, the bramble bushes and weeds enveloped the cars until they were almost submerged in the undergrowth. As the site of the factory changed hands in the Autumn of 2007, I’m quite sure that all these cars were quickly removed and destroyed.

There are some very interesting details on these pictures that are of note. The interior shot shows the original centre console with the Ford Ka air vents. This was one item that was changed before production shortly after Dr Bez joined AM. Also the round rear lights (Ford Cougar?) were dropped. I believe (but I don’t know as a fact) that the original idea was to have these covered by smoked covering, as seen on Project Vantage, but once tried out, the light output was below what was legally acceptable.

Very early AMVO3 Vanquish was spotted my myself at the back of the Newport Pagnell factory about 2001. This Lincoln LS looking mule was also spotted in 1999 by Autocar magazine, around Hethel in Norfolk. This happens to be close to Lotus cars who helped develop the Vanquish tub. Noted by Autocar was the familiar rumble of a V8, not a V12. There were of course no V8 Vanquish.

One small note is that even in 2013, Google Earth still shows a view of Newport Pagnell with the factory complete, although with no workers cars in the car park, so assume that the picture was taken on a Saturday or Sunday. The eleven crash-tested yellow Vanquishes are clearly visible from space.

The Lagonda Vignale was commissioned by AML (already fully owned by Ford at the time) from Ghia Design (also part of the Ford family) to be shown at the 1993 Geneva Salon. The exterior design was by Moray Callum – an interesting co-incidence as the Geneva Salon 1993 was the first appearance of the DB7, the work of Moray’s brother, Ian. This somewhat large car was built on a Lincoln Town Car chassis with Lincoln independent front and solid self levelling rear suspension and was powered by a 4.6 litre V8 producing 190bhp and  260 lb/ft of torque. The reality of the concept is that physically, it had no recognisable AML parts at all. But, had this fabulous car made production (and many thought that it would), the chassis would have become an extruded aluminium affair, the suspension was to be fully independent and the engine would have been a 6.0 litre V12. Whilst these features never made it into a production Vignale – they are exactly the same as found in the the Lagonda Taraf more than 20 years later.

The Vignale name relates to the Italian coachbuilding firm of Carrozzeria Alfredo Vignale which was acquired by Ford in 1973 along with the Carrozzeria Ghia from de Tomaso..

I still to this day don’t know why this incredible automobile didn’t make production. It’s retro yet radical styling looks as fresh today as it did way back in 1993.

It is believed that two Vignales were built by Ghia. The blue car shown below, was sold at the famous auction of Ford prototypes in Dearborn in June 2002 for what was considered the  massive sum of $403,500 (including buyers premium), many times above the estimate of $60,000 to $120,000. I believe the other car whilst a running vehicle, was not fully engineered and it was subsequently destroyed.

All photographs on this page are copyright Aston Martin Lagonda

DP2138 was based on a platform from within the Ford empire and powered by a V12, for arguments sake, let’s say Jaguar XJ12. But the coachwork and interior was solely the work of the Newport Pagnell factory – no-one else in the world at the time could have produced such a fine automobile. Apart from the styling, this car in fact has mechanically little in common with the 1993 concept.

Once it was decided that the project was not going to progress any further,  the Service Department did some work for the new owner, a collector in the Far East, prior to it being delivered.

What stopped this fabulous project? A focus within AML on the DB7 perhaps or the fact that the Lagonda marque was so little known outside of the UK. Whatever, I still think it’s even better looking than the DB9 based Rapide and represents, at least to me as the right car at the wrong time. It is certainly regarded as one of the best things ever made at Newport Pagnell and a missed opportunity.

These photographs, unseen and unpublished for many years have been provided with the kind assistance of a friend of mine at AML.

All photographs are copyright Aston Martin Lagonda