For the small portion of V12 Vanquish still uncomfortable with the factory fitted system, the auto shifter can be removed and replaced with a normal gear stick and clutch pedal. The conversion by Aston Martin Works is extremely neat with the gear lever from the V8 Vantage,  appearing from what was formally the cup holder. Later 2006MY S’ cars with the DB9 type centre console are a little more complicated to convert. Firstly the aperture for the gear stick need to be created as the later cars have an ash tray instead of a cup holder. Also the panel in the centre console has to be recessed back to allow full movement of the gear lever. Finally the redundant paddles are removed and the steering wheel cowl is recovered to hide the holes.

The ‘slick-shift’ was never offered as an option on new cars during initial building but was available retro-fitted after the cars had been registered for the road (in the same way as with the V600 Vantage models of the late 1990’s). Prices for a conventional stick-shift transmission commenced in August 2006 was listed as from £13,250 (+ VAT). By the middle of 2013, Works had carried out over 90 conversions to V12 Vanquish and V12 Vanquish S cars both at the Works and at selected dealers overseas.

* The recommended way to drive a paddle-shift V12 Vanquish in traffic is to leave a gap and not drift along as you would in a conventional automatic car.

AMWS R7 001

Below is chassis 001, finished in classic Aston Martin Racing Green. It was offered for sale in the 2015 Aston Martin Bonhams Works auction in stripped out form, but despite the neat racing roundels, not quite ready for the track.

AMWS R7 003

Marsh Plant purchased a pair of DP cars, 002 & 003. Below Shows 003, offered for sale at the 2015 Aston Martin Bonhams Works auction. As can be clearly seen, the body shell is far from complete but is fitted with a prototype V12 engine with V12 Vanquish S inlet manifolds. The body shell has been developed by Ray Mallock Ltd (RML) and has been fitted with a complete roll cage.

AMWS R7 002

Chassis 002 was also purchased in 2004 by Marsh Plant and is the most developed of all the DB7 Vantage race cars. Like 003, it has been substantially re-enginerred for the track by RML and has a substantial roll cage fitted. The car has a race spec engine by Aston Engineering of Derby developed to produce 600 bhp, mated to a Hewland sequential gearbox. Downforce is generated with a substantial front splitter and a rear wing from a DBRS9. The lightweight body panels have been made in Carbon Kevlar Hybrid or even lighter full Kevlar composite material. This car, which has yet to be seen on the track in competition was also offered for sale at the 2015 Aston Martin Bonhams Works auction.

A pair of DB7 i6 race cars have also been constructed from factory ex-prototypes.

Principle changes over the standard car were to the chassis/suspension and brakes. The front upright and wheel assembly were made stronger and stiffer with shorter springs (reducing the ride height by 5mm) and revised dampers. Also the steering was made more highly geared to make it 20% quicker than previously. The front brake discs were increased to 378mm in diameter (up from 355), together with six pot calliper to replace the four pot items. The rear disc diameter remained unchanged at 330mm, although 2mm thicker than on the standard car.

Best way to identify the Sport Dynamic variant from the standard car are the lightweight 9 slim spoke wheels (30% lighter than the 12 spoke – best wheels ever seen on a V12 Vanquish) and new brake discs with an elliptical groove pattern. Below you can find pictures of the standard brakes and SDP version as well as the thicker front uprights.

The Sports Dynamic Pack V12 Vanquish was only available for a few months before the similar but more powerful V12 Vanquish S replaced it in September 2004. It has been claimed by AML that only 94 examples were made making it one of the rarest models in the V12 Vanquish range.

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.