ASTON MARTIN V12 Vanquish
Model Aston Martin V12 Vanquish
Engine 5935cc V12 (60°), dohc, 48v
Max power 343kW @ 6500rpm
Max torque 542Nm @ 5000rpm
Transmission 6-speed robotised manual
Weight 1835kg
0-100km/h 4.7sec (claimed)
Economy 15.0L/100km
Price $150,000 (value today)
OF COURSE, it was the DB7 that changed everything. We all know that. It was the car that reimagined Aston Martin’s design language, ‘the most beautiful car in the world’ hauling the company out of its 1970s mindset with some verve. What came next was arguably a bigger step for the business, though.
The underpinnings of the 1994 DB7 could still trace a bloodline to the Jaguar XJS, and was in fact a modified version of the car that TWR designed to replace the XJS, dubbed Project XX. This was canned due to federalisation issues – with Jaguar baulking at designer Ian Callum’s bill – so Project XX went back under cover at Bloxham only to re-emerge as the Callum-refreshed DB7. This was a project Aston has acquired on the cheap (the development budget was around £30m) but in relying on borrowed steel it wasn’t a viable long-term
