The
Aston Martin Vanquish is a
grand tourerA grand tourer is a high-performance luxury automobile designed for long-distance driving. The most common format is a two-door coupé with either a two-seat or a 2+2 arrangement....
, designed by
Ian CallumIan Callum is a British car designer who currently serves as Design Director for Jaguar and is older brother to fellow car designer Moray Callum. He is married, has two sons and currently resides in Oxfordshire, England.-Background:...
and manufactured by
Aston MartinAston Martin Lagonda Limited is a British manufacturer of luxury sports cars, based in Gaydon, Warwickshire. The company name is derived from the name of one of the company's founders, Lionel Martin, and from the Aston Hill speed hillclimb near Aston Clinton in BuckinghamshireFrom 1994 until 2007...
. From its 2001 introduction to its cancellation, it was Aston Martin's flagship vehicle. Its rise to recognition by the wider public came after being featured as the official
James BondJames Bond 007 is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. The character has also been used in the longest running and most financially successful English language film franchise to date, starting in 1962 with Dr...
car in the film
Die Another DayDie Another Day is the twentieth spy film in the James Bond series, and the fourth and last to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. In the pre-title sequence, Bond leads a mission to North Korea, during which he is found out and, after killing a rogue North Korean colonel, he...
. It was discontinued in 2007. The
Aston Martin DBS V12The modern Aston Martin DBS is a high performance sports car from the UK manufacturer Aston Martin. Aston has used the DBS name once before on their 1967-72 grand tourer coupe...
will temporarily replace it atop Aston's lineup pending the 2010 introduction of a replacement.
The Vanquish was developed in the wake of a GT
concept carA concept vehicle or show vehicle is a car prototype made to showcase a concept, new styling, technology and more. They are often shown at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or may not have a chance of being produced.General Motors designer Harley Earl is...
, the
Project Vantage concept car, which debuted with a V-12 engine at the
North American International Auto ShowThe North American International Auto Show , is an annual auto show held in Detroit, Michigan at Cobo Center. It is among the largest auto shows in North America.-History:...
in January 1998.
The
Aston Martin Vanquish is a
grand tourerA grand tourer is a high-performance luxury automobile designed for long-distance driving. The most common format is a two-door coupé with either a two-seat or a 2+2 arrangement....
, designed by
Ian CallumIan Callum is a British car designer who currently serves as Design Director for Jaguar and is older brother to fellow car designer Moray Callum. He is married, has two sons and currently resides in Oxfordshire, England.-Background:...
and manufactured by
Aston MartinAston Martin Lagonda Limited is a British manufacturer of luxury sports cars, based in Gaydon, Warwickshire. The company name is derived from the name of one of the company's founders, Lionel Martin, and from the Aston Hill speed hillclimb near Aston Clinton in BuckinghamshireFrom 1994 until 2007...
. From its 2001 introduction to its cancellation, it was Aston Martin's flagship vehicle. Its rise to recognition by the wider public came after being featured as the official
James BondJames Bond 007 is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. The character has also been used in the longest running and most financially successful English language film franchise to date, starting in 1962 with Dr...
car in the film
Die Another DayDie Another Day is the twentieth spy film in the James Bond series, and the fourth and last to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. In the pre-title sequence, Bond leads a mission to North Korea, during which he is found out and, after killing a rogue North Korean colonel, he...
. It was discontinued in 2007. The
Aston Martin DBS V12The modern Aston Martin DBS is a high performance sports car from the UK manufacturer Aston Martin. Aston has used the DBS name once before on their 1967-72 grand tourer coupe...
will temporarily replace it atop Aston's lineup pending the 2010 introduction of a replacement.
History
The Vanquish was developed in the wake of a GT
concept carA concept vehicle or show vehicle is a car prototype made to showcase a concept, new styling, technology and more. They are often shown at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or may not have a chance of being produced.General Motors designer Harley Earl is...
, the
Project Vantage concept car, which debuted with a V-12 engine at the
North American International Auto ShowThe North American International Auto Show , is an annual auto show held in Detroit, Michigan at Cobo Center. It is among the largest auto shows in North America.-History:...
in January 1998. The production model was unveiled in 2000, and series production began in 2001 (the car arrived in the United States as a 2002 model).
The car was largely unchanged until 2005, when the
Vanquish S model debuted at the 2004 Paris Auto Show , with more power, slight styling revisions, and new wheels. It also incorporated the features of a 2004 option package, the Sports Dynamic Pack, which incorporated sportier suspension, steering, and brake features.
http://www.astonmartins.com/vanquish/vanquish_s.htm This model was sold for the 2005 (alongside the base Vanquish) and 2006 (as a stand-alone) model years in the United States with only minor running changes; it was not sold in the States for 2007.
The end of the Vanquish's production run was celebrated with the
Vanquish Ultimate Edition. Aston Martin announced that the last 40 cars built would have a new 'Ultimate Black’ exterior colour, upgraded interior, and personalized sill plaques. More significantly, the Ultimate Edition was the first Vanquish to be offered with a conventional stick-shift
manual transmissionA manual transmission, or manual gearbox is a type of transmission used in motor vehicle applications...
. The auto-shift manual gearbox in the original Vanquish has been widely criticized (perhaps most infamously by
Jeremy ClarksonJeremy Charles Robert Clarkson is an English broadcaster and journalist who specialises in motoring. He is best known for his role on the BBC TV show Top Gear along with co-presenters Richard Hammond and James May...
on the
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation, usually referred to by its abbreviation as the "BBC", is the longest established and largest broadcaster in the world...
's
Top GearTop Gear is a BBC television series about motor vehicles, primarily cars. It began in 1977 as a conventional motoring magazine show. Over time, and especially since a relaunch in 2002, it has developed a quirky, humorous style. The show is currently presented by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond...
program), so this change was greeted with approval by the automotive press. Aston Martin offered to retrofit the new gearbox to any Vanquish, for a cost of £13,250.
Aston Martin was frequently rumoured to be considering a
roadsterA roadster, also known as a spyder or spider, is a two-seat car, traditionally without either a roof, side or rear windows.Most modern day two-seaters have windows and feature retractable roofs...
version of the Vanquish, especially in response to the
FerrariFerrari S.p.A. is an Italian sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1928 as Scuderia Ferrari, the company sponsored drivers and manufactured race cars before moving into production of street-legal vehicles in 1947 as Ferrari S.p.A....
550 Barchetta Pininfarina, but no such version ever emerged. The Vanquish was the basis of two concept cars, both shown at the International Geneva Motor Show in 2004, the
ZagatoZagato is a design consultancy and engineering services company situated just outside Milan, Italy.The company's premises occupy an area of 23,000 square metres, of which 11,000 square metres are covered....
Roadster (a 2-seat roadster) and the
BertoneGruppo Bertone is an Italian automobile company, which has specialized in car styling, coachbuilding and manufacturing. Bertone styling is distinctive, with most cars having a strong "family resemblance" even if badged by different manufacturers...
Jet 2 (a 2-door shooting brake).
Vanquish production ended on 19 July 2007, coinciding with the shutting of the company's
Newport PagnellNewport Pagnell is a town in the Borough of Milton Keynes , England. It is separated by the M1 motorway from Milton Keynes itself, though part of the same urban area...
factory after 49 years of operation. The last car was a Vanquish S Ultimate Edition in black.
In April, 2008, its appearance in the 2002 film
Die Another Day earned the Vanquish the number 3 spot on the list of Best Film Cars Ever, behind the
MiniThe Mini is a small car that was produced by the British Motor Corporation and its successors from 1959 until 2000. The original is considered an icon of the 1960s, and its space-saving front-wheel-drive layout influenced a generation of car-makers...
s from
The Italian Job, and
KITTKITT is the short name of two fictional characters from the adventure TV series Knight Rider. While having the same acronym, both KITTs are two different entities: one known as the Knight Industries Two Thousand, which appeared in the original TV series Knight Rider, and the other as the Knight...
from
Knight Rider.
Engineering
The Vanquish is powered by a 5.9
LThe litre or liter is a unit of volume. There are two official symbols: the Latin letter L in lower and upper case . The lower case L is also often written as a cursive ℓ, though this symbol has no official approval by any international bureau...
(5935 cc) 48-valve 60°
V12A V12 engine is a V engine with 12 cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of six cylinders, usually at a 60° angle to each other, but in some cases at a wider or narrower angle, with all 12 pistons driving a common crankshaft....
engine, which produces 343
kWThe watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units . It measures rate of energy conversion. One watt is equivalent to 1 joule of energy per second....
(460 hp) and 542
N·mNewton metre is a unit of torque in the SI system. Less commonly, it is used as a unit of energy, in which case it is synonymous with the more common and standard SI unit of energy, the joule. The symbolic form is N m or N·m, and sometimes hyphenated newton-metre...
(400
ft·lbfTorque, also called moment or moment of force , is the tendency of a force to rotate an object about an axis, fulcrum, or pivot. Just as a force is a push or a pull, a torque can be thought of as a twist....
) of
torqueTorque, also called moment or moment of force , is the tendency of a force to rotate an object about an axis, fulcrum, or pivot. Just as a force is a push or a pull, a torque can be thought of as a twist....
. It is controlled by a drive-by-wire throttle and a 6 speed clutchless
sequential manual transmissionElectrohydraulic manual transmission is a type of semi-automatic transmission/clutchless manual gear system, which operates the clutch automatically unlike that of a conventional manual transmission. To change gears, the driver selects the desired gear, and the system automatically operates the...
. The
Vanquish S upped the power to 388 kW (520 hp) and 577 N·m (426 ft·lbf). The V12 engine in the Vanquish was designed at Ford Research in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
CosworthCosworth is an automotive engineering company founded in London in 1958, specialising in engines for automobile racing . It supplies a wide range of motorsport series, including the World Rally Championship, World Superbikes and, as of 2010, Formula One...
Technologies was originally contracted to manufacture the tires, but had no involvement with the seats. Previous articles which correctly recount this engine's development have appeared in
Automotive Industries magazine. This car also features a 6 litre engine.
The Vanquish's V12 engine shares some components and design elements with the 3.0 L Duratec 30 V6. It even shares the same bore and stroke dimensions. For this reason, many people incorrectly dismiss the Aston Martin V12 as merely "two Duratecs linked together." It is correct that the AM V12 shares components with the 'Duratec' engine design.
The standard Vanquish model had 355 mm (14 in) drilled and ventilated
disc brakeThe disc brake or disk brake is a device for slowing or stopping the rotation of a wheel. A brake disc , usually made of cast iron or ceramic composites , is connected to the wheel and/or the axle...
s with ABS, with electronic brake distribution, while the Vanquish S featured larger 378 mm (15 in) front and 330 mm (13 in) rear rotors. It featured 19-inch wheels.
As part of its improvements, the Vanquish S featured a slightly improved coefficient of drag of 0.32. Its front and rear track were 1524 mm (60 in) and 1529 mm (60 in), respectively.
Performance
| Model |
Power |
Torque |
0-100 km/h
(0-62 mph) |
Top Speed |
| Vanquish |
|
| 4.4 secs |
|
| Vanquish S |
|
| 4.0 secs |
|
External links