The UK’s royal jubilee bank holiday has thrown up a surprise scoop: Aston Martin will revive the Vanquish name for its new V12 supercar to replace the DBS.
This carelessly left-open transporter in the Midlands spilled a big secret: the Aston Martin Vanquish is back.
Aston Martin Vanquish Mk2: back for 2012
The Vanquish was arguably the first major-league hit of the modern Aston era and sold from 2001-2007. Conceived under the leadership of Ulrich Bez, appointed CEO in 2000 and still at the helm today, it pioneered the design style and technical hardware which have gone on to underpin the entire current Aston range.
Now it’s back for 2012. CAR has already scooped the new Vanquish Mk2 twice and the AM310 design concept was shown at last weekend’s Villa d’Este concours d’elegance. We now know that car was a barely disguised look at the new DBS successor.
The new Aston Vanquish (2012) has a nice rump!
It does, doesn’t it? This is our first look at a totally undisguised Vanquish rear end and we can see that the second-gen V12 GT has a very different back from the current crop of Astons.
There’s an elegant integrated rear spoiler, looping neatly into the rear deck with the smoothness of the wings on the Lotus Evora/Porsche Boxster. A pair of blunderbuss exhausts straddle a large diffuser panel, designed for maximum aero efficiency and air-cleaving.
And – of course – there’s the Vanquish badge, sitting to the right of the bewinged Aston emblem. It certainly caught us by surprise – and you can see more of the Vanquish in our snatched cameraphone spy video below.
Shades of One-77 too…
Oh yes. The boomerang-shaped rear lamps are very distinctive and are clearly inspired by the One-77 hypercar, the £1.2m rarity of which only 77 were produced.
It’s clear that Aston’s Veyron has a wider purpose and will inspire future generations of Aston Martin sports car.
Expect to see the new V12 Aston Martin Vanquish Mk2 formally unveiled in summer 2012.
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