What's the news?
The Aston Martin Works department, based in the UK's Buckinghamshire town of Newport Pagnell, is celebrating its diamond jubilee next year and to mark the occasion it has commissioned six special Vanquish models. The first of the six was revealed today (12 December, 2014) at its Christmas party.
Exterior
Each of the six Vanquishes will be bespoke (and while the first is an open-topped Volante, others will be Coupés), but they share some themes to mark them out as Works 60th Anniversary models. Such as Anniversary Yellow for the side strakes and alloy wheels, and the Aston Martin Works 60th Anniversary logo - this is also etched into the sill plates. The first car is finished in white, but other colours will be used on the remaining five vehicles.
Interior
There's a key detail inside and that's the rotary dials on the dashboard. No, bear with us; we've not gone stark raving mad. In a move designed to be emotive and link back to the 15,000 cars hand-built at the Newport Pagnell site between 1955 and 2007, the four dials on the centre console are made of metal recovered from the piston of an Aston Martin engine of the relevant period, in all cases sourced from a motor that has been rebuilt or re-worked at some point in its life. So, for 1955-1965, the metal comes from the piston of a DB2/4 MkII saloon; then for 1965-1975 (and so on for 10 years at a time), the metal will come from (respectively) a DB5, V8 Coupé, V8 Vantage X-pack, V8 Vantage supercharged and the original Vanquish. That's a nice touch.
Aside from the 'rotaries made from worked metal of a heritage model piston from the relevant era', the Works 60th Anniversary Vanquishes will feature white/black Duotone seat centre panels; the unique sill plaques mentioned above; bespoke colour and trim treatments, including contrast yellow stitching in the leather; and new heavy weave carbon fibre in the cabin.
Mechanicals
No change from the standard Vanquish's 576hp 6.0-litre V12 engine with a transaxle-mounted Touchtronic III eight-speed automatic gearbox, allowing the car to do 0-100km/h in 3.8 seconds and exceed 320km/h.
Anything else?
The Works 60th Anniversary models were developed in conjunction with the Gaydon-based design team and the marque's personalisation service, Q by Aston Martin. Prices for the six cars are available on application at Aston Martin Works in Newport Pagnell. Which we think means no one short of oil magnates need bother to ask.