The End of the Hand Crafted Aston Martin Vanquish
In 2001 the Aston Martin Vanquish was the anchor of the fleet. These beautifully hand constructed automobiles were considered the premiere touring car. This car was the last one produced at Newport Pagnell after forty nine years of manufacturing. The Aston Martins will no longer be built by hand. The Vanquishs luxurious interior and aluminium body was assembled in approximately forty eight days.
The Vanquish was powered by a 5.9 litre V12 engine that produced 460 bhp, however initially this engine was criticised for just being two 3 litre Ford Duratec engines joined together. Aston was soon quick to dismiss this speculation by pointing out that although the engine did borrow some design aspects and parts from the Ford Duratec it was in essence a completely new design.
Problems did plague the first versions of the Vanquish. The primary concerns were of the paddle shift manual gearbox and the handling of the vehicle. There was a comparison to the gearbox on the Ferrari which was extremely flawless when shifting. The performance of the Vanquish under original conditions was fine, but when the car was pushed hard the gearbox failed.
Aston Martin didn't work on the gearbox problem until the Ultimate Edition Vanquish that was produced in 2007. There were a total of forty cars in this line that finally resolved the paddle shift manual gearbox issue. In fact the company was so pleased with the new conventional manual stick shift gearbox they were willing to install them into previous Vanquish models.
Despite its problems there was no mistaking the Vanquish's huge road presence. At the front there was the trademark Aston Martin front grill, projector style xenon lights and a long and flowing bonnet. Whilst at the sides there were the traditional side strakes and bulging wheel arches which seemed to give the car a more aggressive and forceful stance.
The Vanquish S of 2005 was another effort to reduce disapproval. The S series has 520 horse power. It can reach 240 miles per hour, and go from a resting state to 60mph in 4.7 seconds.
The S series has a "Sports Dynamic Pack" on all models, rather than an extra component. The pack is designed to increase performance of steering, braking, and manoeuvrability.
The latest model from Aston Martin is the DBS. The DBS is based on the DB9, which differs from the Vanquish series. In 2010 a new DBS model will be released. The factory production will occur in Gayden located near Warwickshire. These new releases are not going to be designed by hand. Instead the vehicles will be factory created to ensure no flaws exist.
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