It has arrived, my Cobalt Blue V12 Vantage Roadster! That is, it has arrived at Kroymans, the local Aston Marton dealer. May I present to you, the most beautiful Aston Martin ever, Agent #002: (parked next to the 2nd most beautiful Aston in the world, my Fire Red V12 Vantage)
Yesterday, I reported about the colors of the first thirteen V12 Vantage Roadsters, which included one in the very nice Aston Color “Volcano Red”. Now the owner of this Volcano Red roadster, user “silverspeed” from the PistonHeads forum, also visited the factory, to see his car being created. And he kindly sent me his photos of the day, showing his car at the end of the production line. Wow, I think the V12 Roadster looks great in this color. Congrats, mr silverspeed!
Just some quick stats about the the V12 Vantage Roadster: Up until today, thirteen V12 Vantage Roadster customer cars have been produced. (not including the white, red and grey demo cars) These are the colors chosen by the first 13 lucky customers: 3 x Onyx Black 1 x Storm Black 1 x Jet Black 1 x Nero Black 1 x Hammerhead Silver 1 x Tungsten Silver 2 x Morning Frost White 1 x Volcano Red 1 x Elwood Blue 1 x Cobalt Blue (mine!) 88 to go 🙂
Have you already seen the new commercial for Sony’s Xperia T, the one they call “The Bond phone”? It features a black V12 Vantage (and its’s beautiful V12 sound).
Remember the unlikely story of the V8 Cygnet? Well, it gets even better, and even more unlikely. Autocar.co.uk reports that a V12 powered Cygnet could be possible. Their sources (who?) suggest that “a feasibility study has already been completed” and that it should be possible to fit the huge V12 engine in the tiny car. Very unlikely story if you ask me. Have you ever seen the engine bay of a Cygnet? No way a V12 engine is going to fit there. I mean, putting the 6 litre block into a Vantage was already a tight fit… Anyway, let’s hope some of it is true and that Aston Martin is indeed planning to put a more powerful engine into the Cygnet. And upgraded suspension. And improved brakes. And a better gearbox… Nah … I’ll just stick with the V12 Vantage…
Last week, my wife and I had the chance to witness the production of our new V12 Vantage Roadster, at the Aston Martin factory in Gaydon. But we missed the big moment, “The Marriage”, the joining of the engine and drive train with the body. However, the nice people in Gaydon kept an eye on the progress of my car and were able to make photos during The Marriage. Here’s the pics they created for me.
In June, I received news from my dealership that Aston Martin had finally decided that they would indeed make a V12 Vantage Roadster. It would be a limited run of only 101 units and they just started taking orders. With the V12 Roadster having been my ultimate, but sadly non-existant, dream car for about 3 years, it didn’t take me long to make my decision. In fact, within 15 minutes of receiving the news I had placed my order. Fast forward five months and the production of my topless V12 Vantage has started. And the best part: we got invited to watch it being created at the factory in Gaydon!
Next year, in 2013, Aston Martin will celebrate its’ 100 year anniversary. Last weekend, Dr. Ulrich Bez presented the special centenary logo (shown on the left) on his race car, during the Nürburgring-based VLN series. The logo was designed by by Director of Design Marek Reichman’s team and will be used for all celebration events next year.
I already included some pictures of the Power Beauty Soul Tour cars in my Aston Martin at Spa report, but I made many more photos of this beautiful threesome. Here’s a selection:
Remember GTSprit.com’s review of the V12 Vantage? At the time, I already spotted and reported that the specific car they got to review was a very rare Carbon Edition and in a rare color too: Flame Orange. Well, this very special V12 Vantage has come to the Netherlands (my home country) and is now for sale at my local Aston Martin dealer (Kroymans Hilversum). This week I had the privilege of seeing this car in person and I have to say: this may be the most beautiful and most complete V12 Vantage I have ever seen. But is it the perfect V12 Vantage?