Aston Martin Celebrates 20 Years Of The V12 Vanquish

Back when it came out, the Aston Martin V12 Vanquish was the most advanced car the British automaker had made to date. Now, 20 years later, they are celebrating their accomplishment with a look back on the car’s history.

The original V12 Vanquish was revealed to the world at the 2001 Geneva Motor Show, arriving with innovative construction, a 6.0-liter V12 engine, and an F1-inspired paddle shift gearbox. But before it made its official debut, the car began life as a concept called “Project Vantage” back in the ’90s. With 460 hp (466 PS / 343 kW) on tap, while hard to believe today, it was being benchmarked against supercars at the time.

Paul Spires, President of Aston Martin Works, said: “The original V12 Vanquish represented an important and timely development for our marque. It was, and is, a great super GT with all the character, style and power that is rightly expected of an Aston Martin sports car.

“20 years on from that debut, the V12 Vanquish remains a proud part of the marque’s heritage which we celebrate here at Newport Pagnell. It is an exceptional piece of our history, and a car that we can rightly look back on with considerable pride.”

As the years passed, the V12 Vanquish was followed up by the V12 Vanquish S, an even higher-performance version of the car that was Aston’s fastest production vehicle yet. The V12 Vanquish line eventually continued all the way up until 2018, marking the end of a special car from an already special brand.

Spires added: “Here at Newport we rightly celebrate the heritage of this great British sports car marque, with particular emphasis on icons such as the DB5 which were almost all built in this seemingly sometimes sleepy corner of Buckinghamshire.

“However, to also be able to lay claim to a ‘modern classic’ such as the original V12 Vanquish is a great honor for us, and I’m sure that in time people will come to view these cars with the same reverence that is afforded to the early DB cars.”