Aston Martin will abandon its Vanquish mid-engine sports car project

It was expected that this new product, which was based on the concept shown in 2019, would compete with the Ferrari 296 GTB.

The British brand Aston Martin began producing the Vanquish sports car in 2001, the first generation remained on the market until 2007. The second generation model appeared in 2012 and lived until 2018 — the farewell version of the Vanquish S Ultimate became known in November 2017. The fact that the company intends to develop a third-generation sports car was hinted at by the Vanquish Vision concept, shown at the Geneva Motor Show in the spring of 2019.

Aston Martin Vanquish Vision Concept

It was assumed that the production new Vanquish would receive a new 3.0-liter V6 engine, which was given the name TM01 (Kolesa.ru talked about it in more detail in 2020). The declared weight of this biturbo engine does not exceed 200 kg. According to preliminary data, the engine should be part of a hybrid power plant, which was planned to equip the serial sports car Valhalla — its total system output was expected to be 1000 hp. It was assumed that such a hybrid coupe would take 2.5 seconds to accelerate from zero to 100 km/h, and the top speed would exceed 350 km/h. It is known that road tests of a prototype of this model will begin before the end of this year.

In March 2022, information appeared that Aston Martin intends to replace the 3.0-liter twin-turbo engine of its own design with a 4.0-liter V8 from AMG (in order to save money spent on the development and production of the model). Since then, there has been no official information about the third generation Vanquish.

Apparently, the future of the Vanquish is now in question: as Car and Driver reports, citing an unnamed Aston Martin representative, the project to develop a flagship supercar has been scrapped. At the same time, Motor1 notes that we are talking specifically about a version of the model with a mid-engine layout, but this does not mean that the British manufacturer has “buried” the development of the third generation Vanquish as a whole.

It is possible that the new flagship will be front-engine and will lead the line, which will include the updated Vantage, which is preparing for its premiere, and the new DBS, which, presumably, may have a V12 engine. Let's remember that Alex Long, head of product and marketing strategy, recently hinted at this: according to him, this engine is “synonymous” with Aston Martin.

Aston Martin noted back in the spring of this year that for now the company is focused on short-term plans, then an example was given of the DB12 project: this sports car debuted at the end of May. By the way, the two-door was equipped with a 4.0-liter AMG V8 biturbo engine, its output is 680 hp and the maximum torque is 800 Nm. The DB12 reaches the first “hundred” in 3.6 seconds, and its top speed is 325 km/h.

Aston Martin also has to keep up with the times, despite its commitment to the internal combustion engine. As part of the widespread “greening”, the brand is preparing to release its first electric car: the debut is scheduled for 2025. Last month it became known that its role would be played by a crossover with components from Lucid and Mercedes-Benz.