The Mini John Cooprt works countyyman

The new Aston Martin Vanquish super GT is hitting the road in the UK this week as it embarks on an ambitious whistle-stop tour of the luxury brand’s 21 dealerships nationwide. The exceptional sports car, an impressive new halo for the Aston Martin range, left the brand’s global HQ at Gaydon in Warwickshire on Monday (10 September) bound for the recently redeveloped Aston Martin Works dealership in nearby Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire, and its first stop. Aston fans keen to catch a glimpse of the new £190,000 super GT actually on the road will have to wait a little longer, though, as the display car touring dealerships is travelling from city to city in a specially-created truck complete with exclusive Aston Martin Vanquish branding. The brief tour, which includes exclusive invitation-only customer preview events at Aston Martin dealerships around the country where guests have the chance to see the Vanquish close up, discuss its many technical and styling highlights and place an order for the new car, comes just ahead of the car’s global media launch which takes place within weeks. Visiting dealerships as far afield as Edinburgh to the north and Jersey in the south, the whirlwind tour takes place over just 26 days and will see the new super GT clock up thousands of miles on UK roads – in its bespoke chauffeured truck, of course. Those lucky enough to see the Vanquish during its tour will preview a new Aston Martin featuring the next generation of the renowned VH architecture as well as the new AM11 6.0-litre V12 engine that is considerably more potent than before. With 573 PS available at 6,750 rpm, 620 Nm of torque at 5,500 rpm, a 0-62 mph time of 4.1 seconds and a top speed of 183 mph the Vanquish is, clearly, a fully paid-up member of the supercar club. Yet as well as more power and performance, the Vanquish is also a practical grand tourer. Improvements such as a newly-designed and significantly more spacious cabin and a boot that, at 368 litres, is more than 60% larger than that of the DBS, see to that. Meanwhile the new car’s stunning design represents the latest take on Aston Martin’s iconic visual language. Vanquish unquestionably sees the brand continue its enviable tradition of producing some of the most beautiful sports cars in the world. Styling cues such as the elegant new waist, elongated side strakes and LED rear light blades are derived from the One-77 supercar. Mark Kenworthy is Aston Martin’s General Manager of Sales & Aftersales in the UK. He said: “The levels of interest in new Vanquish that we’ve been experiencing here in the UK as well as around the world – and even before a single customer has driven the car – have inspired this tour. “I’m sure those lucky enough to see the new car close up over the coming days will be thrilled by it, and I’m very happy that we’ve been able to give our UK dealers this opportunity.” Those who miss out on seeing the Vanquish at a dealer event as it tours the country can still get involved, though. Simply by tweeting an image of the truck using the hashtag ‘#vanquishtour’ they will receive a ‘follow’ from the official Aston Martin twitter account. Selected images and tour updates will then be featured on the Aston Martin website as the tour progresses – http://www.astonmartin.com/vanquishtour. Priced from £189,995 RRP first deliveries of the Vanquish will begin in the UK late in 2012. From motorin news