Let’s all stare at the first Aston Martin Vanquish

Nobody else can really get away with calling a V12-engined supercar ‘Vanquish’, right? Aston Martin can. And did. Back in 2001 when it launched the very first Vanquish supercar; a follow-up to the Project Vantage from before the turn of the 21st century.

Look at it. Look at it. Designed by Ian Callum, this was Aston’s pinnacle; a car immortalised by That Bond Film That Shall Never Be Named, and packing an unholy 5.9-litre V12 that sounded like an earthquake. You could hear these things for miles.

We could take this opportunity to remind you it sat on a carbon fibre and aluminium platform, featured ‘superformed’ panels for that delightful shape and came only with a six-speed paddle-shift gearbox.

We could also take this opportunity to remind you what it was like to drive. TG’s Ollie Marriage remembers: “What I chiefly recall is that the brakes weren’t up to much and that aggressive use of the sequential manual gearbox caused neckache. It wasn’t the smoothest or most sophisticated system, even back in 2002.

"But you didn’t mind about that because you could leave the gearbox in third and use the 5.9-litre V12 to strut its stuff. Great noise and response, good flexibility, and 460bhp was enough to tax the chassis. It gripped well, a little light at the front end, but confidence boosted by lovely steering.”

Mostly, we wanted to remind you that as a brand new Vanquish is being prepared, this one still rings many fine bells and therefore please take some time and stare at these pictures of the original Vanquish.

Good profile, no?