A Very Special V12 Vantage
Discussion
I’ve noticed recently that the stories and process behind the purchase of a new Aston Martin, seem to interest quite a few of us here on the Aston Martin forum, so I thought I would join in and share with all of you, my journey acquiring my very own dream car.
My journey started in 2016 when I became a proud new father. Like all other fathers before me, it was the greatest day of my life, and I knew that everything was going to change. Frivolous vehicle purchases soon make way for nursery, clothing, holidays, higher education, and much more, so If I was ever going to get into another car I had to do something quick. I knew that things were changing in the car world that meant that the production of large displacement naturally aspirated manual gearbox cars would end soon. With the twin turbo V12 DB11 already out and talk of a turbocharged Vantage replacement in the not too distant future, I really needed to pull my finger out soon if I ever wanted to buy a brand new V12 Vantage S Manual and spec it to my personal tastes.
I began hearing rumours that AM might be releasing a final ‘run out’ series of the V12 Vantage S, so I decided that it would be a good time, if not too late already, to get in touch with my preferred dealership and see if I could put my name down along with a deposit to secure an allocation for this yet to be launched, run out edition V12 Vantage S. Thankfully It seemed I wasn’t too late, and my deposit was accepted, along with a commitment from the dealership that if AM were to release this car, I would get their first build allocation.
Over the months that followed, countless hours were spent on the internet pouring through hundreds of pictures of Aston Martins, and also on the online configurator building out what would be my perfect specification. This I narrowed down to V12 Roadster in either Scintilla or Skyfall Silver, with Lords Red and Obsidian Interior, Carbon Lightweight Seats, Highline Centre Console, Yellow Callipers, Silver Lightweight Wheels, Carbon Bonnet Louvres, and Black Rear Graphic (boot section between the two rear light lenses). I was now all set, and ready to spec my car as soon as what was to be the Vantage AMR, became available to spec on the system
Online configurator render of the spec in Scintilla Silver:
Online configurator render of the spec in Skyfall Silver:
As the months passed, we started to get drip fed information about the upcoming release of the run out car now known as Vantage AMR. This was very exciting, but was also when things started to get a little difficult
The great news was that the base spec was already pretty decent which included Carbon Fibre Bonnet Louvres, 700W Premium Audio, Lightweight Wheels, and Scintilla Silver available as one of the 5 schemes, however customers were to be locked into choosing from just one of those 5 interior and exterior schemes, meaning that I’d have to compromise on my choice of interior. This was a massive problem for me as Aston Martin had also just introduced a minimum spend of £12K +VAT for their Q services. This would stretch an already stretched out budget, so I decided to come up with a default specification, from one of the 5 available exterior and interior schemes whilst I mull over the option of going down the Q route. My default, and ultimately compromised spec was to be Scintilla with Ceramic Grey Stripe (Exterior Scheme 4), and interior Pure Black / Black Metallic with Vivid Red accents (Interior Scheme 3).
AMR Exterior Scheme 4 from product brochure:
AMR Interior Scheme 3 from product brochure:
After a few days and nights of feeling pretty disappointed that although I would be getting a new Vantage AMR, it wouldn’t actually be to my dream specification, I decided to have a rummage down the back of the sofa and find the £12K plus I would need to turn my dream into reality. This to me was now a must, as the opportunity to not only buy my dream car, but to be able to order it new and to my own personal specification was likely to be a one off opportunity, and there was no place for compromise! I swiftly got back in touch with my dealer to inform them of the plan to go down the Q route.
Having already had a couple of Gaydon era VH2 cars, I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted, and I also knew that working with Q would require a lot of back and forth tweaking the design such that attempting to do this via the dealership would likely introduce unnecessary complexity to the process. I decided to reach out to the factory and ask if it would be possible to work directly with Q on my car. Amazingly they obliged and a factory visit was duly arranged for my birthday
And what a birthday it was! Not only did we spend a good few hours working with Peter Coyle from Q on my dream car, but we were also introduced to Marek Reichman as he just so happened to be roaming the corridors. Clearly a very busy man, he still took the time out to have a chat about our car, and gave us an impromptu private tour of new vantage in the design studio, even managing to squeeze in a bit of lunch with us. What a great fella 
and what an epic birthday, adding to the memories already starting to build up for a car yet to be built.
A couple of weeks after our visit I received a surprise package in the mail from Gaydon. It was the rough Q design we worked on whilst at the factory, autographed by Mr Andy Palmer himself! This was another lovely touch to add to this already amazing experience. You will see from the rough Q design below, a lot was thought about and discussed.
As the months passed, countless emails were exchanged, and a further two factory visits made to discuss and look at various design options.
Finally, we were ready to sign off on the design. Design version 10!
Peter and the Q team no doubt collectively letting out a massive sigh of relief 
As you will see, the renders generated by the Q team really are excellent and really helped me visualise what the finished car would look like.
The only thing left to do now was wait for a build date to be allocated, and arrange for yet another factory visit, but this time to see my car being built, and a first glimpse
of some of the design features in the flesh.
Four months on, build date allocated and in-build factory tour booked for late February.
I decided it would be great to get Dad along for the in-build factory tour as he had never visited a car factory before, and this would be a great first experience for him to see not only Aston Martin’s amazing factory, but to see our very own car being built
We had a great morning at the factory, my father getting our tour guide Nick’s full attention, and me looking at the various pieces, trying to imagine what the car would eventually look like completed. Unfortunately this proved very challenging as the car had only just made it onto the line, and the car was little more than just a painted shell.
It was going to be a very long and anxious wait for the car to be delivered, and then seeing for the first time, how well or how poorly, the design choices would come together.
The heart of the beast
The waiting went on, and on, and on. Some components and parts supply issues, along with the car undergoing a full quality audit just added to the delays. Throughout the wait, the only thing that kept me somewhat sane was seeing pictures of the other fellow AMR owners receiving their wonderful cars.
It was now mid-may, and I finally received a call from my dealer with the good news. The car had arrived!
All that was now left was for the PDI to be done, and the car transported to Topaz for PPF. Thankfully this only added a week, as the dealership had been keeping an eye on the progress and keeping Topaz informed so that a slot would be waiting for us.
PPF has definitely moved on quite a bit since my first experience having the full front of my old DB9 done in VentureShield back in 2010. Back then the films suffered from significant orange peel effect, and after a couple of years of use started to turn yellow. It did do its job of keeping the paint beneath pristine, but it did start to look pretty tired, so I decided to take it off in favour of running the car without it. Not the best idea when you do lots of driving weekends away with like minded individuals. The front of the car very soon picked up loads of stone chips, and I knew that PPF was a requirement given my use of the car.
Some pictures of the car getting PPF applied at Topaz:
The Topaz guys standing back admiring their work?
The guys at Topaz did a brilliant job with the PPF
Another week of waiting, and the car was back at AM Sevenoaks PPF’d and ready for handover.
We decided to make a family day of it, starting with the handover, then a visit to Knole Park, Sevenoaks school, followed by some lunch before collecting the car and taking it for its first drive round the M25 back home. Probably the worst possible first drive, but having an 18 month old, that 1 hour drive in the car on my own was wonderful and a good opportunity to get acquainted with the various features and settings.
For the handover, I decided to hire a photographer as I knew that I would be so preoccupied and distracted that I wouldn’t have taken any pictures. It turned out to be an excellent idea, as the pictures taken were amazing
My first start of the new car. The V12 sounds EPIC!
How cool is this one?? The car transforming!
No idea who originally came up with this design, but it works, and I like it
Matching luggage
Home safe and looking absolutely stunning in the sunshine
To end this already unnecessarily long post, I’d like to say that being lucky enough to buy a new Aston Martin in itself is already a very special experience, but being able to then work with Q to tailor the car to your exact taste or specification takes the car experience to a whole new level. This is was both my first experience buying a new Aston Martin, and also my first experience going down the Q route. I would definitely recommend the Q service
And now a final note to thank, in no particular order, David and the team at AM Sevenoaks, Peter Coyle and the Q team, Mark aka Bincenzo for helping out behind the scenes at the factory, and last but not least, some PHers on here that had to put up with my constant banging on about specs, colour, stitching, etc and the endless sharing of photos throughout the lengthy process.
Bring on summer! and I look forward to boring the rest of you when we meet at any events in the future
—Edited to add some late omissions that Jon39 might have picked up on
—
I decided to omit a little of the story as I was concerned that I might sound like one of those parents that can’t stop talking about their children
I bought this car and specced it for my 18 month old son Marcus (coincidentally AM are very keen on selling cars to the Marcus’ and Charlotte’s of this world) to eventually inherit from me, but not before I put a load of miles on it, and take him on many road trips. Another example of man maths at its best.
The keen eyes amongst you might have noticed the personalised sill plaques that read “... specially commissioned for Marcus” contain a Chinese character, and that the utility lid contains a family crest. These two items are relevant to his Chinese and Swiss heritage, so I thought it best to have them integrated in the car to ensure they aren’t eventually lost. We also left a little message on the underside of one of the seat covers when we are at the factory for the in-build tour:
Here is Marcus sitting in his new car. Look at the state of his shoes!!
Marcus nearly as excited as his father
Another late design change was the switch from Marcus’ embroidered handprint on the passenger side dashboard to “V12 Vantage” instead. Unfortunately we weren’t very successful extracting a good enough handprint from a then 6 month old, but the team at Q still tried there best. Here is a picture of the sample that they sent over which has now become another little keepsake from this brilliant experience.
My journey started in 2016 when I became a proud new father. Like all other fathers before me, it was the greatest day of my life, and I knew that everything was going to change. Frivolous vehicle purchases soon make way for nursery, clothing, holidays, higher education, and much more, so If I was ever going to get into another car I had to do something quick. I knew that things were changing in the car world that meant that the production of large displacement naturally aspirated manual gearbox cars would end soon. With the twin turbo V12 DB11 already out and talk of a turbocharged Vantage replacement in the not too distant future, I really needed to pull my finger out soon if I ever wanted to buy a brand new V12 Vantage S Manual and spec it to my personal tastes.
I began hearing rumours that AM might be releasing a final ‘run out’ series of the V12 Vantage S, so I decided that it would be a good time, if not too late already, to get in touch with my preferred dealership and see if I could put my name down along with a deposit to secure an allocation for this yet to be launched, run out edition V12 Vantage S. Thankfully It seemed I wasn’t too late, and my deposit was accepted, along with a commitment from the dealership that if AM were to release this car, I would get their first build allocation.
Over the months that followed, countless hours were spent on the internet pouring through hundreds of pictures of Aston Martins, and also on the online configurator building out what would be my perfect specification. This I narrowed down to V12 Roadster in either Scintilla or Skyfall Silver, with Lords Red and Obsidian Interior, Carbon Lightweight Seats, Highline Centre Console, Yellow Callipers, Silver Lightweight Wheels, Carbon Bonnet Louvres, and Black Rear Graphic (boot section between the two rear light lenses). I was now all set, and ready to spec my car as soon as what was to be the Vantage AMR, became available to spec on the system
Online configurator render of the spec in Scintilla Silver:
Online configurator render of the spec in Skyfall Silver:
As the months passed, we started to get drip fed information about the upcoming release of the run out car now known as Vantage AMR. This was very exciting, but was also when things started to get a little difficult
The great news was that the base spec was already pretty decent which included Carbon Fibre Bonnet Louvres, 700W Premium Audio, Lightweight Wheels, and Scintilla Silver available as one of the 5 schemes, however customers were to be locked into choosing from just one of those 5 interior and exterior schemes, meaning that I’d have to compromise on my choice of interior. This was a massive problem for me as Aston Martin had also just introduced a minimum spend of £12K +VAT for their Q services. This would stretch an already stretched out budget, so I decided to come up with a default specification, from one of the 5 available exterior and interior schemes whilst I mull over the option of going down the Q route. My default, and ultimately compromised spec was to be Scintilla with Ceramic Grey Stripe (Exterior Scheme 4), and interior Pure Black / Black Metallic with Vivid Red accents (Interior Scheme 3).AMR Exterior Scheme 4 from product brochure:
AMR Interior Scheme 3 from product brochure:
After a few days and nights of feeling pretty disappointed that although I would be getting a new Vantage AMR, it wouldn’t actually be to my dream specification, I decided to have a rummage down the back of the sofa and find the £12K plus I would need to turn my dream into reality. This to me was now a must, as the opportunity to not only buy my dream car, but to be able to order it new and to my own personal specification was likely to be a one off opportunity, and there was no place for compromise! I swiftly got back in touch with my dealer to inform them of the plan to go down the Q route.
Having already had a couple of Gaydon era VH2 cars, I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted, and I also knew that working with Q would require a lot of back and forth tweaking the design such that attempting to do this via the dealership would likely introduce unnecessary complexity to the process. I decided to reach out to the factory and ask if it would be possible to work directly with Q on my car. Amazingly they obliged and a factory visit was duly arranged for my birthday
And what a birthday it was! Not only did we spend a good few hours working with Peter Coyle from Q on my dream car, but we were also introduced to Marek Reichman as he just so happened to be roaming the corridors. Clearly a very busy man, he still took the time out to have a chat about our car, and gave us an impromptu private tour of new vantage in the design studio, even managing to squeeze in a bit of lunch with us. What a great fella and what an epic birthday, adding to the memories already starting to build up for a car yet to be built. A couple of weeks after our visit I received a surprise package in the mail from Gaydon. It was the rough Q design we worked on whilst at the factory, autographed by Mr Andy Palmer himself! This was another lovely touch to add to this already amazing experience. You will see from the rough Q design below, a lot was thought about and discussed.
As the months passed, countless emails were exchanged, and a further two factory visits made to discuss and look at various design options.
Finally, we were ready to sign off on the design. Design version 10!
Peter and the Q team no doubt collectively letting out a massive sigh of relief As you will see, the renders generated by the Q team really are excellent and really helped me visualise what the finished car would look like.
The only thing left to do now was wait for a build date to be allocated, and arrange for yet another factory visit, but this time to see my car being built, and a first glimpse
of some of the design features in the flesh.
Four months on, build date allocated and in-build factory tour booked for late February.
I decided it would be great to get Dad along for the in-build factory tour as he had never visited a car factory before, and this would be a great first experience for him to see not only Aston Martin’s amazing factory, but to see our very own car being built
We had a great morning at the factory, my father getting our tour guide Nick’s full attention, and me looking at the various pieces, trying to imagine what the car would eventually look like completed. Unfortunately this proved very challenging as the car had only just made it onto the line, and the car was little more than just a painted shell.
It was going to be a very long and anxious wait for the car to be delivered, and then seeing for the first time, how well or how poorly, the design choices would come together.
The heart of the beast
The waiting went on, and on, and on. Some components and parts supply issues, along with the car undergoing a full quality audit just added to the delays. Throughout the wait, the only thing that kept me somewhat sane was seeing pictures of the other fellow AMR owners receiving their wonderful cars.
It was now mid-may, and I finally received a call from my dealer with the good news. The car had arrived!
All that was now left was for the PDI to be done, and the car transported to Topaz for PPF. Thankfully this only added a week, as the dealership had been keeping an eye on the progress and keeping Topaz informed so that a slot would be waiting for us.
PPF has definitely moved on quite a bit since my first experience having the full front of my old DB9 done in VentureShield back in 2010. Back then the films suffered from significant orange peel effect, and after a couple of years of use started to turn yellow. It did do its job of keeping the paint beneath pristine, but it did start to look pretty tired, so I decided to take it off in favour of running the car without it. Not the best idea when you do lots of driving weekends away with like minded individuals. The front of the car very soon picked up loads of stone chips, and I knew that PPF was a requirement given my use of the car.
Some pictures of the car getting PPF applied at Topaz:
The Topaz guys standing back admiring their work?
The guys at Topaz did a brilliant job with the PPF
Another week of waiting, and the car was back at AM Sevenoaks PPF’d and ready for handover.
We decided to make a family day of it, starting with the handover, then a visit to Knole Park, Sevenoaks school, followed by some lunch before collecting the car and taking it for its first drive round the M25 back home. Probably the worst possible first drive, but having an 18 month old, that 1 hour drive in the car on my own was wonderful and a good opportunity to get acquainted with the various features and settings.
For the handover, I decided to hire a photographer as I knew that I would be so preoccupied and distracted that I wouldn’t have taken any pictures. It turned out to be an excellent idea, as the pictures taken were amazing
My first start of the new car. The V12 sounds EPIC!
How cool is this one?? The car transforming!
No idea who originally came up with this design, but it works, and I like it
Matching luggage
Home safe and looking absolutely stunning in the sunshine
To end this already unnecessarily long post, I’d like to say that being lucky enough to buy a new Aston Martin in itself is already a very special experience, but being able to then work with Q to tailor the car to your exact taste or specification takes the car experience to a whole new level. This is was both my first experience buying a new Aston Martin, and also my first experience going down the Q route. I would definitely recommend the Q service
And now a final note to thank, in no particular order, David and the team at AM Sevenoaks, Peter Coyle and the Q team, Mark aka Bincenzo for helping out behind the scenes at the factory, and last but not least, some PHers on here that had to put up with my constant banging on about specs, colour, stitching, etc and the endless sharing of photos throughout the lengthy process.
Bring on summer! and I look forward to boring the rest of you when we meet at any events in the future
—Edited to add some late omissions that Jon39 might have picked up on
—I decided to omit a little of the story as I was concerned that I might sound like one of those parents that can’t stop talking about their children
I bought this car and specced it for my 18 month old son Marcus (coincidentally AM are very keen on selling cars to the Marcus’ and Charlotte’s of this world) to eventually inherit from me, but not before I put a load of miles on it, and take him on many road trips. Another example of man maths at its best
.The keen eyes amongst you might have noticed the personalised sill plaques that read “... specially commissioned for Marcus” contain a Chinese character, and that the utility lid contains a family crest. These two items are relevant to his Chinese and Swiss heritage, so I thought it best to have them integrated in the car to ensure they aren’t eventually lost. We also left a little message on the underside of one of the seat covers when we are at the factory for the in-build tour:
Here is Marcus sitting in his new car. Look at the state of his shoes!!
Marcus nearly as excited as his father
Another late design change was the switch from Marcus’ embroidered handprint on the passenger side dashboard to “V12 Vantage” instead. Unfortunately we weren’t very successful extracting a good enough handprint from a then 6 month old, but the team at Q still tried there best. Here is a picture of the sample that they sent over which has now become another little keepsake from this brilliant experience.
Edited by NeinFondue on Friday 1st June 07:53
Edited by NeinFondue on Friday 1st June 07:55
I very much enjoyed reading your contribution Marcel.
Your final specification is wonderful, and very tasteful.
You started off by mentioning your son, and half way through I did wonder where he was, but you gave him a lovely mention towards the end.
I think I can see now why Q have had to impose a minimum charge. Quite a time consuming process.
Enjoy many happy miles.
NeinFondue said:
And last but not least, some PHers on here that had to put up with my constant banging on about specs, colour, stitching, etc and the endless sharing of photos throughout the lengthy process.
Great write-up Marcel and, of course, a wonderful car. You've definitely made the most of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity - congratulations.
Can't wait to get the Scintilla Sisters together
Awesome car and a fantastic write up thank you for sharing and enjoy the smile inducing experience that father hood and an Aston Martin brings you.
You forgot one very important accessory, that being the rather special child’s seat you’ll be needing for all those trips that you’ll be doing with your son!
You forgot one very important accessory, that being the rather special child’s seat you’ll be needing for all those trips that you’ll be doing with your son!
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