Vanquish S Red Arrows

[Simon Lane]

I've been asked by some forum members to start a thread on Vanquish S Red Arrows with full technical details of the project. There is a lot of detail to explain so bare with me here goes........

















Unique Side Strake Design for 10 Cars



Side Strake Render



Unique Sill Cover Plate



Unique Sill Plaques



Unique Luggage Matched to Car (Red 1, 2 etc)



Colour Board



Union Flag Wings Badges



Ejection Seat Detonator Chord Foil Lacquered into Carbon Fibre Roof Panel



Red Arrows Helmets - Design Adapted for Crash Helmets



New CAD drawings were required for the rear of the car which is completely 'off piste' i.e. new cuts of leather required rather than standard template cuts, bespoke Carbon Fiber Helmet dock designed inc. slot underneath for bespoke race suits



Each car (as with our previous projects) is uniquely paired with one aircraft and pilot - serial number appears on dash, side strake and car cover. Red 1, 2, 3 etc on side strake & car cover. Position in 'Diamond Nine' formation on headrest, sill plaque, sill plate and luggage.
.


Relevant pilot signature on engine plaque



Red race suit for driver, Blue race suit for passenger to reflect Red Arrows Pilot and 'Circus' engineers that fly with with them



2 x Genuine Red Arrows Leather Jackets as worn by the team



Full Spec As follows:-

Model
Base Car – 2017 Model Year Vanquish S Coupe
Transmission – 8 Speed Touchtronic III

‘Factory’ Options i.e. not bespoke – these options are from the Vanquish S Price List and we have chosen them as the base spec
5-Spoke Gloss Black Diamond Turned wheels
Brake Calipers – Black
Exterior Shadow Pack – Black Window Surround, Black Zircotec Tailpipes
Carbon Plus Exterior Pack – Carbon Side Strakes, Carbon Mirror Caps, Carbon Door Handles, Carbon Roof Panel, Carbon Fibre Bonnet Vents
Carbon Fibre Grille Surround with Black Mesh Insert
Sport Seat (Lightweight available as cost option)
Carbon Fibre Twill Interior Trim
Enamelled Vanquish S decklid badge and V12 fender badges
One-77 Leather Steering Wheel with Alcantara Inserts
Black Hardware Pack
Satin Chrome Jewellery Pack
Carpet Colour - Black

‘Q by Aston Martin’ – Special Commission Exterior

Q Special Paint – ‘Eclat Red’ Pearlescent (‘Eclat’ is the Red Arrows motto – paint colour is a unique shade and contains a gold metallic fleck)
Unique White Carbon Grille Surround
White ‘Flash’ on Side Strake Edge leading into doors
White Lower Grille Surround
Red Arrows Union Jack tail fin motif lacquered into front splitter upstands
Red Arrows Blue & White ‘Smoke Trails’ on side skirts, into rear diffuser and wrapped around rear exhausts
Ejection seat detonator cord shape lacquered into Carbon Fibre roof panel
Engine plaque with Red Arrows logo and signed by correct pilot (Reds 1 – 10)
Unique Sill Covers with Diamond 9 formation engraved
Unique Sill Plaques for driver & passenger sides (as above)
Colour Union Jack front and rear wings badges
Red Arrows pilot number (Red 1 etc) lacquered into top side of side strake (drivers side) with matching Diamond 9 logo
Matching Red Arrows Serial Number lacquered into top side of Side Strake (passenger side) with Red Arrows Logo
Q by Aston Martin fender badges

‘Q by Aston Martin’ – Special Commission Interior

Interior - Obsidian Black with Pinewood Green Inserts to match Martin Baker Ejection Seat fabric colour in Red Arrows Hawk
Stitch & Welt Obsidian Black
Red Arrows Squadron Crest lacquered into AMi III Screen veneer (monochrome finish)
‘Ejection Seat’ Black/Yellow handle on top of seats (emergency seat fold)
‘Emergency Exit’ Black/Yellow ‘Rescue’ Door Pull
Formation embroidery in Door Cards
‘Diamond Nine’ embroidery on headrests with red highlight embroidery indicating correct formation position for driver and blue for passenger
Red Arrows ‘fly through’ shape through centre console, rear environment, into split maneuver on rear parcel shelf – embroidery
Bespoke rear environment with stowage for 2 x Racing Helmets and 2 x Racing Suits
Anodised Centre Rotary Switch – RAF roundel with ‘Red Arrows’ etching
Audio System On/Off switch with Black/Yellow ‘Emergency Button’ detailing
A/C Switches made from recycled Red Arrows Hawk parts
Sat Nav ‘Splash Screen’ – Vanquish S Red Arrows logo
Headliner – Printed Leather – Red Arrows ‘in cockpit’ view – colour Image
Hawk Serial Number Embroidery in Blue Stitch to match aircraft on Passenger Side Airbag Cover

‘Q by Aston Martin’ – Special Commission – Additional Items

1:18 Scale Model Vanquish S Red Arrows Car & Hawk Aircraft
2 x Racing Suits – Red for Driver and Blue for Passenger (Sizing Required)
2 x Racing Helmets painted to match Red Arrows pilot helmets (Sizing Required)
2 x Red Arrows Team Leather Jackets as commissioned and worn by the team https://www.flying-jacket.com/jackets/leather-flyi... (Sizing Required)
Vanquish S Red Arrows Car Cover finished in Red, White and Blue featuring the Red Arrows logo on bonnet, Pilot number on Driver’s side and matching aircraft serial number on passenger side
Owner’s Manual – matching Obsidian Black/Pinewood Green
Build Book featuring car being built with matching Obsidian Black/Pinewood Green cover
Key Pouch in Pinewood Green
Leather Photo Album (after the event) featuring high quality images taken on the day
Professional films of the project and handover day to keep

Factory Tour - July 12th
Each owner and a guest invited to Gaydon in July (date TBC) to see the cars in production and have a tour of the factory
Arrive 9.30am for welcome
Factory Tour 10am
Meet the design team at Aston Martin for briefing on Red Arrows project
Meet the other owners prior to the handover event
Lunch at 12.30pm
Talk and Q&A with Red Arrows pilot
Depart 2.30pm

Handover Event – 24th October
All 10 cars to be delivered together at RAF Scampton inside Red Arrows hanger
Owners + 3 guests invited to handover
Day to commence with welcome speeches from senior leadership in RAF, AML and RAF BF
Official unveiling of Reds 1 - 10 in the Red Arrows hanger
Display performance by the Blades Aerobatics Team (piloted by former Red Arrows team pilots)
10 x Vanquish S Red Arrows removed from hanger & positioned in formation on runway
10 x Red Arrows to conduct 3 x flypasts over the cars in formation and ‘smoke on’
Lunch
Owners + 1 guest to attend briefing for flying with The Blades
Owners & guests cycled through 4 x activities – flying with The Blades, flight in Tiger Moth, Tour of Red Arrows facilities and Vanquish S handover
Photo opportunity for each Vanquish S owner with their matching Red Arrows Hawk and pilot
6 x camera crew following action through the day – including helicopter camera ship to capture aerial footage
3 x professional photographers to capture action from both ground and air

Reds 1 - 9 available to purchase at £275,000 each. Red 10 to be donated completely free of charge to the RAF Benevolent Fund and raffled off at £20 per ticket. Target to raise £2.5m in tickets sales for the charity.

That, in a nutshell is it. My office wall currently has these two pictures haning in it, I'm looking forward to completing it with one of 9 Red Arrows jets flying over 9 Vanquish S!

Edited by Simon Lane on Friday 30th June 14:44

[Simon Lane]

I should also have mentioned that you can buy tickets for Red 10 on the RAF BF website www.rafbf.org/red10

Heres a shot of the team with the vinyl wrapped PR car which is touring the country (currently at FOS).

[Simon Lane]

DB9VolanteDriver said:

Now, this is the place for this interesting thread, which I do like very much. How about being a sport and deleting your many posts on the green thread, just so it shortens up from the last 'green' posts?

Roger that will do it now.

[Simon Lane]

For a flavour of what to expect at the Red Arrows handover and in the unlikely event you have not seen the Spitfire 80 handover film (been watched 768,000 times on Facebook alone!) see below:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ftul7dHKYUQ

You can watch the 'making of' Spitfire 80 here:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqKovtYJyc0

[Simon Lane]

M5MarkM said:

Sounds like an amazing day out to collect the cars! That being said it does look like all that extra activity has been built into the price.. a well specified S will come to £240k to £245k anyway, so another £30k for some helmets and race suits looks a little pricey. Still a unique car and I've bought some tickets! Still holding out for a Vanquish S Ultimate before I trade mine in!

Anyone on here ordered one of these yet? I imagine they're all sold out?

Its worth pointing out that the Q content on these cars came out at £54k per car, the handover event costs stand at £135k for what will literally be a money cannot buy experience. The cost of Red 10 also needs to be covered in the other 9 cars, but gifting that to the RAF BF opened the door to the Red Arrows so without it there would be no car at all. There are circa 880 RHD Vanquish on UK roads, Vanquish S will be a less than 1/4 of that number. Any Vanquish S will be a desirable, rare car. The Red Arrows? There will only be 10 of them. Yes its a £30k premium, but you get what you pay for IMHO

Edited by Simon Lane on Sunday 2nd July 13:27

[Simon Lane]

Other dealers have slots? I thought it was Lancaster AM dealers only.
[/quote]

I may have got confused here.....Vanquish S Red Arrows is available at Aston Martin Cambridge only. Vanquish S Ultimate can be ordered from any AM dealer, but we have sold the one car we will be allocated as have our sister branch in Sevenoaks.

[Simon Lane]

Anyone on here ordered one of these yet? I imagine they're all sold out?
[/quote]

Not sure how many of our clients are on here, but I can tell you 4 of the Spitfire owners are having Red Arrows cars. We have sold most of them, but there is still an opportunity to secure a car. PM me or e-mail [e-mail]

[Simon Lane]

I missed this render off - it shows a close up of the waterfall. The a/c switches will be made from melted down Red Arrows Hawk parts.

[Simon Lane]

....and here is a trial roof panel in AM's prototype facility. The first car to be built will be Red 10 and it will be on the production line in a few weeks time.

[Simon Lane]

divetheworld said:

I think this is brilliant.

Is the roof graphic on the inside front-to-back?

Yes, it's a high resolution image printed on leather

[Simon Lane]

For your amusement see below pic taken last weekend when the Red Arrows decided to find out if they could all fit in the PR car. It took several attempts but eventually Reds 1- 10 got in the car, boot shut and doors closed. Apart from being hysterically funny, it goes to show how practical the Vanquish is!

[Simon Lane]

Beefmeister said:

Surprised that the promo car isn't at Goodwood this weekend, would've got a lot of raffle entries I reckon!

It is at FOS, parked near main public entrance, next to the Red Arrows PR tent and other military stuff. Even better, Red 10 has plugged the car & raffle over the public address system during his commentary in all 3 Red Arrows displays at FOS.

[Simon Lane]

The RAF BF have a long list of high profile supporters, chief among them being HM Queen Elizabeth II who is Patron to the charity. Some of them have endorsed this project to help the charity sell tickets and been photographed with the PR car, more of this to come.

[Simon Lane]

Nice article in Auto Express this week following our trip to Milbrook with the team:-

[Simon Lane]

Interesting write up in The Sun this week after we invited them to join the customer factory tour. We have lots of pics of the day I will share this week, some shots of the body shells are in this article:- https://www.thesun.co.uk/motors/4009929/exclusive-...

[Simon Lane]

Heres some images from the Red Arrows factory tour showing some of the painted bodyshells and parts for the cars. We had customers, press, Red Arrows and the RAF Benevolent Fund present for the tour. Total around 40 people. Andy Palmer gave a welcome in the morning alongside Wing Commander Martin Higgins, Officer Commanding, Red Arrows Team. We then had a tour of the factory, saw the bodyshells waiting to go on to the production line and got a close up look at some of the unique parts going into the car. Simon Butler, lead Q Engineer on the project then gave a briefing on the design and engineering going into the car, stating this is the most complex car Q has produced. The day finished with a fascinating question & answer session with Martin Higgins on the Red Arrows team. I'll keep sharing imagery on this thread as the cars come together.

[Simon Lane]

HBradley said:

Great photos Simon.
I was very happy to see the Red Arrows in action yesterday at the British GP, just a pity some buffoon decided it would be a good idea to cut off the commentary just at the climax to the show in order to broadcast some interview drivel!
I was so incensed I resorted to a Witter rant to the Silverstone management, not my usual practice!

Thats a shame the commentary is an essential part of the show IMO. Heres a few shots of Eclat Red in sunlight. The colour has very fine gold metallic particles through it, these are most visible in the bottom close up shot but much more apparent when you see the paint in natural daylight.

[Simon Lane]

All 10 x Bodyshells stacked on the factory rack ready to go on the production line. Exciting! Will share more pics as they go down the line.

[Simon Lane]

leerandle said:

After reading this thread and seeing various other media write-ups I went ahead a purchased a ticket.

Not usually my thing, but I have to admit in this instance, it looks fabulous and the attention to detail is something that I haven't seen on any other cars.

Massive respect & appreciation to Aston Martin and the RAF Benevolent Fund for tying in and putting this together.

Fingers crossed for Christmas........

Thank you! It would be amazing if everyone on the PH forum bought a ticket! The gambling commission license for the RAF BF has a cap of 200,000 tickets (£4m). It's a great cause, they do fantastic work for our brave veterans, tickets are just £20 each, ALL the money goes to the RAF BF and you have a chance to win one of these cars. Go to www.rafbf.org/red10 to enter and please tell your friends/family/colleagues. Let's get all these tickets sold! S

[Simon Lane]

Buster73 said:

Still bought a ticket though.

Excellent thanks!

Here's another nice bit of detail on the car. The toggle switch for AMi III has been anodised in blue. The centre button will be red to create the RAF roundel. The Diamond Nine formation has been etched onto the switch.