Aston Martin went public this month. With that move to offer shares on the London Stock Exchange, Aston Martin had to provide a lengthy public prospectus, 321 pages to be exact, ahead of its IPO.
The document is filled with every bit of information on the company, and buried deep within the financial goings-on of the British automaker is an interesting nugget pertaining to a bit of past Aston Martin glory. Someone purchased the tooling and design drawings for the outgoing Vanquish, and they did so to the tune of $26 million.
There's no word on exactly who purchased the tooling. That means no one knows where it might pop up, in what fashion, and if it's time to save that pocket change for a Vanquish-styled kit car.
Automotive News (subscription required) believes it's entirely plausibly that any one of the exotic tuning companies from Europe could've scooped up the goods. That would enable them to produce perfectly sized body kits. Albeit to a rather small audience of current Vanquish owners. Another possibility is Kahn Design which in the past has built bespoke cars based on Aston Martin running gear.
2018 Aston Martin Vanquish S
There's another unique tidbit inserted into the information related to this sale. The new Aston Martin Consulting engineering works will deliver 18 months of assistance. So whichever person or company purchased the Vanquish tooling and design drawings can themselves draw on the knowledge of the company that built the car in the first place.
Our ultimate hope is that some bored, wealthy car lover picked up the tooling for a perceived pittance. And they in turn want to create a new spec racing series using the Vanquish body as the style focus for the series.
Just imagine a tube-chassis Vanquish-styled race car with an LS3 engine mounted in place of the old V-12 used in the road car. Now turn that singular race car into 20 and that's a series that could get quite interesting.
The simple answer, however, is typically the correct one. Automotive News is likely on the right track, and it could be a tuning shop or a third-party Aston Martin repair center looking to acquire the proper parts to keep its customers happy for decades to come.
