Lagonda Vignale
It's very difficult to know into which section of the website to put the unique Lagonda Vignale. It doesn't have a direct link to a previous model, and at first glance anyway, it doesn't appear to lead anywhere either! But I have had to make a firm decision, and that is to use the Lagonda Vignale to begin the story of the V12 Vanquish - and as you're now confused, I had better explain.
The Lagonda Vignale was commissioned by AML (already fully owned by Ford) from Ghia Design (also part of the Ford family) to be shown at the 1993 Geneva Salon. The exterior design was by Moray Callum - an interesting, co-incidence as the same show was the first appearance of the DB7, the work of Moray's brother, Ian. This somewhat large car was built on a Lincoln chassis with Lincoln independent front and solid self levelling rear suspension and was powered by a 4.6 litre (190bhp, 260 lb/ft) Lincoln Town Car V8. The reality of the concept is that physically, it had no recognisable AML parts at all. But, had this fabulous car made production (and many thought that it would), the chassis would have become an extruded aluminium affair, the suspension was to be fully independent and the engine would have been a 6.0 litre V12. These features never made it into a production Vignale - but they are exactly the same as the V12 Vanquish.
So, in my opinion, the important ideas behind the Lagonda Vignale clearly identify it as the first vehicle in the story of the V12 Vanquish.
Certainly two cars were built, although there may have been a third. The blue car shown above, was sold at the famous auction of Ford prototypes in Dearborn in June 2002 for a massive $403,500 (including buyers premium), many times above the estimate of $60,000 to $120,000.
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