According to various reports, the long-awaited return of the Vanquish brand is uncertain, as Aston Martin has shown that the mid-engined supercar to come has been frozen indefinitely.
The Vanquish was in line for a revival for the past few years, but in 2020, Aston Martin said that it would switch from its traditional front-engine layout for the nameplate, creating a third mid-engine Aston alongside the Valhalla and the insane V12-powered Valkyrie. At the time, we were led to believe that a new in-house-developed V6 would power the Vanquish, offering over 700 horsepower.
Speaking to Car and Driver, an Aston Martin spokesperson revealed that the Vanquish had been cancelled, while Motor1 garnered a backlash saying that the logo “moves away” from the Vanquish and its “mid-engined V6 design”.
The wording of this latest reaction is particularly intriguing, as it suggests that the task is possibly simply taking a new direction.
Aston Martin has not explicitly said that the Vanquish name is gone forever, and the choice of wording in its latter statement above could indicate nothing more than a change in direction, which we already knew of.
At the launch of the DBX707, then-CEO Tobias Moers told CarBuzz that the aforementioned in-house evolved V6 hadn’t even begun development, and over a year ago, Aston Martin announced a new production edition of the Valhalla was coming. with an AMG-evolved twin-turbo V8 making 740 hp, and that’s before factoring in a hybrid formula that would eventually bring the total power to 937 hp.
This power plant could surely still be repurposed for another mid-engine sports car, and even without the hybrid element, it would be an exciting proposition. Aston Martin went to the trouble of creating a concept, and it was well-received, so what gives?
We already know that mid-engine Astons will be limited editions going forward. Already in June, executive chairman Lawrence Stroll confirmed that plans for a mass-produced mid-engine supercar (the Vanquish) had come to an end and that any future mid-engine cars would be made in small volumes.
Vanquish is too big a decision to leave on the ice forever, and while it may not arrive with a V6 and possibly won’t arrive for years to come, its return will come one day. Meanwhile, perhaps the Vanguard name we discovered earlier this year will make its way to a mid-engined supercar, allowing the Vanquish to return to its front-engined roots at some point, but a more likely application is an electric SUV.
Aston Martin has become known as a manufacturer of front-engined GT and wants a mid-engined sports car available to replace that symbol with something sportier. Therefore, we expect some sort of new supercar to be announced sometime in 2024. It just probably won’t be called Vanquish and possibly won’t have a V6.