By Cam Tait / Tuesday, Dec 13, 2022 / Uploading comments
It is notable that cars that were once owned by Brunei’s royal circle of relatives are not put up for sale more often. The sultan himself is said to have around 7000, which, for reference, is around 1000 cars less than the total production of the Ferrari. 360 Módena. No it is known if he owns so many cars at once, much of the collection is believed to belong to his brother, Prince Sufri Bolkiah, who is the former registered owner of the car we have here.
In fact, the prince acquired and ordered so many cars in the 1990s that he allegedly played a role in bankrupting Brunei’s royal circle of relatives and forcing them to sell 2,000 cars to pay the bills. Fortunately, this Aston Martin Vantage V550 was able to escape the messy circle of family businesses and wishes for a new owner.
Released some time before the DB7 arrived, the Vantage ushered in the end of Aston Martin’s fatal V8 era. It was also the first time the British logo played with the Virage name, as a replacement for the old V8 Vantage earlier for the V550 functionality variant. It retained the silhouette of the Virage, but with much more competitive proportions thanks to wider wheel arches, a deeper and more competitive front bumper and a slight bump on the hood with an additional set of vents, alluding to the Vantage’s party piece.
Aston Martin went to great lengths to extract more power from the 5. 3-liter V8 engine fitted underneath. The Vantage consists of not one, but two compressors, bringing the total output to 550 hp, compared to the Virage’s 335 hp (!)and 550 lb-ft of torque. At the time, it was the toughest engine installed in a production car, clocking 60 mph in 4. 6 seconds before peaking at 186 mph. They were presented exclusively in six-speed manual form, but this example gained an automatic gearbox conversion. It is usually the other way around, but Prince Sufri obviously wanted to pass through the small country of Brunei without lifting a finger.
That said, the Vantage was not a continental cruiser. Its chassis was heavily modified compared to the Virage, with a new rear suspension configuration and Bilstein surprise shock absorbers at all 4 corners. with the 362mm Vantage discs at the front with 4-piston AP calipers and 286mm discs at the rear, setting another record for the largest brakes in a production car. A little-known fact about the Vantage is that Aston Martin has enlisted three-time Formula 1 world champion Jackie Stewart’s facilities to sing the chassis, so he knows it will handle well.
And this one definitely deserves to do so, as he spent £50,000. It’s probably because with so many cars seated, Brunei’s royal circle of relatives doesn’t travel to drive them all, hence the miserable 4,750 miles recorded here. And if you do not like the connection to Brunei (with the sultan’s somewhat questionable human rights record), it is pleasing to hear that it has recently been repainted to remove iconic stripes from the royal circle of relatives. Add to that the limited production of just 239 copies, and the order value of £240,000 makes sense. The only thing left to do now is to put the manual transmission back in place.
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