Aston Martin Vanquish (AM 310) details leaked unceremoniously ahead of its official launch

The launch of Aston Martin’s range-topping DBS replacement, originally codenamed AM 310, seems to have become another in a long line of PR shambles, with the inevitable ‘leaked’ images making their way onto the interweb days before the official release.

But even prior to the latest blunder, I was ‘confused’ by Aston’s launch strategy for the new Vanquish.

Setting aside the number of times prototypes have been spotted in and around Aston Martin’s Nurburgring test centre, our first look came at last month’s Villa d’Este where the AM 310 prototype was on display prior to Aston’s website being updated.

A few days later, the AM 310 microsite was up and the first teaser video, “Project AM310 – The Art of Aston Martin”, began circulating. But of course, we’d already seen AM 310 in the metal, so what was there to tease?

Then last week, the second teaser video was released, “Project AM310 – The Art of Aston Martin 2”, telling us less than we knew already and because of this we decided not to publish it.

And then this morning ‘someone’ pressed the GO button on the production Vanquish web page and then promptly removed it, but not before we (and several others) had taken a screen grab

The reaction in most quarters seems to be one of disappointment – 565bhp @ 6,750 rpm and 620 Nm (457 lb-ft) @ 5,500 rpm from its 6.0-litre V12 engine were what we expected. This translates into acceleration from 0-62mph in 4.1 seconds and a top speed of 183mph, which are likewise nothing to write about for what amounts to being Aston’s range topper.

Aston have priced the new Vanquish at £189,995, which positions it amidst a very competitive sector which includes more expensive cars such as Ferrari’s F12Berlinetta, but also cheaper (more focused) sports cars such as McLaren’s MP4-12C (£176,000).

Aston’s official release will provide further details, or if you’d prefer not to wait then take a look at the screen grab at the following link.