You could say we love Astons, and even though many people can’t understand why since they are far from the fastest, better performing, or even most advanced exotics, they just hold a special place in our hearts; and you are about to understand why. I think Jay Leno summed it up best on his show when he said, “It just works really well” when he referred to why he loved Astons during his review of the Vanquish.
Meet Project Velocity, the world’s rarest and most customized late-model Aston Martin Vanquish.
Aston Martins are no strangers to Secret Entourage as we were the first pioneers customizing the newer Vantage back in 2007 and 2009, followed by owning one of the rarest Infra Red Aston Martin DBS 6-speeds, and lastly the world’s most customized and striking DBS.
You could say we love Astons, and even though many people can’t understand why since they are far from the fastest, better performing, or even most advanced exotics, they just hold a special place in our hearts; and you are about to understand why. I think Jay Leno summed it up best on his show when he said, “It just works really well” when he referred to why he loved Astons during his review of the Vanquish.
The Vanquish could be considered old school, but it was released again in 2014. It featured a slightly tweaked V12 that dates back to a decade ago and a revised transmission that is automatic (correct, not an e-gear like most people think). It’s a boring automatic with 6 gears and a torque converter, meaning that it doesn’t have a single or dual clutch like most exotics. It costs $300K+, but as Jay Leno Sums it up “It just works really well.”
While it’s not the fastest, it has enough power to be fun, yet useable. It doesn’t corner like a Ferrari or Lamborghini, but it can be thrown around and enjoyed. It’s not the most advanced in technology, but it has enough gadgets and cool factors to keep you entertained. It doesn’t do any of the above better than any of its competitors, but it does a few things exceptionally well.
First off, its design is timeless and by that I don’t just mean its pretty. It’s really like you are staring at a painting in every way. From its arches to its familiar feel, it is still modern and beautiful. The interior design and craftsmanship surpasses its competitors in its own way and this is the best part: it gets more respect and admiration by all. No matter how much people love cars and have a preference for Ferrari or Lamborghini performance, everyone appreciates looking at an Aston Martin Vanquish and respects it for what it is.
When I drive my Lamborghini Performante, I am either someone’s superhero or the rich jackass that flaunts it. When I drive the Ferrari 458 Spyder, I am that rich guy no one wants to talk to because I probably bought my friends. Even in the Bentley I am looked at as a driving wallet, but with the Vanquish parked or driving, there is a level of respect and appreciation for automotive art. It’s a gentleman’s car that just works.
Now on to our special Vanquish; thanks to Excell Auto and Scott Zankal who sourced us this super rare car which was only built in 2014. With only 100 total examples and less than 20 units coming to the United States, The Centenary Edition was built to commemorate 100 years of Aston Martin history. The car features some pretty incredible details that gives it unique charm and even more of that “special” touch.
Here is the list of what makes our #38/100 Centenary Edition so special in its stock form.
- Special paint with a special hood and trunk faded stripe that takes Aston 72 hours to paint on the car
- Pure sterling silver badging for both front and rear emblems
- Special silver stitching only authorized on the One-77 million dollar supercar previously
- Special badging on inside
- Commemorative box with three crystal keys ($2,000 a piece), sterling silver cufflinks and pen, B&O headsets, special key holders, and special booklets.
- All carbon options standard.
While this is the rarest form of a Vanquish you can own, this was far from enough for a Secret Entourage project car and for my personal taste as nothing I drive is stock. So who to better reach out to than our friends at Velocity AP who worked with us on just about every other Aston project we ever touched. Our friend Stuart called us after he found out we got a Vanquish and offered to participate in creating a one-of-a-kind car.
At first, we hesitated tweaking a $300,000 car as an experiment, but about 5 minutes later realized we didn’t give a shit and asked him to make and send us some incredible parts that were yet to be released.
In about a week we received a shipment from the UK with Velocity AP’s Entire Power Kit and a few things that didn’t exist anywhere else.
The Power Kit Velocity for the Vanquish is similar to the one made for the V12 Vantage S since they share similar engines and consists of the following parts:
- Ceramic-coated headers
- Extensions for relocation of O2 sensors
- 200 cell cats
- Supersport race exhaust.
- High flow filters
- ECU tune
All of this sounded great, and we were also pleased to know that no one else in the United States had lowered a new body Aston Vanquish, and we had the world’s first set of springs in our shipment. These were springs that had never been installed on a Vanquish and were designed and made by Velocity AP themselves. After 3 days of labor with our friends at Fine Works Automotive, we finally got our Vanquish back and the Power Kit results were striking.
In one sentence, “The best sounding V12 we have ever heard.” The power increase was nice with almost 80 RWHP increase, making our car an incredible sounding car with quite a kick when you lay it down. Watch this short video to see why the Velocity AP Power Kit was the single best investment we made in our Vanquish.
A few weeks later, we ended up enjoying the Vanquish and decided to experiment with the springs which we were hesitant to install for a few reasons. Many of the previous limited choices of springs for Astons were always H&R, which made the car drive horribly, but also lowered the car so much that the camber on the wheels made the car look like a guy who has never worked out his legs at the gym. Our DBS didn’t suffer as much since we upgraded the wheels to ADV1, and the drop was therefore justified.
With this particular car, we decided to go a different route as we enjoyed the look of the factory 20” Centenary Edition wheels and were afraid of the negative camber and loss of drivability we may experience again with these springs. The install took about 4 hours and the results were striking.
These were the best lowering springs we have ever installed on any car. Perfect and improved ride quality, firm and planted without the bouncy feel, but the best part being that it lowered the car perfectly to factory specs.
It was a spring built for factory wheels, not for aggressive upgraded wheels which in this case we didn’t want to do. We couldn’t have been happier with the stance of the car and its incredible ride quality. Seriously a big thank you to Velocity AP for providing us the world’s first set of springs for a Vanquish.
All in all, these small upgrades make the Vanquish our favorite exotic to date and the one we believe has yet to be topped by our own project cars.
We hope you enjoyed an inside look at our project car and encourage you to check out the people who have helped bring this new project to life:
Velocity AP
Excell Auto Group
Fine Works Automotive
Exotic Car Hacks
“When I drive my Lamborghini Performante, I am either someone’s superhero or the rich jackass that flaunts it. When I drive the Ferrari 458 Spyder, I am that rich guy no one wants to talk to because I probably bought my friends. Even in the Bentley I am looked at as a driving wallet, but with the Vanquish parked or driving, there is a level of respect and appreciation for automotive art. It’s a gentleman’s car that just works.”
– Pejman Ghadimi
