Aston Martin's "New Vanquish" Spied (UPDATED)

Twelve seconds of porn.

Aston Martin has been rehashing the DB9 for long enough now. The DBS from Casino Royale is essentially a Need-For-Speed DB9. The AM Rapide concept was essentially a DB9 with four doors and a chess board in the boot, and the Rapide production car that followed was only set apart by being longer and having different headlights. AM then put those headlights and a new front bumper on a lightly tuned DB9 to make the new Virage. The smaller AMV8 was mainly different in its proportions (oh, and having four fewer cylinders), having basically the same interior as all the above cars. Well it's time to move on. Except that that must be difficult. How on Earth do you follow the DB9? It essentially looks (and sounds) perfect.

Well, start with the 2004 shape and modernise it. That's what they did when they came to Concourso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este - which in plain English is the poshest motor show in the world - with the One-77 two years ago, and now again with the AM310, which looks (and sounds) like this:

27/5/12, 3:41, 283834 views (when posted)

So they've added a lot more styling to it. This is dangerous, and sure enough the wavy front splitter that makes the AM310 looks like it's carrying Pringles in its mouth is not to my liking. In bright red with those wheels it looks slightly overdone. However, in the video up top, where it's a much more elegant colour and features skinnier spokes and a toned-down splitter, it looks a lot better. Below are some spy photos of what will apparently be a new Vanquish to replace the DBS.

As you can see, the Rapide/Virage headlights remain, as does the overall profile, but the waistline is now clearly defined by a flowing crease, a bit like on the Audi A5 or, more relevantly, the One-77. You can see the beginnings of the front splitter and where they've covered off the edges of the grille and windows, as they are slightly different from before. They didn't cover up the lower and taller side vent though, or the new wheels (although actually that would probably be impractical).

This side crease joins up with a very Lotus-Evora-like rear spoiler, now pointed up at a sharper angle for downforce, and a curvaceous derrière. Silver duct tape covers up the new full-width hole running underneath said spoiler. The tail lights are a more sophisticated shape, but are still a stretched half-oval of LEDs. They don't stretch as far towards the centre as they did previously, which makes it look a little wider. So yes, darling, your bottom does look a little big in these tail lights.

Little is known at this point about the mechanicals of the Vanquish, but expect it to be based on the DB9 to some degree. Mercifully, it still has a V12. What we do know is that it's being tested at......

...The Nürburgring!

James May will not be best pleased about this...

UPDATE: More recent spy shots of it at the 'Ring see it swap silver for gold. Gaudy. The splitter will become black of carbon fibre, but will probably still look overdone. WCF say it'll be on an updated version of the current platform with a 6-litre V12 making 550bhp and an 8-speed ZF auto.