Ex-Brunei Aston Martin Vantage V550 for sale

It’s outstanding that vehicles as soon as owned by the Brunei royal household don’t come up on the market extra usually. The Sultan himself is claimed to have round 7,000 of them, which, for reference, is about 1,000 vehicles shy of your entire Ferrari 360 Modena manufacturing run. Whether or not he’s in possession of that many vehicles directly is anybody’s guess, though it’s extensively believed {that a} honest chunk of the gathering is owned by his brother, Prince Sufri Bolkiah, who’s the registered former proprietor of the automobile we have now right here.

The truth is, the prince acquired and commissioned so many vehicles within the Nineties that it’s believed to have performed an element in bankrupting the Brunei royal household and forcing them to unload 2,000 vehicles to pay the payments. Fortunately, this Aston Martin Vantage V550 was capable of escape the messy household affair and is in want of a brand new proprietor.

Launched shortly earlier than the arrival of the DB7, the Vantage was the start of the top of Aston Martin’s V8 bruiser period. It was additionally the primary time the British marque tinkered with the Virage identify, utilizing it because the substitute for the outdated V8 Vantage earlier than ditching it for the V550 efficiency variant. It retained the silhouette of the Virage, solely with vastly extra aggressive proportions due to wider wheel arches, a deeper, extra aggressive entrance bumper and a slight bonnet bulge with an additional set of vents – hinting on the Vantage’s celebration piece.

Aston Martin went to excessive lengths to extract extra energy from the 5.3-litre V8 engine mounted beneath. The Vantage incorporates not one, however two superchargers, bringing whole energy to 550hp – up from 335hp (!) over the Virage – and 550lb ft of torque. On the time, it was essentially the most highly effective engine dropped right into a manufacturing automobile, with 60mph coming about in 4.6 seconds earlier than topping out at 186mph. They have been supplied in six-speed guide kind completely, however this instance has been given an computerized gearbox conversion. Usually, it’s the opposite means round, however Prince Sufri clearly needed to roam the tiny nation of Brunei with out lifting a finger.

That stated, the Vantage was no continental cruiser. Its chassis was closely reworked over the Virage, with a brand new rear suspension structure and Bilstein dampers on all 4 corners. The hefty energy improve required a critical brake improve, with the Vantage utilising 362mm discs up entrance with four-piston AP calipers and 286mm discs on the rear, setting one other report for the biggest brakes on a manufacturing automobile. Somewhat-known reality concerning the Vantage is that Aston Martin referred to as on the providers of three-time Method 1 World Champion Jackie Stewart to kind the chassis out, so you understand it’ll drive properly.

And this one definitely ought to, as a result of it’s had £50,000 spent on it. That’s seemingly as a result of, with so many vehicles sitting round, the Brunei royal household don’t get round to driving all of them – therefore the paltry 4,750 miles recorded right here. And in case you’re not eager on the Brunei connection (what with the Sultan’s considerably questionable human rights report) you then’ll be happy to know that it was lately resprayed to take away the royal household’s signature pinstriping. Couple that with the restricted manufacturing run of simply 239 examples, and the £240,000 asking value appears to make sense. Solely factor left to do now’s whack the guide ‘field again in.