1993 Aston Martin Lagonda Vignale (Ghia)

Of the Lagonda Vignale shown at the 1993 Geneva show, much was said and even more expected, for tills might have made a future four-door Aston Martin GHIA and Aston were now owned by Ford). Moray Callum designed the Lagonda Vignale, which was variously "marvelous" and "the ugliest car around" — it all depended on your viewpoint. There was certainly nothing retiring about this substantial saloon (sedan), least of all the grille, the high waistline, huge wheels and drooping tail.

The Lagonda Vignale was commissioned by AML (already fully owned by Ford) from Ghia Design (also part of the Ford family) to be shown at the 1993 Geneva Salon. The exterior design was by Moray Callum - an interesting co-incidence as the Geneva Salon 1993 was the first appearance of the DB7, the work of Moray's brother, Ian. This somewhat large car was built on a Lincoln chassis with Lincoln independent front and solid self levelling rear suspension and was powered by a 4.6 litre (190bhp, 260 lb/ft) Lincoln Town Car V8. The reality of the concept is that physically, it had no recognisable AML parts at all. But, had this fabulous car made production (and many thought that it would), the chassis would have become an extruded aluminium affair, the suspension was to be fully independent and the engine would have been a 6.0 litre V12. Whilst these features never made it into a production Vignale - they are exactly the same as found in the the V12 Vanquish.

В 1993 в Женеву Aston Martin привез два концепт-кара – DB7 и Lagonda Vignale. Последний был очень и очень впечатляющим седаном. А так как единственными конкурентами Aston Martin в этой нише автомира были Rolls-Royce и Bentley, то почти никто не сомневался, что Vignale будет ездить по дорогам общего пользования. Оказалось, что не будет. Хотя три таких автомобиля все-таки есть – непосредственно концепт, опытный образец и одна такая машина была сделана для очень богатого клиента с Ближнего Востока. Позже некоторые узлы Vignale можно было наблюдать в Vanquish.