The plans and tooling for the grand tourer were supposed to have been sold last year.
Last year it was reported that Aston Martin had sold the designs and factory tooling for the second-generation Vanquish to an unknown party.
The
package deal also included a year and a half of technical support from
the British carmaker. A number of parties were rumored to be behind the
purchase, including Morgan, but it turns out that whoever was supposed to be buying the Vanquish plans didn't because the deal fell through.
That led Aston Martin to write off the $23.1 million it was expected
to generate from the sale, which was actually believed to be to a
Chinese group, according to Automotive News Europe.
"The
commercial position on this contract has deteriorated with significant
doubt remaining over the outstanding receivable," Aston Martin said in a
statement.
The initial sale was uncovered deep in Aston Martin's
initial public offering perspective (on page 168 of the 321-page
document to be exact), and supposed to have taken place on June 2018.
The second-generation Vanquish was produced between 2012-2018 and was powered by the same Ford-derived
5.9-liter V12 as its predecessor, the Aston Martin DBS. In the car, the
engine produced 565 horsepower and later 595 hp in "S" trim. A number
of variants were made during the car's production run including drop-top
Volante models, a Centenary edition model to mark 100 years of the
company, and a handful of redesigned Zagato versions.
