The 1992 Geneva Salon was the debut of the Virage Shooting Brake (DP2099) available as a conversion of a customers car or complete for a total of £165,000, thus at that time, making it the most expensive Aston Martin ever. The many modifications enable this car to accommodate four people very comfortably. Although a small number of shooting brakes have been previously been produced by specialist coachbuilders (DB5, DB6 and DBS), this was the first to be built in house by factory Works Service.
Virage Lagonda 5 Door Shooting Brake ‘Les Vacances’ (1994)
From early 1994, the Factory Service Department (Works Service) presented two Virage based conversions, a four door saloon and a five door Shooting Brake. Both were to be known as Lagonda's and on official factory photographs a Lagonda badge could clearly be seen on both. Later that year, it clearly had an Aston Martin badge on the bonnet - so it would appear to have been switched sometime after launch.
The badge on the tailgate of the 5 door spells ‘Vacances’ although I’ve never known the car described in this way. This left hand driver car started life as an early Virage production coupe before the extensive conversion process. The finished car with Hunter Green coachwork was built to full 6.3 engine specification together with a five speed manual gearbox. Also with rear facing child seats in the luggage compartment, this must hold the record as the Aston Martin with the most seats, with space for 7 people.
To the best of knowledge, this car, chassis 50005 was a conversion of an early Virage by Works Service and is perhaps the only one especially converted. A small batch of six further 5 door shooting brakes were subsequently made of an overseas Royal family. Instead of a 12 inch stretch, these six cars, built from scratch rather than concerted, were made with an extra 16 inches added to the wheelbase.
Source: Astonmartins.com
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