the aston martin virage is an automobile produced by british luxury automobile manufacturer aston martin as a replacement for its v8 models.introduced at the birmingham motor show in 1988, it was joined by the high-performance vantage in 1993, and then the name of the base model was changed to v8 coupe in 1996.the v8-powered model was intended as the company's flagship model, with the 6-cylinder db7, introduced in 1994, positioned below it as an entry-level model.although the db7 became available with a v12 engine and claimed a performance advantage, the virage remained the exclusive, expensive and hand-built flagship of the aston martin range.it was replaced in 2000 with the vanquish.by the end of the 2000 model year, 1,050 cars in total had been produced.the v8 vantage name reappeared on a new entry-level model in 2005.a new virage model was introduced at the 2011 geneva motor show, to fit into the middle of aston martin's then current lineup but was discontinued in 2012 due to many similarities between the brand's other models.the virage was more similar in design language to the lagonda than the v8 it replaced.indeed, the chassis was an evolution of the lagonda's, with a de dion tube rear suspension, located by triangulated radius rods and a watts linkage, and a double wishbone unit at the front.to cut costs, many of the less-important pieces came from other companies, as had been the case for aston martin automobiles of the past.the sleek headlights and taillights were sourced from the audi 200 and the volkswagen scirocco respectively, while general motors, jaguar, citroën and  ford provided the steering column, climate control panel, wing mirrors and dash switches.in fact, ford had purchased aston martin and jaguar shortly before the virage debuted and it became the first model to be introduced under the new ownership.the virage was a large, heavy car in spite of its all-aluminium body, but the 32-valve 5.3 l (5,340 cc) v8 engine's 494 n⋅m (364 lb⋅ft) torque elevated its performance to near sports car levels.'acceleration just never seems to run out', claimed sports car international during a first test.they also praised the 'eager and quicker revving' nature of the 330 hp (246 kw; 335 ps) engine with its callaway-designed heads and weber-marelli fuel injection.'nothing sounds quite like an aston v8,' they concluded.the 1,790 kg (3,946 lb) car could attain a top-speed of 254 km/h (158 mph).the automatic variant could accelerate to 97 km/h (60 mph) from a standing start in about 6.5 seconds (7.4 seconds for the manual version).an engine power upgrade to 350 hp (261 kw; 355 ps) was announced at the 1996 geneva motor show.english actor rowan atkinson owned virage coupé chassis 50010 which featured on the front cover of car may 1990.in the article he commented how the modern climate control system provided heating efficiency beyond the veteran aston martin driver's dreams and could not believe warm air would emanate from the footwell within 90 seconds of start up.this car also appeared in the beginning of his 1991 tv series the driven man.other celebrity owners included lennox lewis, elton john and chris eubank.the five-speed zf friedrichshafen manual was fitted to about forty percent of the cars produced.the more popular automatic option was the chrysler three-speed torqueflite transmission.for the 1993 model year, the three-speed unit was replaced by a four-speed automatic unit.the six-speed manual from the vantage also became optional at the end of the virage's production run.as the name implies, the centerpiece of the conversion was a bored and stroked 6.3 l (6,347 cc) v8 derived from the amr1 racing car.
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