KEY FACTS This remarkable Aston Martin Vanquish Zagato Volante is the first ‘Verification Prototype’ of the dramatically styled and extremely rare coach-built open-top supercar, offered for sale with low mileage from new.

During the production of new vehicles, manufacturers put their designs through various verification and validation stages, and this car is numbered ‘VP1’ – understood to be the first of just four ‘VP’ (Verification Prototype) pre-production prototype models, which gives it exceptional provenance over the later production cars, with just 99 built in total.

Featured in numerous publications clothed in grey vinyl to camouflage its striking true colour of Lava Red; this Vanquish initially wore the UK registration ‘KR17 XKZ’ and was spotted in spy photos testing at various locations including the Nurburgring – as seen in this GT Spirit article and in CAR Magazine online.

Under the bonnet sits a naturally aspirated 5.9-litre V12, delivering 580bhp to the rear wheels via ...