In the company's 102-year long history as an automaker, Aston Martin had its good times and its bad times. The Lagonda Taraf is one of the latter, and it holds a price tag that will make your eyes water - £696,000 in the UK or $1.08 million at current exchange rates. We're so not joking about this.
As opposed to the One-77 hypercar, which was going for $1.4 million when it was launched, the Aston Martin Lagonda Taraf isn't as exclusive, nor as powerful, nor as fast, nor as beautiful to look at. It may have two extra doors, and it may accommodate your SO and two of your friends, but still, the Lagonda Taraf doesn't deserve its exaggerated sticker price.
According to AutoCar, specialist dealer H.R. Owen listed an example of the Lagonda Taraf for the previously mentioned mountain of pounds sterling, then removed the online ad for reasons yet to be known. The 5.4-meter long British leviathan is built on the Aston Martin VH vehicle architecture, which is another way of saying the underpinnings are as old as the Aston Martin DB9 from 2004.
Sure, AM will tell you that this is a modified VH platform used by the Rapide four-door sedan, but who are they kidding here, huh? The Lagonda Taraf may be a luxurious beast limited to just 200 examples, but the carbon fiber-bodied sedan was designed with the Middle East in mind.
Hence the awkward styling and the projected top speed of 200 mph (322 km/h). The 550 horsepower 6-liter V12 under its bonnet is lifted from the engine bay of the Rapide S, but did you know that this motor has a humble upbringing? It started life during an era when Aston Martin was owned by the Ford Motor Company, the reason why some people will tell you that the Aston Martin V12 is, in essence, two Ford 3.0 Duratec V6s mated end to end. So much for the Lagonda Taraf making a case about its nobility, huh?
On an ending note, many people still wonder why Aston Martin gave the Lagonda Taraf styling that harks back to the commercial failure known as the Lagonda of the 1970s, best known for its serious electrical problems. Design director Marek Reichmann will try to talk you into believing that the Lagonda Taraf "has been created as a piece of exceptional automotive art," but we'd rather leave the adjacent pics do the talking.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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