This One-Off Lagonda Coupe Prototype For Sale Is An Aston Martin Virage In Disguise

Lagonda Coupe Aston Martin Virage Prototype Topshot
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Back in the 1980s, Aston Martin was hanging on by a thread. The spectacular Bulldog supercar had been canned, and all efforts shifted to making as much money with as little cost as possible. Beyond mere revamps of existing product, Aston Martin took on a ton of special projects for very important customers for a few quick cash injections. This isn’t exactly one of those cars. What you’re looking at here is the missing link between the gorgeous Lagonda space wedge sedan and the fearsome Virage, and it’s going up for auction.

Lagonda Coupe Aston Martin Virage Prototype Profile

However, remove the curved-box late-’80s styling, and the Virage and Lagonda share more than you’d think. They’re both front-engined rear-wheel-drive bruisers powered by boisterous 5.3-liter V8s and the Virage was an evolution of the Lagonda chassis. I’m talking a de Dion tube rear end with a Watts Linkage, double-wishbone front suspension, all pulled together to cut costs because Aston Martin wasn’t making much money. The Virage was developed before Ford bought the small automaker, so it was strung together on the cheap. This chopped Lagonda is proof of concept.

Lagonda Coupe Aston Martin Virage Prototype 1

So how did DP2034 make it out of the factory? Well, astonmartins.com reports that after development was finished, this prototype was sent “over the road to Works Service where it was comprehensively rebuilt, fully finished, painted and trimmed and sold to a UK collector.” Aston Martin was happy to indulge customer requests from one-off wagons to weird specs, so it seems entirely likely for the firm to have adopted an “everything must go” attitude.

Lagonda Coupe Aston Martin Virage Prototype Interior

As it stands today, this Virage prototype is immaculately and extensively finished with all the toys you could’ve possibly wanted in the late-’80s. After all, when was the last time you saw a coupe with a drinks cabinet? From the walnut dashboard to the vivid blue carpets, this short-wheelbase Lagonda means business through and through, to the point where you wonder: Why didn’t Aston mass-produce this?

Lagonda Coupe Aston Martin Virage Prototype Rear

Since this is an auction, we don’t know exactly where the hammer will drop on this shortened Lagonda, but it certainly won’t go cheap. Bonhams is estimating a sale price of £250,000 to £350,000, which converts out to between $318,700 and $446,180. That’s well-equipped new Aston Martin money, but as good as the DB12 seems, is it this cool? Sure, this thing doesn’t have a digital dashboard or the latest Michelin tires, but the DB12 doesn’t have a drinks cabinet. Game on, I reckon.

(Photo credits: Bonhams)

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30 thoughts on “This One-Off Lagonda Coupe Prototype For Sale Is An Aston Martin Virage In Disguise”

  2. They had a series 2 sedan showcased at Radwood 2023 here in Austin. It was on a platform that made it look like it was floating in the pond at COTA. Now I’m wondering if was possibly a series 3 with the way it was displayed

  6. I’ve always hated how the Lagonda sedan looks, but somehow the styling kinda works as a 2 door? Maybe this is what they should have made the whole time?

    1. It’s a Giugiaro-style folder paper design, which can be polarizing. Consider this — If you were to cut off the entire boot, shorten the front overhang by half, and pull the windscreen rake up to a more conventional angle, you’d essentially have the same form as a VW Golf Mk1 — a genuine Giugiaro icon.

      There’s some awkwardness where bottom of the C-pillar falls back of the center of the rear wheel. It strikes me as a compromise to retain some overall proportioning of the upper profile and to keep the front and rear overhangs closer to being symmetrical, all whilst keeping the rear glass from intruding too much into the rear passenger headroom, or requiring too upright of a C-pillar design (Think of the Chevy Celebrity’s C-pillar and rear glass for what that would do.)

  9. My god – I see the wiper interval speed is set by a knob on the dash. The ’78 Ford LTD II I owned at 16 had this setup – hated it then and still hate it now. I know Ford F series were this way until the early 90’s refresh. Does it have a foot mount high beam dipper too?

    1. That being said – would consider if I had a half mil to piss away on something like this. Looks like it would be fun and it does not have the horrid electronic displays of the Lagonda. Want. You would never see another.

      1. Are you disrespecting the foot mount dipper?! It is the most underrated feature in all of cars. When you get used to it, which takes about five minutes, you wonder how you ever lived without it

        1. One of the biggest driver complains with the high-beam foot switches was that for some, the floor-mounted button was awkwardly placed a little too far away. (Remember, the average American large car often had what seemed like acres of footwell space…) The good old JC Whitney catalog came to the rescue with a 12″ long, rubber-coated “pedal” that slipped over the switch and let you tap the easier-to-hit pedal somewhere in the middle instead of fumbling for the switch. Nowadays somebody could 3D print the same thing and solve the problem on older cars.

  12. So, on the instrument panel, I get the dual horns: polite city/country bellow, but what’s the top one of that column? Petrol door release, maybe? And the Temperature knob; ‘A, M, and H’? Medium and High, sure, but A?? Ambient, maybe? I don’t see an AC button—unless the C is hidden by the knob. That’s probably it, right?

  13. ‘the gorgeous Lagonda space wedge sedan’

    It’s the fuck-ugliest saloon car, full stop. Where the actual do you get this idea that it’s somehow ‘gorgeous’? I’m really not seeing it. Between the biggest overhangs this side of Aunt Maud’s bosoms and the silly ruler-thin excuse for a grille, there are no saving graces. The square box design might have at least worked if the bonnet slope had been kept under control. Consistent design is good design, and doesn’t have to be pretty to achieve it. But this takes utilitarian and adds a stupid, pointless effort at ‘streamlining’ like it wants to be a wedge like the sports cars of the depressing era, but its gigantic arse end makes it more wedgie than wedge. And the wheels! Oh good grief. So much tyre, so little wheel. The tiny star in the centre really draws attention to how badly they fit the rest of the car. (Not that I have any ideas what *would* look good on this heap.) And then the back. It’s industrial, I’ll give it that. Like it was rescued from the Scammell or ERF parts bin rejects. Okay I’m done.

    I’d take it. For twenty quid.

    1. I always thought the “production” Lagonda sedan looked like an early concept of what would become the 1977 Chevrolet Caprice before it was refined and production-engineered into something with the room, functionality and production-readiness the latter car needed to have (summed up in the idea that a Lagonda’s trunk is actually pretty small, since its’ owners could send their shopping-spree haul home in a taxi. That taxi, of course, would’ve been a big Chevy.)

      This coupe takes the idea of being a rough draft and runs with it.

    1. Enlarge the “Missing Link” photo and check out the B-pillar vs. the side window frames. I imagine some worker in Newport Pagnell saying “It’s Friday, 5pm, and I want to go for a pint. Hand me that large rubber mallet.”

      Also, the boot on the base of the interior wiper lever looks like it was repurposed from an unrestored 1962 Chevy II’s gear shift.

      Glad this car was “comprehensively rebuilt, fully finished” before it was bought by a collector. I suppose that’s why it’s projected to sell for only $400K and not, say, $600K.

      1. I’m pretty sure that the Large Rubber Mallet was a customary tool used in the assembly of all “hand built” British cars. Remember, the panel gaps and mismatches are a proud display of the finest British hand-crafting techniques!

        A close look at the pictures will show gaps and misalignments all over the place on this car. It’s partly excusable since in reality it’s a styling mule, but it’s a bit obvious even for a hand built British car, which sort of gives away its origin as a styling and prototype exercise. “Don’t worry, mates. We’ll put Big Hary to swingin’ his finest rubber mallet on the production line. ‘E’ll set ’em all straight!”

    2. Picture 3 also doesn’t have doorhandles… I think these shots were heavily massaged in photoshop and they messed up the layers for that image.

    1. If you’re talking about enormous hair, fishnet stockings, excessive boob jobs, sad caterpillar moustaches, and unbuttoned nylon shirts over sweaty hairy chests, there ya go. The most turn-offest kind of ‘sexy’.

      1. You forgot parachute pants.
        But, yeah; I kind of see it as boxy and flamboyant. Which sort of equals sexy in an era where machine-made tie dyed spandex high-cut workout wear somehow became chic. Cut-out sweatshirts and leg-warmers, too.

      2. Tom Selleck and Chuck Norris want a word with you. The 70s where masculine was the peak of sexiest and where hairless flat chests were only desirable on supermodels.

      3. I’ll take the big hair, fishnets, & boob jobs and none of the other overdone stereotypes. The 80’s was the best decade ever by far…just think of all the amazing cars, movies & music especially rock/metal and punk!

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