Aston Martin launches Vanquish S Ultimate Edition and offers manual conversion for existing customers

Though production of Aston Martin’s flagship Vanquish coupe is nearing its end, the prestige label has announced it will be building a limited run of just 40 examples of a new Vanquish S Ultimate Edition. The cars will be handcrafted at the company’s Newport Pagnell production facility in Buckinghamshire and is available only via special request to very select customers.

Changes over the regular car are mostly visual including the new ‘Ultimate Black’ exterior color, matching semi-aniline leather and black chrome finish interior fittings. Each car will also be fitted with personalised sill plaques denoting the limited edition number. No additional charge will be made for the Ultimate Edition, available only with the 2+2 seating arrangement, priced at £182,095.

Mechanically, the car remains much the same, however, Aston Martin is offering existing Vanquish owners a transmission conversion from the car’s existing Auto Shift Manual (ASM) system, to a conventional stick-shift manual at a cost of £13,250. For years, motoring journalists and Vanquish owners alike have been complaining about the incredibly slow gear changes of the ASM box. Engineers have spent over 12 months developing this conversion to ensure there are no problems with the new manual.

Click ahead for a video from Top Gear displaying the gearbox's problems in full.