Hello Clarice: Take your first look at Kahn Design’s menacing WB12 Vengeance

What do you get when you take an Aston Martin DB9 — one of the most classically handsome cars on the road — and give it a distinctly sinister face? You get Vengeance, the WB12 Vengeance to be exact.

Kahn Design has been teasing its DB9-based sports car for some time, but now it’s time to see the car in the metal — Hannibal Lecter grille and all. A new teaser video has just been released for the vehicle, and it shows the coachbuilt stunner galloping around the U.K.’s Millbrook Proving Ground while designer and CEO Afzal Kahn looks on from the sidelines.

As we’ve seen in the photorealistic renderings of the car (shown below), the WB12 looks incredible. The DB9’s distinguished face has been replaced by something altogether murderous, and it’s the result of a new hand-formed aluminum body. “This is coachbuilding in its traditional sense,” said Kahn, “Taking a tried and tested product and working solely on the aesthetic. I’ve kept every aspect of the underlying car from the crash structures to airbags—mechanically it’s unaltered.”

Thankfully, the DB9 had a pretty potent powertrain to begin with — a 6.0-liter V12 with 510 horsepower and 457 pound-feet of torque. We’re not sure exactly how much the Vengeance weighs — or how much it costs for that matter — but the standard Aston accomplishes 0 to 60 mph in 4.1 seconds before topping out at 183 mph. An official unveiling is on the way soon, and the first five examples are expected to be finished by the end of the year.

As for the car’s name, “WB” signifies “Wide Body,” while the “12” is a reference to the amount of cylinders occupying the engine bay. What does Vengeance mean? Well, fans of the original Star Trek series will recall the tagline for the 1982 film Wrath of Khan, which reads,“At the end of the universe lies the beginning of vengeance.”

Coincidence? I think not. Yeah yeah, I’ll leave my my lunch money on the desk.

from Planet GS via John Jason Fallows on Inoreader http://ift.tt/1ILPdPT
Andrew Hard