Lagonda Taraf

Lagonda Taraf
Lagonda Taraf at the Goodwood Festival of Speed
Overview
Manufacturer	Lagonda (Aston Martin)
Production	2015–
Assembly	Gaydon, Warwickshire, United Kingdom
Designer	Marek Reichman[1]
Body and chassis
Class	Full-size luxury car
Body style	4-door saloon
Layout	FR layout
Dimensions
Wheelbase	3,190 mm (125.6 in)
Length	5,397 mm (212.5 in)
Width	1,917 mm (75.5 in)
Height	1,389 mm (54.7 in)

The Lagonda Taraf is a four-door luxury car built by the British car manufacturer Aston Martin. The Lagonda marque which was established in 1906, has been owned by Aston Martin since 1947. Only 200 cars will be built, each of which is priced at $1 million. ^[2][3]

History

The Lagonda brand was founded in 1906 by Wilbur Gunn. Lagonda won the 1935 Le Mans 24 Hour race with a Lagonda M45R driven by John Stuart Hindmarsh and Luis Fontés. The Lagonda Rapide V-12 1939 was the most expensive car in the United States at the time of its launch. The company however filed for bankruptcy soon, and was brought by Alan Good, who outbid Rolls-Royce Limited for the company. In 1947 it was brought by David Brown, who had also brought Aston Martin. The brand came back in 1976 with the Aston Martin Lagonda, which released as an Aston Martin car. However the model was discontinued in early 1990, effectively killing off the brand name as well.^[2][4][5]

Aston Martin decided to revive the Lagonda brand in 2009, to expand outside its traditional sporting realm into untapped segments such as luxury sedans and celebrate Lagonda's centennial anniversary. "The Lagonda brand would allow us to develop cars which can have a different character than a sports car," said CEO Ulrich Bez in a statement. "Lagonda will have its own niche with luxurious and truly versatile products suitable for both existing and emerging markets".^[6]

Lagonda branding on the Taraf

The 4WD 4-Seater concept SUV it unveiled, in collaboration with Mercedes-Benz at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show, met with mixed reviews. This led to plans for bringing the Taraf getting prioritized, with Aston Martin beginning work on Project Comet (the initial code name for the Taraf).^[1][7][8]

Design

The project was undertaken by Aston Martin's Q division which specializes commissioning bespoke cars and customizing existing models to specifications. The final full-size model was completed in 8 months of the first studio sketches in January 2014. Marek Reichman attributed the swift execution to lessons learnt from the production of the Aston Martin One-77, which took two years.^[9]

The car is intended as a homage to the Aston Martin Lagonda, which was produced between 1976 and 1990. A total of 645 of those cars were produced, each of which took 2200 man hours to make. ^[10]

Specifications

The Lagonda Taraf is powered by a 48-valve, 6-litre V12 producing 540HP and 465 lb-ft of torque. It has a maximum speed of 195 miles per hour (314 km/h).

Production

Top Gear reported that the Taraf was undergoing hot weather testing in Oman in September 2014. The car was put through 14,000 miles (23,000 km) of testing in four weeks in temperatures ranging between 30–50 C. The car was subsequently unveiled in the 2014 Geneva Motor Show. ^[11][12]

The car began production in 2015, with the company saying that only 200 cars will be made. The Taraf is produced in Aston Martin's plant in Gaydon,Warwickshire. When Andy Palmer, took over as the CEO, he had the car's potential markets widened to include Europe, USA, Singapore and South Africa. He also had the number of cars to be produced increased to 200. As of 2015 only 40 cars have been produced. The car is the most expensive four-door sedan in the world as of April 2016.^{[2][13][1][9][14]}

The body panels are made of carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP), which then receives a seven-layer paint job besides polishing and elbow grease. The car made a run at the 2015 Goodwood Festival of Speed. The production will end by December 2016, with 150 cars expected to have been sold by then.^[1][15][16]

Reception

The car received positive reviews on release, with most reviewers citing the steep price as the biggest downside. Angus MacKenzie in his review for Motor Trend wrote the following: "This $1 million sedan, hand-built by Aston Martin, costs more than five times as much as a Mercedes-Maybach S600. Yet it matters little to the people who will buy the Taraf that the Maybach is technically the more accomplished ultra-luxury sedan." Autocar was also critical of the price, saying "Without context that price tag looks ridiculous. For the same money you could buy both a Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupé and a Bentley Mulsanne plus a fully loaded Range Rover SV Autobiography on the side."^[2][17]

References

External links

• Lagonda Taraf on astonmartin.com