A whole four years was to pass between the introduction of the Virage and the high performance Vantage. If the 6.3 conversion was a big jump from the standard car, the Vantage became a giant leap. Only the roof and the doors were carried over after the stylists John Heffernan and Ken Greenley together with Project Manager, Mike Booth, improved on the original. Even the Virage name was dropped leaving only the name Vantage - never to be confused with the early 70's car of course. Later variants were badged V8 Vantage which is even more confusing as then should not be confused with the first production V8 Vantage built between 1977 and 1989. Sometimes people also refer to this car as the Vantage S/C and also you may see V550 which refers to the engine spec to make a distinction from the later V600. And although UK cars have Virage Vantage on their V5 document, this term should never be used.

Those wonderfully juicy grapefruit rear lights were specially designed and tooled for the car. It would have been better if the lights also incorporated a rear reflector instead if it being separate in the bumper, but this would have been too expensive.

The massive 362 mm diameter ventilated discs and four piston AP Racing callipers fitted to the front of the Vantage were at the time, the largest fitted to a road car. They have their work cut out stopping car weighing 1990 kg.