Introduced in 1988 at the Birmingham Motor Show, the Aston Martin Virage was clothed in hand-formed aluminum bodywork remarkably modern in its execution. Using 40 sheets of aluminum per chassis, nine Connolly hides, and 17 yards of Wilton carpet, each Virage took 14 weeks to build—and as Aston Martin noted with pride, each was different in detail.

The Virage was more than a luxury gentleman’s express. The 335-horsepower, 5.3-liter hand-built V-8 engine, now with four valves per cylinder and Weber-Marelli fuel injection, was engineered by Callaway in Connecticut, better known for their tire-shredding work on twin-turbocharged Corvettes.

As revealed by the car record card copy on file, the Aston Martin Virage on offer, chassis 50005, was originally delivered as a right-hand-drive standard saloon finished in Buckinghamshire Green paint. With just 1 mile logged onto the odometer, the vehicle was immediately sent off to Aston Martin’s “Works Service” to be converted to a shooting brake body at the request of its owner, a German gentleman named Dr. Roland Muller. This creation received the name Vacances, the French word for vacation, by the Doctor, as the seven-seat shooting brake would be enjoyed by his family across the European continent.

Additional documentation on file describes the process of converting the Virage which included stripping the vehicle down to a bare metal shell, extending the overall length by 12 inches, and moving the steering column to the left-hand side. Significantly, the standard 5.3-liter V-8 was replaced by a significantly more powerful 6.3-liter V-8 that produced a whopping 475 horsepower. To accommodate the extra grunt, the suspension received rose joint connectors, uprated shocks and springs, larger roll bars, and larger brakes on all four corners. A three-speed automatic transmission was additionally paired to this engine, however a desirable, dog-leg five-speed manual transmission was swapped in at a later date. The Virage wears an attractive shade of Hunter Green paint over a grey leather interior and currently shows 33,235 miles on the odometer at the time of cataloguing.

Just seven Virage Shooting Brakes built by the Works Service, with the other six delivered to a single client. Notably, chassis 50005 is the sole example built with its 12-inch chassis extension; the other chassis featured longer, 16-inch extensions, making this Aston Martin unique and particularly desirable even among its exclusive companions.

Incredibly rare, and undeniably practical thanks to its seven seats, this Virage “Vacances” Shooting Brake would make for a perfect addition to any collection, and would be equally suited to country outings and exhibition at Aston Martin club and concours events.