This low-mileage Aston Martin Lagonda Taraf 4-door saloon belongs in a museum. It is ultra-luxury decadence, the type of decadence you would associate with the ancient Pharaohs if they were alive today. But the owner decided he wasn’t yet ready for the afterlife and the Taraf was simply no longer the chariot of choice. The Aston Martin Lagonda Taraf gave rise to the stop-start Lagonda nameplate, a heritage moniker laid dormant until the need arose to awaken the ancient marketing spirits within. And the ancient spirits are derived from the Shawnee tribe, an Algonquian-speaking ethnic group indigenous to North America. The Shawnee were not completely wiped out by the civilized European hordes. Today what remains of the descendant Shawnee populous resides in the state of Oklahoma.
Whereas as the Shawnee has become a forgotten, a footnote of muderous conquest, the Lagonda name lives on. Today it is known for being part of a legendary automotive marque finding a new home with Aston Martin since 1947. Its true native American meaning is lost under the re-marketing efforts of ultra-luxury leather and thick wool carpets. And the namesake was revived in 2015 with a series of limited edition Taraf salons. Taraf is an Arabic term for ultra-luxury. Initially, Aston Martin planned to make 200 examples, eventually settled on 120, but only 60 handbuilt units were ever built. And these handbuilt cars were so luxuriously appointed each one cost £1 million GBP.
And for that price, you would expect the Taraf to be powered by plutonium-fueled diamonds. But it’s a Ford-derived 5.9-liter, naturally aspirated V12 generating 533bhp and 630Nm of torque (465 lb-ft).
And this particular 2016 example is up for sale at Aston Martin specialists, Nicolas Mee. It only has 93 miles on the clock, and a 1,000W Bang And Olufsen system. A car of this rarity and of enormous expense is an investment as much as it is an Aston Martin.
The low mileage, low numbers, luxury, and exclusivity mean this Lagonda Taraf will most likely exceed the original retail price.
