As usual we started the year off in style, but somewhat bleary eyed, in the form of the newly named London Parade that celebrated its 40th year on the 1st January 2026 with over 500,000 people lining the streets.
This year, we had a record turnout with 16 cars—our highest since my involvement and possibly in the past 39 years—thanks to a special dispensation from the organisers to exceed our quota and the dedication of our long-standing attendees and some new faces.
2026 coincides with the 25th Anniversary of the Vanquish and given that we have a staunch Vanquish ownership in Area 00 we decided to give the honours to the ‘Vanqui’ (sorry made up multiple) to lead our entry in the parade. As the delivery of my current model Vanquish is likely to be delayed by at least 25 years, Debbie kindly put her second generation Carbon Black Edition Vanquish aside and charmed Aston Martin Park Lane into supplying us with a beautiful third generation Liquid Crimson Vanquish Coupe with Satin Bronze wheels. We also had KK participating in her second generation Vanquish Volante in the custom Valentino Red and rounding out the Vanquish generations was George who has un-ladened himself of Project Vantage (the Vanquish prototype) to buy something more usable in the form his extremely recently purchased first gen Tungsten Silver Vanquish Coupe which I think did more miles on the day than in the last 5 years!
This year we were lucky enough to have not one but two people documenting our day in the form of Graham, our award-winning photographer, and Dan who bought all his modern tech and turned Greig’s humble Vanquish Zagato Coupe into his camera car for some Vanquish Anniversary footage later in the year. To round out our Vanquish-fest was Jeremy’s Aston Martin Works 60th Edition Volante, affectionately known as ‘Yellow Wheels’.
Upon writing this article I noticed that Aston Martin has just released the Vanquish Volante 60th Anniversary Edition. Given we also had the original ‘volante’ the DB2 Drophead Coupe in the parade this year, then maybe Aston Martin will lend us one in Liquid Crimson for a unique photoshoot with that and David Brown’s prototype now owned and spiritly used by Jose. Well… it can’t hurt to ask!
I have gone on too long and probably broken the world record for mentioning the word Vanquish (‘he said it again!’) in an article under 500 words but wanted to mention the next Area 00 drinks is tentatively planned for the 19th February at the RAC, Pall Mall, and will be our first drinks since our Christmas party which was a cracking evening thanks to KK’s wonderful planning. All the best for 2026.