In May 2009, rumors flared up about a V12 Vantage Roadster being in the making.

On May 12, some spy shots were posted on WorldCarFans.com, of a car that looked suspiciously like a V12 version of the V8 Vantage Roadster
(or a Roadster edition of the V12 Vantage).

The pics showed a dark-blue Vantage Roadster, clearly sporting several specific V12 Vantage elements: the carbon splitter at the front, the carbon diffuser and the slightly higher spoiler at the rear, the wide and sharp edged sills on the sides.
Everything but the carbon fibre louvres in the bonnet and the V12 specific rims.

Here’s two of the pics posted by WorldCarFans.com

Is this really a V12 Vantage Roadster? WorldCarFans.com thought it was and even predicted that the Roadster version of the V12 Vantage would be reveiled at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show (which obviously never happened).

Well-known car news site Autoblog.com first duplicated the rumors spread by WorldCarFans.com, but two days later retracted their earlier post and said the car was “actually a beefed-up V8”, “a regular V8 Roadster, only wearing an extra body kit to give it a more substantial look”.

Looking back at these pics now, they could be right. Maybe it was an early prototype of the Vantage S Roadster, which is a beefed up V8 wearing an extra body kit 🙂

Strangely enough, WorldCarFans.com stuck to their story and on May 25 posted more spy shots of the same car, now doing some laps on the Nordschleife track.
Quoted from their article: “According to spies, there was no doubt this topless Aston had a V12 under the hood”.

Some pics of the blue Roadster on The Ring (more here):

During May 2009, these spy-shots went viral and were posted by all major car news sites. Most of em simply repeating WCFs opinion that these really were the first pics of an upcoming V12 Vantage Roadster.

Was this really a first V12 Vantage Roadster prototype. I don’t know, but I hope it was.