Vantage is proof of life at Aston Martin
The proof this all-new Vantage is unlike any Aston Martin to have gone before it arrives on the very first lap of the worryingly damp race track chosen for the car’s launch.
Surprisingly, it arrives again on lap two. Then again on laps three, four, five and six.
And then it just keeps on arriving, lap after lap, until at last a cranky-but-clipped British voice crackles over the radio, asking if we wouldn’t mind please bringing their very new and very expensive car back to pit lane.
Right now, please. And posthaste.
That’s because this Vantage is such huge bags of fun from behind the wheel that you just want to keep driving – exhaust booming, engine howling, face split by an ever-growing grin – until either the fuel tank runs dry or the good people of Aston Martin finally give up and call the police.
To be clear, that’s not an attribute always associated with Astons of old.
They were achingly beautiful, sure – and even more so of late – but the performance didn’t always match the looks.
The man now responsible for balancing the show/go ledger is new chief engineer Matt Becker, who joined Aston Martin three years ago having been poached from fellow iconic Brit brand Lotus.
Becker says his number one priority has been making sure the all-new Vantage lives up to its own hype, saying; ‘‘the brief I got is that they wanted me to make the cars drive like they look.’’
That’s no small feat when the car in question looks like quite so potent as this, what with its gaping predator-style grille, body lines so sharp they could have been forged by a Japanese sword maker and the lowest nose the brand has ever produced.
But happily, if the Vantage looks like a sleek and air-slicing performance car, it feels every bit as monstrous from behind the wheel.
A sizeable chunk of that is down to Aston’s new ‘‘technical partnership’’ with Mercedes-Benz; a deal that has unlocked access to AMG’s twin-turbo V8 engine (also found in the AMG GT) which is now nestled under the long bonnet of the Vantage.
In the Aston, that German engine produces a whopping
375kW and 685Nm, sending that power charging toward the rear tyres via an eight-speed ZF automatic.
It’s enough for a sprint to
100kmh in 3.6 seconds and a flying top speed of 314kmh.
The engine, unchanged from the AMG factory outside of its engine management programme, is mounted as far back Aston’s engineers could push it, helping achieve the Vantage’s claimed
50:50 weight distribution.
Also new for this Vantage is an electronic rear differential – a first for the British brand – along with adaptive dampers linked to three drive modes; Sport, Sport Plus and Track.
It sits on a similar bondedaluminium frame as the brand’s
DB11, a lightweight chassis setup uses aerospace adhesives to hold it all together, helping to keep the dry weight to 1530kg.
If all that sounds fast on paper, it sounds even faster in the metal.
A quad-tipped sports exhaust is almost comically loud, the Vantage thundering to life with such ferocity that Aston’s engineers were forced to install a ‘‘quiet-start’’ function to ensure the car’s owners aren’t chased from their neighbourhoods every time they kick their car into life in the morning.
It’s that exhaust, combined with the thick and constant torque delivery from the V8 engine, that makes the Vantage so much fun when you’re really pushing it, each prod of the accelerator not just accompanied by forward propulsion so instant it feels telepathic, but also by this thundering base so heavy you can feel it vibrating through the still air of the cabin.
There is so much meaty torque available at any given point that planting your foot sees the Vantage utterly scream through its gears, no let up in acceleration as you head well north of anything approaching a legal speed limit.
Every upward gear change is announced by this wondrous crack, and downshifts attract their own cacophony of snarling burbles and pops.
In its sportiest Track setting, the steering is swinging-kettlebells-around-the-cabin heavy, which impacts steering feel, but you still feel intimately connected with the front tyres, the Aston bitting into corners with plenty of precision.
The tyres serve up plenty of grip, too, and require some serious provocation to surprise you with a sideways step.
Away from the track, though – which is surely where most owners will be spending most of their time – the Vantage is comfortable enough to double as a daily driver, with a spacious twoseat cabin and a ride supple enough, in its softest setting, to ensure you won’t be searching for your lost fillings after sitting in traffic on the way to work.
There are some constant reminders of its performance intentions, though, especially at slow speeds, where it feels like it’s fighting against the darker sides of its nature, surging forward as if to remind you what’s under the bonnet.
The 20-inch alloy wheels (each wrapped in a Pirelli compound specific to Aston) are too big for the body work, too, rubbing against the inside of the wheel arches on three-point turns, and the traction control can fight the engine even on straight-speed stuff if the road is even a little bit damp. So, the cost?
That would be $300k to NZ buyers when the Vantage arrives around the middle of this year.
Will it be able to topple the likes of the Porsche 911 GTS?
That’s a question impossible to answer without pitting them against each other back-to-back.
But one thing is absolutely certain; the all-new Vantage is an Aston Martin that is so much more than a pretty face.