Iconic new Vantage

During what will be a crowded year of new car launches, the Aston Martin Vantage is among the most anticipated.

It is the first all-new Vantage for 12 years, so there is a fair degree of pent-up anticipation about what it looks like, and how it drives.

Driven has been driving the car, at the outstanding Portimao race car circuit and on various roads on the Algarve region of Portugal.

Aston Martin has been teasing us about the car for months, and in October we saw it in the flesh for the first time, in Melbourne. The first uncamouflaged pictures emerged earlier this year.

It is a dramatic departure from the more traditional Aston Martin-shaped luxury sports cars immortalised by James Bond, although the car Daniel Craig drove in Spectre in 2015 gave us plenty of clues about how it would look.

The car has an aggressive appearance, ready for road or track action, and it produces a great soundtrack from the 4-litre V8 AMG engine, that can be amplified further through the exhaust set-up.

The Vantage has a top speed of

314km/h, accelerating from zero to

100km/h in 3.6 seconds.

It is 284mm shorter than the DB11, and 34mm shorter than a Porsche 911, and yet the boot is large enough to accommodate two sets of golf clubs.

Driven will have a full report on the driving experience soon, along with more details about the model.

Aucklanders will notice one of the first to arrive here. It is in the halo Lime Essence colour, to be delivered to the owner in either June or July, and will definitely stand out on local roads.