Takin’ Vantage
The name Aston Martin instantly conjures up an image of quintessential Britishness that never fails to engender a unique type of automotive passion, as Stephen Paul Hardy explains.
The Aston Martin charisma packages superbly powerful automotive engineering, styling and build quality together into exemplarily elegant and prestigious touring cars.This is all achieved without having to resort to flamboyant, aggressive or eccentric styling and marketing.
THE PASSION
With a company history that makes fascinating reading embracing more influential names from industry and the world of finance and investment in its story than most automotive marques, it is a paradigm of modern times.To the onlooking world though, the marque simply evokes strong mental images now spanning from British Royal patronage to big screen star roles.
For me, as an auto enthusiast,Aston Martin has been a roller coaster relationship. From the classic heydays of the DB1 to DB6 models, between 1948 and 1970, through what I frankly find the boring period from then on through the 1980s until resurgence and the modern heydays starting on the eve of the 1990s.A resurgence spearheaded by the emergence of the DB7 in 1994 subsequently reinforced by the DB9 in 2003. Both the classic and modern heydays are marked by styling and engineering high points no doubt reinforced by the iteratively evolving film imagery through the James Bond association.
Central to that nineties resurgence was the evolution of theV8Vantage from the 1989 Mirage. With a production life spanning 1993 to 2000, until replaced by the Vanquish in 2001, the model exuded - and delivered - everything associated with modern Aston Martins.
HANDLED WITH CARE
GT Spirit's recent sealed-resin 1/18 scale release of the late seriesV8Vantage Le MansV600 (GT401) from 1999 joins its early series 1993V8 Vantage (GT345) released back in October 2021. Individually, but more particularly as a pair, these are stunning, high-quality models of outstanding automobiles.Their attraction is enhanced by how good they look in complementary, authentic Aston Martin metallic green paintwork combined with how accurately they illustrate the upgrading changes from the 1993 version to the 1999 ‘closeout' Le Mans Edition.That limited run closeout edition of 40 cars honoured Aston Martin's 1959 victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours and was premiered at the Geneva Auto Show on the 40th anniversary of that win.
I aways wear white cotton gloves to handle models whilst doing photoshoots as a matter of course, but this pair demanded their use also almost ‘by command' on account of their exceptionally immaculate deep finish metallic paintwork and equally immaculate detailing.The light green paintwork of the 1999 version Vantage is luxuriously contrasted by its beige interior, whist the Le Mans in dark green metallic is upholstered in timelessly elegant fir tree green. Naturally the full detailing on both runs to such small details as the very good depiction of the extensive veneer trim to dashboard, console and doors.
In established GT Spirit style, the extensive detailing and superb finish of both models is absolutely enchanting and sitting both examples side-by-side takes the fullest advantage of their demonstration of the myriad of detail differences between them. DC