Is the new Aston Martin Vantage the brand's most important car yet?
You don’t flip a car maker’s fortunes in a matter of weeks or months. It takes years. Cars take a minimum of three years in development and then they stay around on sale for more than twice that period. And no matter how good a brand is, it is the cars that carry the brand name that matter, so it’s harder still for a manufacture of exclusive cars to turn things around because it necessarily iterates new cars less often. That’s the orthodoxy anyhow, not that anyone told Aston Martin.
Here’s another new Aston Martin (I’ve lost count, but it could be the eighth this year…) and this one is maybe the most important yet, for now anyhow. It’s the new Vantage, more than just a little sister to the DB11. More like a lairy new nephew from the feral wing of the family, or should that be v-eral as it includes the upcoming new Vanquish, the Vulcan track car and the Valkyrie supercar/spaceship hybrid developed with Red Bull Racing.
Vantage is the most affordable Aston Martin and it replaces its namesake in that role since 2005. If it’s a little familiar it’s because a prototype was made for the movie Spectre where is was given the "DB10" name. It has of course evolved considerably since then getting Aston Martin’s new 510bhp twin-turbo four-litre V8 engine and the very latest version of the company structural and electrical architectures (as previewed on the DB11) and some nifty new hardware like Aston Martin’s first electronic differential.
Having driven that engine in the bigger, less-wieldy DB11 body without the "e-diff" I can say the Vantage is one potent package. I have yet to see it in the flesh yet so very wary of misinterpreting. It most certainly meets the CEO, Andy Palmer’s requirement that his mother would be able to tell it apart from the mechanically similar DB11.
It most certainly promises an exhilarating ride and is happy to trade a little traditional Aston elegance in order to do that. It is unconstrained by the weight of Aston history certainly, and that you may feel is a good thing on balance, or not. Aston calls the Vantage’s look "predatory" which given the current climate may also, on balance be a good thing or not.
Its also got a very large radiator grille. Here I honestly don’t know what to think. My first thoughts ran to “has it run over a much larger Aston Martin and the debris has got struck there?”. My second to Sir Kenneth Branagh’s luxurious ‘tache in his own Murder on the Orient Express redux. It is a very strong feature. Indeed it’s the identifying feature of the car given that it includes Aston’s signature "s-curvature" along it’s upper edge. Like the complicated and controversial C-pillar on the DB11 maybe it’s there as a talking point? Or maybe it’s meant to disrupt, like Cindy Crawford’s mole? Only its not like Cindy Crawford’s mole. It just hope it’s not like Cyrano de Bergerac’s hooter.
The standard response from car makers with, let’s just call it “visually challenging design” , these days is "…but it’s all about the aerodynamics" and the Vantage is no different, that funny hooter helping channel under the car where it can be tied up and handed cooling or aerodynamic roles. The latter so successfully that the new Vantage is said to generate significant downforce, something that’s not so easy to do on a road car without a bloody great big wing.
Inside the new Vantage takes advantage (sorry…) of both Aston’s access to Mercedes-Benz excellent "Command" control systems and the DB11s two-years head start with that system. Aston is still small enough to be in a constant state of evolution; the supertanker doesn’t have to stop to make small changes of direction. So just as the latest evolutions of the DB11 show material and contextual changes to the system, so the Vantage moves the game on still further.
I can’t say I was ever blown away by the dash and the instruments in the DB11. To be blunt, they just didn’t look expensive enough. Well the Vantage is a cheaper car, although at ￡121,000 it no longer feels like the "cheap" Aston Martin (not that it ever really was). I think the interior looks just fine in the photos.
Aston Martin has turned itself from a beautiful shambles - the original hot mess - with its head and heart in the past into a compelling and sexy and relevant car maker in a very short time indeed, less than half the lifetime of one of its new models. But that’s not the impressive thing. The Vantage might the most important Aston Martin for today, but in a few years time it will have a mid-engined cousin, and an electric one and a ‘recreational’ one too. The Vantage does confirm Aston Martinis new course, but the journey has only really just begun.
The Aston Martin Vantage – a brand new British classic, in pictures