Shame about that flipping gearbox, though.
The older V12 Vantage came with a 6-speed manual ‘box, which has been cast
aside in favour of a 7-speed, single-clutch Sportshift III automated manual,
from Graziano. If you’ve ever been in one of those airport buses, where the
drivers feel the need to constantly pump-brake the daylights out of hapless
passengers, you’ll get a rough idea of the manner in which this unit works—to call
it clunky would be a disservice to clunkiness everywhere.
At in-town speeds, there’s an almost
interminable delay between upshifts, and the next gear arrives with a ‘wham!’
that has whiplash written all over it. Shift manually, with the well-placed
flappy paddles, and with a hint of lift-off before the next higher gear, and
things become less torturous—but I still swore a fair bit.
Thankfully, you can avoid this predicament
by switching to Sport mode, shifting manually and driving flat out, at which
point the transmission comes into its own and actually feels like something
manufactured in the 21st century; downshifts, especially, are executed very
quickly.
The
V12 Vantage S's engine is naturally aspirated
Its gearbox may have some tardy tendencies,
but show this car a series of corners and you’ll quickly forget the involuntary
neck workouts it gives you. As I mentioned earlier, the wave of torque at your
disposal means that you just have to hold a gear and point it where you want it
to go; successive bends almost fuse into one another, as the Aston rushes from
one to the next. It has a fantastically alive steering wheel, despite the
electrically boosted setup, and at all times, it stays well-weighted and
stable; it also tells you what the front wheels are doing.
With the adaptive suspension set to Sport,
the Vantage hunkers down and absolutely flies through corners, greatly assisted
by the Pirelli Corsa tyres—these bloody things are almost race-spec, and they
offer phenomenal levels of grip (think ‘chewing gum under shoes‘); it would
have taken someone with infinitely more skill than me to test the absolute
limits of the V12’s traction, and the carbon ceramic brakes ensured that I
stayed on the right side of the hilly roads. The car also offered a surprisingly
good level of ride quality, despite its overall stiffness—but then this was on
very smoothly surfaced roads.
Even
with its go-faster motives, the V12 S' cabin feels generously luxurious
It almost goes without saying that this car
looks as fabulous as it is to drive. The Vantage has always been a beautiful
machine, and this version still is—only in a slightly angry manner. The
carbon-fibre grille inset and the vents on the hood give you an idea of its
aggressive intentions, and its wide stance and massive wheel arches add to the
sense of drama. From any angle, this is a jaw-droppingly gorgeous automobile,
and the relatively advanced age of its design shows no sign of becoming
outdated any time soon. This particular car is from the Q by Aston Martin stables
(its custom-finish unit, and the very same chaps who dressed up the stunning
CC100 Speedster concept), and was built for the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show.
Glass
buttons feel exquisite and are some of the nicest and most special in the
market
The Q touch explains the yellow stripe on
the centre console that I mentioned earlier—it’s pretty much the only design
element that I don’t like in this car. The cabin is well finished, certainly
(and man, those dials are great), but it’s beginning to look its age, both in
terms of its overall design and the materials used. Everything is a little too
shiny, and the centre console looks dated, compared to the competition. It’s
also rather quirkily put together, with D, S and R buttons in the middle of the
console, and no Park mode—you put the car in neutral and yank the hand-brake
(un-yanking it takes some doing, let me tell you).
Carbon
ceramic brakes will effectively shed any residual velocity when called upon
The seats are great, with superb side
bolstering, to make sure you stay in place while flinging the car around at
questionable velocities, and it’s the kind of cabin that makes you want to just
go out and drive, which is as it should be. In fact, everything about this car
is as it should be—the way it looks, the way it sounds, the way it sends blood
rushing straight to your head (and, er, other parts), the way it grips the road
like it’s going out of style—everything. I had already decided that my first
Aston drive would be an amazing one, as I said earlier, and this rip-snorting
car had proved that sometimes, it’s not a bad idea to pre-judge.
