The first turbocharged V12 Vantage will also be the last. We went to Wales to see if it's worth the estimated £270k price tag.
Aston Martin hasn’t managed the feat of launching the last new car in the world to be powered by a 12-cylinder engine, at least not yet. But the Vantage V12 feels like it is getting to the pub just ahead of the landlord calling time. In an automotive world where everything will soon be at least partially electric, and an ever-increasing percentage of performance cars will be full EV, a fresh model that takes such a route one journey to speed feels thrillingly old fashioned.
Making its acquaintance in the paddock at Anglesey, the V12 categorically looks the business. The basic Vantage shape is clearly recognisable, but it has been turned up to 11: the design mission aggression rather than discretion. The V12 has a huge radiator grille, this 25 percent bigger than the V8’s and integrating with extensions to the front bumper and bonnet necessary to accommodate the new engine.
But these are minor grumbles, soon forgotten once onto north Wales slightly less famous three-sided driving route – what I think of as the Ffestiniog Triangle. The V12 is monstrously fast, yet also capable of delivering speed without any undue sense of drama. The engine makes less torque than it does in the DBS Superleggera - the 555lb ft peak is 108lb ft lower - but it is still able to project the car down the road without effort.
The argument about where Grand Tourer ends and sports car begins is both endless and unwinnable, but – by the time I’m heading back towards Anglesey – the Vantage V12 definitely feels more like a GT. Which is a very Aston trait, of course - but seems slightly at odds with the huge wing and the graunchy carbon-ceramics.
But Anglesey’s tighter corners highlight the challenge in persuading the V12’s chunky mass to change direction - it is 1,795kg in its lightest form on Aston’s numbers. I soon learn to bring speed down to something close to a corner’s minimum velocity before sending the front end in search of an apex; this absolutely isn’t a car that tolerates aggressive trail braking.
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