As is the current vogue, a red starter button mounted on the centre of the console fires up the motor. The engine runs smoothly and sounds great to boot, even at idle. Only Lamborghini builds a better V12 that also sounds better.
Cutting a new set of gear ratios could not have been cheap, but it is money well spent. The Vantage feels even quicker than the 0-60mph time of 5.2sec suggests. The car launches hard in first gear and pulls well through the next three gears. Although the V12 sounds happy right up to its 7000rpm rev limit, you’ll only need to use about 5000rpm for extremely rapid progress.
The Vantage is a complete contrast, though. It is a consummate grand tourer and pleasurable to drive quickly anywhere. It’s also a pleasure to stop anywhere, too. Large four-pot callipers at the front grip 355mm ventilated discs and these brakes are quite breathtaking.
The car rides extremely smoothly and the stiffening work done around the transmission tunnel and the revised wishbones have imbued the Vantage with excellent straight-line stability. It’s major weakness though is in the steering. There’s little feel and although the weighting can’t be faulted the steering itself feels slow and unresponsive.
It is well mannered through corners with the traction control, but turn it off and the Aston’s rear can easily be made to slide.
