2014 Aston Martin Vanquish first drive review

In the past I have found the Vanquish a confusing, not to say confused car.

While the wondrous V12 Vantage S is a sports car down to its tyres and the DB9 a classic GT, the role of the Vanquish has always seemed less distinct. It is clearly the predominantly sporting car any Aston flagship should be.

It’s still nowhere near as sharp as the Vantage and the new gearshifts are more swift than savage, but the Vanquish is a car with a better power to weight ratio than a Porsche 911 GT3 and for the first time in its life, it feels it. Most of the time and quite unlike the previous Vanquish, it feels like the torque converter is locked so there is little or no mush in the system: you prod the pedal and now it responds in kind.

Even so, its pace is not going to frighten a Lamborghini Aventador, let alone the Ferrari F12. Aston’s flagship’s will do thrilling all day long, but if you want to go past that point where exhilaration turns to wide-eyed, white-knuckled fear, you’ll need an Italian or just a rather cheaper, more practical Porsche 911 Turbo S.

But if you are more interested in how a car feels than how fast it is from point to point, the Vanquish has more to commend it that ever. Its steering is the most lucid in its class and its chassis probably now the best balanced. Use one to exploit the other and there’s rare and sophisticated pleasure to be had here.

The price paid is ride quality. I’d tolerate some additional secondary interference as price worth paying for its additional agility, but the primary body movements over humps and dips are just disappointing.

On admittedly tough roads in the Scottish Highlands, the Vanquish felt under-damped and like it would lack the poise of its best rivals.

This is a much-improved car, albeit one that continues to trade heavily on Aston Martin’s historical strengths of charm and tradition rather than state-of-the-art ability. 

True, the gearbox has removed the car’s single biggest failing but it would be more unkind than inaccurate to observe all it has really done is allow the Vanquish to become the car it should have been from the moment it was launched. 

But when that car is as indulgent, satisfying and emotionally appealing as this one now is, such earlier and now irrelevant transgressions are easily overlooked.

Aston Martin Vanquish 

Price £192,995; 0-62mph 3.8sec; Top speed 201mph; Economy 22.1mpg (combined); CO2 298g/km; Kerb weight 1739kg; Engine V12, 5935cc, petrol; Installation longitudinal, front, RWD; Power 568bhp at 6650rpm; Torque 465lb ft at 5500rpm; Gearbox 8-speed automatic