Aston Martin V12 Vantage first test drives
#1
05-20-2009, 02:49 AM
Aston Martin V12 Vantage first test drives
First one is made by CAR magazine:
This is the new Aston Martin V12 Vantage, and it has the potential to be one of the company’s greatest cars to enter its hardly shabby history books. The recipe is simple: take your smallest and lightest chassis and shoehorn into it (to the accompaniment of some polite British swearing) your biggest and most powerful engine. In this case, the result is an additional four cylinders, 90bhp and nearly £52k to Aston’s V8 Vantage. Big numbers – in every department, including that eye-watering price.
Is the new Aston Martin V12 Vantage as hardcore as the V12 RS concept?
We’re afraid not. The bright blue V12 Vantage RS concept that Aston unveiled at the opening of its Gaydon design studio in December 2007 featured a 600bhp V12 from the company’s DBRS9 racer, with the oil tank for the dry-sumped engine filling the Vantage’s boot.
To make the V12 concept a reality, the engine is essentially the same 5.9-litre V12 you’ll find in the DBS. The plumbing is slightly different (and there are some carbon bonnet vents to extract the extra heat), but you still get 510bhp and 420lb ft, plus active valves in the exhaust that woofle on start-up, bark monstrously when you blip the throttle and cry loudly when you home in on 7000rpm.
With dry-biased Pirelli Corsa tyres, the V12 isn’t exactly soft, but sat-nav is standard and the concept’s RS tag has been dropped. Why? Because the concept was ‘thrilling but frightening,’ according to Aston CEO Dr Bez, and ‘absolutely not the car we would have produced.’
I guess the big V12 adds a few extra kilos to the Vantage?
A full 100 kilos, according to Aston. But carbon ceramic brakes are standard and cut 12.5kg over the conventional items, plus the forged alloy 19-inch alloys shave 5kg, thinner inner rear quarter panels cut yet more weight, and if you opt for the brilliantly supportive, fixed-back £1756.81 carbon Recaros then they save another 17kg. Thus equipped, your V12 Vantage will only weigh 50kg more than a V8 Vantage.
And despite having a big V12 up front, the new Vantage never feels nose heavy. There’s loads of front-end grip and decent steering, too – the V12 has the best steering of any current Aston, with a lovely linear helm.
It looks gorgeous!
That it does. To some, the V8 Vantage can look a little slight, but the V12 looks like a thug in a suit. The new N24 race car inspired sills fill out the sides, while the new carbon splitter and rear diffuser are obvious enough to signal this car’s latent strength, without being too flashy like the DBS.
It’s pretty special inside too, with Alcantara and leather everywhere. The dashboard buttons are a little fiddly, but it's much less businesslike than in a Porsche, and feels much more inviting than a caged 911 GT2.
It’s not roomy though (despite being quite wide), the ludicrously chubby gearstick is set too far back for taller drivers, and the glovebox will only take a pair of gloves – if you own small hands. But these are faults common to many Astons, and aren’t enough to detract from the essential magnificence of the V12 Vantage.
So it’s pretty special then?
It is, especially if you press the Sport button, which gives you a much sharper throttle response and opens up those trick valves in the exhaust. It issues a banshee wail and sends you rocketing forward at the lightest brush of the throttle.
Sport mode doesn’t touch the dampers though. Unlike the DBS, the V12 has fixed-rate suspension, albeit a chassis that’s 15mm lower and 45% stiffer than in the V8. Of course it’s firm, but while the DBS can feel either too floaty or too firm, the Aston strikes a perfect balance, with the dampers taking the worst edges of any rough roads. It also feels massively resolved for a relatively low-volume special.
Beyond that, the V12 is massively quick – as you'd expect in a 510bhp coupé tipping in at 1680kg – with enough muscle to blast past anything on the roads, while the brakes are amongst the best ceramic set-ups around: full of feel and with lots of stopping power.
Verdict
One of the best Aston Martins ever sums things up pretty nicely. The V12 Vantage is brilliantly judged.
Aston Martin V12 Vantage (2009) CAR review | Road Testing Reviews | Car Magazine Online
This is the new Aston Martin V12 Vantage, and it has the potential to be one of the company’s greatest cars to enter its hardly shabby history books. The recipe is simple: take your smallest and lightest chassis and shoehorn into it (to the accompaniment of some polite British swearing) your biggest and most powerful engine. In this case, the result is an additional four cylinders, 90bhp and nearly £52k to Aston’s V8 Vantage. Big numbers – in every department, including that eye-watering price.
Is the new Aston Martin V12 Vantage as hardcore as the V12 RS concept?
We’re afraid not. The bright blue V12 Vantage RS concept that Aston unveiled at the opening of its Gaydon design studio in December 2007 featured a 600bhp V12 from the company’s DBRS9 racer, with the oil tank for the dry-sumped engine filling the Vantage’s boot.
To make the V12 concept a reality, the engine is essentially the same 5.9-litre V12 you’ll find in the DBS. The plumbing is slightly different (and there are some carbon bonnet vents to extract the extra heat), but you still get 510bhp and 420lb ft, plus active valves in the exhaust that woofle on start-up, bark monstrously when you blip the throttle and cry loudly when you home in on 7000rpm.
With dry-biased Pirelli Corsa tyres, the V12 isn’t exactly soft, but sat-nav is standard and the concept’s RS tag has been dropped. Why? Because the concept was ‘thrilling but frightening,’ according to Aston CEO Dr Bez, and ‘absolutely not the car we would have produced.’
I guess the big V12 adds a few extra kilos to the Vantage?
A full 100 kilos, according to Aston. But carbon ceramic brakes are standard and cut 12.5kg over the conventional items, plus the forged alloy 19-inch alloys shave 5kg, thinner inner rear quarter panels cut yet more weight, and if you opt for the brilliantly supportive, fixed-back £1756.81 carbon Recaros then they save another 17kg. Thus equipped, your V12 Vantage will only weigh 50kg more than a V8 Vantage.
And despite having a big V12 up front, the new Vantage never feels nose heavy. There’s loads of front-end grip and decent steering, too – the V12 has the best steering of any current Aston, with a lovely linear helm.
It looks gorgeous!
That it does. To some, the V8 Vantage can look a little slight, but the V12 looks like a thug in a suit. The new N24 race car inspired sills fill out the sides, while the new carbon splitter and rear diffuser are obvious enough to signal this car’s latent strength, without being too flashy like the DBS.
It’s pretty special inside too, with Alcantara and leather everywhere. The dashboard buttons are a little fiddly, but it's much less businesslike than in a Porsche, and feels much more inviting than a caged 911 GT2.
It’s not roomy though (despite being quite wide), the ludicrously chubby gearstick is set too far back for taller drivers, and the glovebox will only take a pair of gloves – if you own small hands. But these are faults common to many Astons, and aren’t enough to detract from the essential magnificence of the V12 Vantage.
So it’s pretty special then?
It is, especially if you press the Sport button, which gives you a much sharper throttle response and opens up those trick valves in the exhaust. It issues a banshee wail and sends you rocketing forward at the lightest brush of the throttle.
Sport mode doesn’t touch the dampers though. Unlike the DBS, the V12 has fixed-rate suspension, albeit a chassis that’s 15mm lower and 45% stiffer than in the V8. Of course it’s firm, but while the DBS can feel either too floaty or too firm, the Aston strikes a perfect balance, with the dampers taking the worst edges of any rough roads. It also feels massively resolved for a relatively low-volume special.
Beyond that, the V12 is massively quick – as you'd expect in a 510bhp coupé tipping in at 1680kg – with enough muscle to blast past anything on the roads, while the brakes are amongst the best ceramic set-ups around: full of feel and with lots of stopping power.
Verdict
One of the best Aston Martins ever sums things up pretty nicely. The V12 Vantage is brilliantly judged.
Aston Martin V12 Vantage (2009) CAR review | Road Testing Reviews | Car Magazine Online
Last edited by D55L; 05-20-2009 at 02:53 AM.
#2
05-20-2009, 02:52 AM
Second one by Autocar:
What is it?
On the surface the new Aston Martin Vantage V12 would appear to be a double-edged sword. For on the one hand it is undeniably Aston’s wildest and most exciting road car in recent history. But on the other, it does seem to point a great big finger in the direction of the DBS and say; “anything you can do, I can do better – and for £25,000 less.”
But whatever internal dilemmas Aston Martin may have created for itself with the 510bhp V12 Vantage, one thing is abundantly clear: this car is not for the faint hearted. It’s a proper hairy-chested driver’s car, similar in character to the original V8 Vantage from the late ’70s, early ’80s.
That is just as well, considering the sort of opposition it is up against. Step forward Ferrari’s achingly excellent but soon-to-be-replaced F430, Lamborghini’s quite brilliant new Gallardo LP560-4 and, of course, the Porsche 911 GT2.
Turning the regular Aston V8 Vantage into the tarmac-shredding V12 did not take Aston Martin an especially long time – about 12 months from start to finish – and the processes required to do so are predictable; shoehorn the larger V12 into the engine bay without chopping the chassis around too much, lower and stiffen the suspension, fit the carbon ceramic brakes from the DBS and give the interior a once over.
Yet the end result is a car that looks and feels like an entirely natural evolution of what’s gone before. It doesn’t seem in any way like an afterthought.
The only disappointing aspect is how much it weighs. Even though it has lightweight bucket seats and gets the carbon ceramic brake discs from the DBS, it weighs a mere 15kg less than its big brother.
The suspension is a massive 80 per cent stiffer at the back (40 per cent at the front) while the steering, dampers and rear differential have all been similarly uprated. And to prove how serious a driver’s car Aston Martin believes the Vantage V12 to be, it has even fitted track day-spec Pirelli P-Zero Corsa tyres as standard. Which is great – until you come across a patch of standing water, at which point you’re in the lap of the gods.
What’s it like?
If it looks like a serious piece of kit from the outside, the theme continues at pace when you climb aboard. The first things you become aware of are the steering wheel (clad in soft-feel alcantara) and the new lightweight seats, which save 18kg over the regular items and feature huge side support.
Once you’ve worked out how to start it– insert the key fob into the dash and then hold it there for three seconds while singing the Thai national anthem backwards – the noise that erupts when the V12 catches is a little bit of an anti-climax. I had expected it to burst into life with a deafening explosion, but instead it delivers a merely quite loud cough of revs and then settles to a surprisingly refined idle.
The moment you move away, however, everything begins flowing in the right direction. The exhaust noise improves three-fold when the engine is under load, and the ride is instantly firm without being overly ridiculous. Even the gearchange feels lighter, more direct and just better than it is in the DBS.
The Aston doesn’t reveal the full fury of its new personality until you find the space, and have the inclination, to put your foot down and hold it there for a few seconds. But when you do, and it doesn’t matter which of the first four gears you happen to be in at the time, the penny drops so quickly you may well never find it again.
Within the confines of a typical English B-road, which is where we spent much of this particular test, it’s one of those rare cars that feels so fast it’s actually a bit scary. In third gear, especially, it absolutely fires itself at the horizon with anything more than 3000revs wound into the crank.
And if you then press the sport button, which transforms the throttle response from oh-yes to oh-my-god in a heartbeat, the Vantage enters that rarest of arenas in which the acceleration it can generate becomes genuinely uncomfortable. You end up wondering whether it’s you or the car that’s in control. And in a warped kind of way that’s a delicious realization.
And boy does it stop well, too, thanks to the power and response of those huge great carbon ceramic discs.
The Aston’s monumental straight line performance would be all but useless if its chassis couldn’t take the heat, however, but if anything it’s even more impressive through the corners than it is down the straights. That’s an extraordinary achievement on Aston’s behalf because, while the regular V8 is a decent enough handler, it’s no rule-breaker.
Should I buy one?
So far the Porsche 911 GT3 has had an entire sub-niche of the market to itself, but the V12 Vantage, though still not just as focused as the GT3, at last provides a viable alternative. It’s a surprisingly good attempt from Aston Martin, a car that hits the spot with far greater accuracy than the DBS on which it’s based. So yes, if you can afford it, go ahead and write out the cheque. You will not be disappointed.
Aston Martin Vantage 6.0 V12 2dr Coupe - Road Test First Drive - Autocar.co.uk
VIDEO:
Autocar Videos - Autocar.co.uk
What is it?
On the surface the new Aston Martin Vantage V12 would appear to be a double-edged sword. For on the one hand it is undeniably Aston’s wildest and most exciting road car in recent history. But on the other, it does seem to point a great big finger in the direction of the DBS and say; “anything you can do, I can do better – and for £25,000 less.”
But whatever internal dilemmas Aston Martin may have created for itself with the 510bhp V12 Vantage, one thing is abundantly clear: this car is not for the faint hearted. It’s a proper hairy-chested driver’s car, similar in character to the original V8 Vantage from the late ’70s, early ’80s.
That is just as well, considering the sort of opposition it is up against. Step forward Ferrari’s achingly excellent but soon-to-be-replaced F430, Lamborghini’s quite brilliant new Gallardo LP560-4 and, of course, the Porsche 911 GT2.
Turning the regular Aston V8 Vantage into the tarmac-shredding V12 did not take Aston Martin an especially long time – about 12 months from start to finish – and the processes required to do so are predictable; shoehorn the larger V12 into the engine bay without chopping the chassis around too much, lower and stiffen the suspension, fit the carbon ceramic brakes from the DBS and give the interior a once over.
Yet the end result is a car that looks and feels like an entirely natural evolution of what’s gone before. It doesn’t seem in any way like an afterthought.
The only disappointing aspect is how much it weighs. Even though it has lightweight bucket seats and gets the carbon ceramic brake discs from the DBS, it weighs a mere 15kg less than its big brother.
The suspension is a massive 80 per cent stiffer at the back (40 per cent at the front) while the steering, dampers and rear differential have all been similarly uprated. And to prove how serious a driver’s car Aston Martin believes the Vantage V12 to be, it has even fitted track day-spec Pirelli P-Zero Corsa tyres as standard. Which is great – until you come across a patch of standing water, at which point you’re in the lap of the gods.
What’s it like?
If it looks like a serious piece of kit from the outside, the theme continues at pace when you climb aboard. The first things you become aware of are the steering wheel (clad in soft-feel alcantara) and the new lightweight seats, which save 18kg over the regular items and feature huge side support.
Once you’ve worked out how to start it– insert the key fob into the dash and then hold it there for three seconds while singing the Thai national anthem backwards – the noise that erupts when the V12 catches is a little bit of an anti-climax. I had expected it to burst into life with a deafening explosion, but instead it delivers a merely quite loud cough of revs and then settles to a surprisingly refined idle.
The moment you move away, however, everything begins flowing in the right direction. The exhaust noise improves three-fold when the engine is under load, and the ride is instantly firm without being overly ridiculous. Even the gearchange feels lighter, more direct and just better than it is in the DBS.
The Aston doesn’t reveal the full fury of its new personality until you find the space, and have the inclination, to put your foot down and hold it there for a few seconds. But when you do, and it doesn’t matter which of the first four gears you happen to be in at the time, the penny drops so quickly you may well never find it again.
Within the confines of a typical English B-road, which is where we spent much of this particular test, it’s one of those rare cars that feels so fast it’s actually a bit scary. In third gear, especially, it absolutely fires itself at the horizon with anything more than 3000revs wound into the crank.
And if you then press the sport button, which transforms the throttle response from oh-yes to oh-my-god in a heartbeat, the Vantage enters that rarest of arenas in which the acceleration it can generate becomes genuinely uncomfortable. You end up wondering whether it’s you or the car that’s in control. And in a warped kind of way that’s a delicious realization.
And boy does it stop well, too, thanks to the power and response of those huge great carbon ceramic discs.
The Aston’s monumental straight line performance would be all but useless if its chassis couldn’t take the heat, however, but if anything it’s even more impressive through the corners than it is down the straights. That’s an extraordinary achievement on Aston’s behalf because, while the regular V8 is a decent enough handler, it’s no rule-breaker.
Should I buy one?
So far the Porsche 911 GT3 has had an entire sub-niche of the market to itself, but the V12 Vantage, though still not just as focused as the GT3, at last provides a viable alternative. It’s a surprisingly good attempt from Aston Martin, a car that hits the spot with far greater accuracy than the DBS on which it’s based. So yes, if you can afford it, go ahead and write out the cheque. You will not be disappointed.
Aston Martin Vantage 6.0 V12 2dr Coupe - Road Test First Drive - Autocar.co.uk
VIDEO:
Autocar Videos - Autocar.co.uk
#3
05-20-2009, 03:57 AM
I love that car and the colour it really looks outstanding, sporty and very elegant. The Vantage is my favourite model in the Aston Martin series.
#4
05-20-2009, 07:21 AM
A bit mean to make it race against a GT2. We all knew how that would end...
The turbo would have been a more fitting rival imo.
That said I do like the car but for that money I think the competition has a slight edge, unless you are from England of course
The turbo would have been a more fitting rival imo.
That said I do like the car but for that money I think the competition has a slight edge, unless you are from England of course
#6
05-20-2009, 09:15 AM
Sounds good, I want this car! Being a poor student sucks!
Although, the gripe about "the ludicrously chubby gearstick is set too far back for taller drivers" sounds much like what Mr. Clarkson said about the DBS in his "Thriller" film, that the shoulder support interferes with, well, your shoulder when shifting. Good job I'm only a measley 6'4'', and not 8'25'' like NotSoMiniC...
Anyface, in these times of recession, I think it would be suitable move for Mr. Bond to downsize his motorcar - get him one of these.
D55L, you need a custom title, "The Mr. News of TeamSpeed", "The MI5 of TS" or something. Alway bringing the latest and greatest, thanks a lot dude! Rep'ed!
Although, the gripe about "the ludicrously chubby gearstick is set too far back for taller drivers" sounds much like what Mr. Clarkson said about the DBS in his "Thriller" film, that the shoulder support interferes with, well, your shoulder when shifting. Good job I'm only a measley 6'4'', and not 8'25'' like NotSoMiniC...
Anyface, in these times of recession, I think it would be suitable move for Mr. Bond to downsize his motorcar - get him one of these.
D55L, you need a custom title, "The Mr. News of TeamSpeed", "The MI5 of TS" or something. Alway bringing the latest and greatest, thanks a lot dude! Rep'ed!
#7
05-20-2009, 09:26 AM
And yes, a downsize would be appropriate for Mr. Bond!
#8
05-20-2009, 09:38 AM
Guess we'll just have to find one hidden in a barn and then forgotten in twenty years time. I mean, restoring a V12 Aston couldn't be that expensive, right?
#10
05-20-2009, 09:55 AM
Both of those cars will probably be illegal by then!