First Drive: Aston Martin Virage Volante

The Aston Martin Virage Volante is an out and out feelgood car. It’s not the quickest soft top in the world. The DB9 it’s based on isn’t the newest or freshest either. Neither matters. This is a car you’ll pause and look over your shoulder at as you walk away, the reassuring weight of that glass ‘key’ in your pocket. Aston Martin rather pretentiously insists on calling it an ‘emotional control unit’ but, you know, they might have a point after all.

You might have thought there wasn’t much potential left to wring out of the DB9 platform but the Virage is a response to customer demand for something a bit more potent than the regular car but perhaps a little more restrained in looks than the Bond-spec DBS. One-77 inspired styling smoothes out the lines a little while injecting just a tad more attitude thanks to more aggressive side skirts and new side strakes with six LEDs each – one for each cylinder – on the fenders.