The £1.5M Aston Valour has 715bhp & manual gearbox. Is this the greatest driver's Aston of them all?

Welcome to a new Harry's Garage video and today's car is very special. It is the Aston Martin Valor. This is their birthday present for being 110 years old Aston Martin and they've created this crazy V12 700 and something horsepower manual V12 Aston Martin GT craziness. It's got quite a high price list as well. It's about one and a half million is the figure Aston quoted to me and it's pretty damn special. We never thought we would see a V12 manual Aston in 2024 and the spec of this is just nuts. Let's go and have a closer look. Now you look at the design of this car and the one car it reminds me of is what appeared from Aston Martin in 2020. A one-off Aston called the Aston Martin Victor and that was a one-off done for a very wealthy individual using a Aston Martin 177 as a base and it was a V12 and it was a manual and it cost gazillions and it had about 800 horsepower and it was utterly wonderful and I think Aston Martin must have had a clamour well we want one too and this is their answer in 2024 for 110 very lucky individuals they built this and it's reminiscent the design of the Victor was meant to hark back to that age of Aston Martin V8s from the 80s and that's why they sort of integrated these round lights but for the Velar you see here they've completely redesigned it. There is a there's a sort of air dashing down here there's a bigger grille there's all sorts going on with this car looking at it to me I can't quite work out why that's red but I suppose when you've got everything is bespoke on this car if you're going to order one well then you could have in a different colour but there's something slightly awkward with the size of the lights I can understand why they did it but from the front I think it looks slightly strange but come round the side and then it gets utterly wonderful as far as I'm concerned the base of this car weirdly is not the Aston Martin DBS 770 Ultimate underneath it's actually that Vantage V12 final edition that they did I had it in the garage I think it was 2022 red car pretty angry but it's the first time they put the V12 in the Vantage body and it was 265,000 something so that is actually underneath this but this is pumped out I've got the dimensions the width of the V12 Vantage was 1962 the width of this is 2153 so really bulbous and you can see that happening here this wider starts here you can see the vent coming out to the front wheel well vented out of here and that badge saying 110 years of Aston Martin 1913 to 2023 and the wheels are very special as well I think we saw it on the DBS 770 this spider web design actually looks a bit of a nightmare to clean but at least you've got carbon disc behind it so you're not going to get any brake dust and the tyres are interesting because these are the Michelin Pilot Sport S5 so a new generation tyre and badge AML just for this application 275 35 21 inch come down and the round door is on there painted under the lacquer which is really nice the sill isn't quite as aggressive as it was on the Victor that you could barely get into the car but that was its sort of 177 Vulcan sort of background this car I think is absolutely beautiful I've been around with the Magnet because the Vantage was actually steel here this isn't this is just bespoke carbon everywhere rear tyres 325 30 by 21 inch and then round the back oh my goodness I just love the design of this first of all there's no rear window at the back here they have but they have these louvers and you think oh that's just little decoration but no they've they add these sort of lipses gurney flaps to add vortex to make it more efficient for creating downforce because this isn't a super aggressive a ducktail spoiler here but I just love that detail on here and then look at the aero going on with these sort of rear diffusers huge great things coming prowled away from the body and you can stare down there at some beautiful aluminium suspension components there's this bar of aluminium all the way across the back and these glorious lights that look like little lozenges of perspex like on the Aston Valkyrie and then this big proud Aston Martin the new badge on it and I think that's reminiscent of the V8 Vantage as well I open the back and it's vaguely sensible look a real boot and things this brace between the towers at the rear and then you can just see a glimpse of that interior of those carbon back seats all carbon up here and the optional extra umbrella in there because this is Britain and all it's done so far is rain since I've had this car here is pretty special as well it's left-hand drive this example but just look at that in there they've got the most aggressive seats in which I have a love-hate relationship because once you're in it's great but they're very sharp to clamber in and out of and then the exposed gear lever there which I will discuss when we get away because it's slightly flawed what I want to show you though is the engine all carbon of course and that engine shoved right back into the chassis as it was on the V12 aluminium towers and then this huge amount of bracing between those towers now it's interesting this engine because it's in this format it's 715 PS but it's 750 Newton meters of torque so it's not as powerful as the insulation in the DBS which is 900 Newton meters this is 750 and I think that's a limit because of the gearbox being this six-speed manual it was the same in the V12 vantages as well and it's a packaging issue that they can't fit a very big gearbox in it but anyway let's take it outside see how it drives yeah there's a definite technique to how you get in I find I put my hand on the sill and I've got to lift my left leg up sooner than you want so you hold your weight on your your left arm and you get in and then you don't get guillotined by the seat in an awkward place but anyway I'm in now and that's all good and as you'd imagine there's carbon fibre everywhere in this car or on show and I've just looked back at my video the V12 Vantage and just seeing what was different and it's very different here because yeah I'm afraid it's being the older car you have the old screen and all the buttons and it's unfortunate that it has that screen it hasn't got the updated that look the face here in the centre console that Aston have recently introduced on DBX and Vantage quite understand why but this is really quite beautiful and now we've all lots of cars have moved to screens somehow I don't mind the buttons as much as I did when I first saw this layout love this tweed though that all this from this you know historic era of Aston Martin you always think their race cars are probably leather no they use this tweed square section wheel as we've got to know from Aston no door pockets not a much practicality oh my god no nothing there as well I've got a little bit to put here I've got two cup holders didn't realise that at the back and a tiny little shelf and another shelf back there but it's a black hole back there because obviously you cannot see out the back window so I have a screen of a rear view mirror enough yattering let's just start her up right press the brake and it glows red I press instant recognition of that V12 a very smooth very turbine like sound distinctive which you'd hope for if you paid one and a half million pounds near light it's electric power steering unfortunately it's you know it's part of the regulations really they build it in the positive is it's then built into the traction control and stability control and offers you the lane assist but that isn't on this car so it has electric steering seats are weird once you're in your it's fine I have a manual adjustment here and go backwards and forwards by pulling on there and then I have electric just to the side here don't think it's worth going through the infotainment nonsense what really matters is this manual here one thing you can see this mechanism on show I'm in two minds whether that's a good thing or bad thing but I'll come to that later it's a little sloppy actually when it's an easy gate I give it that but once you're in gear it just seems to be a bit too much movement and reverse almost slams into the starter button but anyway enough let's get going I'm going to take it on some better roads now on the wheel I can adjust sort of engine map and dampers and it sets off obviously in sport this car but yeah just move off yeah 700 and something horsepower 715 isn't it yeah it does move this along very nicely it's well mapped as well it's not dominant hit of torque we'll find out a bit more as you get on to the other roads but uh yeah initial impressions one it has more compliance it rides better than you expect it should two it's easy to manage it's a light gear change it's it's a lightish clutch as well for that sort of horsepower so it's easier to manage and expect there is a butt coming to that which I'll get again I will get to later and on my noisy bitter road you won't be surprised to hear it's around 80 decimals something like that so not the quietest GT car but yeah who cares really like the way you can adjust the dampers and the engine settings on here so I tend to go to sports plus because it's just tightens up the dampers a bit more gives a bit more voice to the engine and just slightly sharpen the throttle the other thing we're going to go up by here we're going to just going to take the first stage of traction control off and it's quite funny you have to press it a long time it's almost saying do you really want to turn this off but it's a two-stage one so it's esp track rather than fully off but with the torque and horsepower of this it does intervene intervene quite early it's not a particularly sophisticated system that squirt up the hill what am I yeah there's portions of cars going I don't want to give them too much of a shot but I'll put it into second just have a little go up here so even then yeah even then the track control was just controlling wheel spin yeah you've I'm recording this the day of the British Grand Prix which you might have noticed it's been quite rainy and showery during the race and it's been like that here so there's little pockets of wet under trees of things so yeah I'm not going to turn it fully off because you never know what's hiding under the in the shade but there you go there's a little example of how it squirts right it does get a proper move on they claim under three and a half seconds 0-60mph which is pretty damn good for a manual gearboxed V12 and the weight of this car I would love to know the weight of this car because it was one of my criticisms of the car it's based on V12 Vantage and that was knocking the door of 1800 kilos and they talk of the devil the wipers are just gone so there's still showers around and that's a bit heavy isn't it but that had steel rear haunches and stuff I've gone round here with a magnet it's all carbon fiber the body is just carbon fiber all the way through so I wonder if it's that heavy the other thing you might just pick up this there's a quite a distinct sort of diff noise coming from it I presume that's a game because it's carbon fiber and it's not quite as insulated as you might get on a more road orientated production car but this just enjoys the actual position of the seats pedals weighting steering it's all just lovely anyway I'm quite interested to see how it is down here and you can't help but flick through and just hear it pop then second by me pretty much oh damn it yeah it's a bit of a bit of a fight but I put it in the softer damping setting because I don't want to upset the traction I don't want a stiffer damper on these sort of roads but yeah it keeps the concentration I haven't turned the radio on once in this car I've just think about driving and I suppose that's what it's all about is what do you expect in a car like this it's very really really good and I love how there's like there's no lap times they're not trying to break records with this car it's not like the Ferrari 812 Competizione when they you know the Fiorano time is critical to it no mention of anything like that on this car there's no performance figures actually in the press release and I really like that this is a road car to be enjoyed no deflections at all excellent beautifully controlled yeah I'm having to manage that torque it does overload the rear as you'd imagine good round there it's wide start wide track yeah it's stable it's got a it's got a lot of movement in the body I mean I have as I say I've got it on the softer setting I could put it up on just to get a tighter control some something this yeah likes and dislikes then starting with the dislikes I suppose see it's a little harsh but it's based on the V12 Vantage which we all thought was that's a lot of money £265,000 this is a £1.2 million premium on top of that car for the manual gearbox and the sexy body but who am I to say Aston they clearly know what they're doing because they sold them all so yeah I just wish they'd done the manual on the V12 Vantage last edition that would have been just glorious but I can understand the businessman in Lolland Stroll said no I'll do 110 very special manual gearbox V12 Vantages to yeah the looks I have it is stunning from certain angles at a side profile rear following glory I think it looks slightly awkward at the front those round headlights and the red grille it's a spec thing just don't look slightly awkward don't look quite right I know what they're trying to do I'm not quite sure if he pulls it off but as I say it looks stunning from other angles three gear change I don't think there's any excuse for a sloppy gear change at this price point they could have spent not a lot of money to improve the look of this if you look down they can sort of see why is it just they've just taken the rubber boot off it and I think that's a bit lazy I think it could have been even better than this and I don't think it should have the slop in it that it has yeah I've got distracted sorry other things I wish it had a slightly more sophisticated tractor control it's got the old system they're doing these glorious systems now this is one car that deserves that let's move on to the positives well one it exists well done for us to even build in this thing how do they build this in this day and age this crazy thing let's just try around here boot out here yeah I mean yeah it takes some effort to rev this out because the torque builds and it gets spiky at the top here right there just blow down the back yeah it's fiery as fire as you imagine yeah another another like is it's a bit of a handful a bit odd saying that but if I'm spending one and a half million on a crazy manual gearbox v12 Aston I don't want to just jump in and drive into its absolute limits straight away I'm gonna have to learn this I'm gonna have to control myself by enthusiasm and learn to drive this is a very good car for learning to drive unfortunately if you get it wrong the cost of the accident is going to be quite big what else to the the looks as I said before there are some angles where it is absolutely stunning and that should be celebrated and three the sort of performance the all-round usability the ride quality amazing for the it's such an extreme car so in conclusion what do I think well it's a it's it's a little flawed it's a bit like as I said with a v12 vantage that was similar I'm just gonna put the stampers that was similar and I like the way they've tried to hate the the 1970s and 80s big eight vantage that was actually a bit flawed but bloody marvellous my Countach is flawed but bloody marvellous as well and that's what this car is it's bloody marvellous and a bit flawed and I just love it so there you go that's my test of the new Aston Martin Velar I hope you enjoyed this review if you did well keep watching keep subscribing more videos coming along very soon