FIRST DRIVE New 656bhp Aston Martin Vantage Too Much Power

This is the new Aston Martin Vantage. 656 horsepower, 202 miles an hour, 165,000 pounds and a complete step change for Aston Martin sports car. So I need to do a clever intro but I've been looking through the old motoring journalist's handbook and the guidelines for Aston Martin are all just James Bond. I mean, kill me now. So okay, I'll use Aston Martin's own literature. Let me read some of it to you. Vantage, a name ravished in racing royalty, hardwired with the ability to get your heart racing, forged in the fires of the limit. Well, I can't use that because I'm not clinically insane and I assume you're not either. So instead, we're going to have to go old school. You know the thing, montage, tyre smoke, slow-mo's, me making silly noises. But we will get to the crux of the issue. Have Aston Martin built a no-excuses Vantage and can this thing really stand toe-to-toe with a 911 Turbo? To do this, we're near Seville on some mighty roads. But let's begin on the circuit if for no other reason than to laugh at me in an open-face helmet. Damn you, Aston Martin. So all the signs are that the Vantage is going to be a massive, massive step on from the previous version. We saw them do a similarly thorough job with DB12, but this is more exciting, isn't it? Because it's their pure sports car. Now the power, 30% more power is the headlight, but it's the detail work that they've done to the chassis that particularly interests me. Aston has gone through the Vantage and changed, well, lots of stuff. The aluminium chassis is strengthened with a new front body crossmember, which has been moved rearwards to increase mounting point stiffness for the double wishbone front suspension. There's a stiffer and lighter strut brace to increase lateral stiffness and a new and more substantial shear panel. At the rear, there's another strut brace and the Vantage benefits from stiffer new under trays too. It also adopts more sophisticated Bilstein DTX dampers, similar to those used on the Porsche 992. There's an e-diff, the eight-speed auto box has a shorter final drive and faster shifts. It really is a thorough, almost radical update. So what does it feel like? Well, initially, the power does dominate the experience because it's so quick, but there's more to it than that. I'm just in sport mode now. Already, the car feels stiff, structurally, but also stiff in terms of the dampers. If I turn it up to sport plus, we have sport, sport plus and track. It's really aggressive. We obviously started on the track just to get the shock and awe of the performance, the ultimate grip handling. As you can tell, it's a much more aggressive proposition of the old one. Of course, I can't completely defy physics. You know it's quite a junky car, but the flip side is the balance is really good. I've still got the traction control activated, but it's already showing me that front engine rear drive balance that's just at the core of what an Aston Martin is all about. So signs are good. The Vantage feels lunatic fast and also surprisingly precise. In fact, I wonder if the updated look sells the car short. I like the 177 inspired front end and the big openings required to call that mighty AMG source motor, but somehow I think Aston could have turned it up a bit more. Maybe it needs to be called a Vantage S and have an F1 edition style wing with a cleaner touring package for those who prefer understatement. Anyway, soon we will delve into its trick new adjustable traction control and yes, turn it off altogether, but first we should probably drive this thing on the public highway. We come to the road in search of bumps and all that real world stuff, but we're in Spain, which is not like the real world anywhere else. So I think this road is smoother than the Monteblanco circuits, but all the subtleties that you just lose on the track because you're immediately on the limit or over the limit, you can start to feel on the road and the car actually feels, I think, a lot more impressive. It's really good fun on the track just because of the balance and the power effectively, but on the road some of that detail work that they've been talking about starts to come through. The ride quality, I have to say, when we just came out of the track was a bit knobbly. It's going to be interesting even in the standard sport mode. It's going to be interesting in the UK and other less fantastically surfaced roads to see how that feels, but on here I can ramp it up to sport plus no problem at all and actually there's still some lean in the car, which is nice because it makes it feel predictable and linear. You don't get a really nervous turn in. You've got something to build confidence in. A bit of weight transfer is really good in that respect, so I can just really feel what the chassis is doing, that tiny little bit of steering input. The steering's really clean and nice and there's just a greater level of sophistication, absolutely, than the previous gen car. It does feel just a different animal really. So there's a newfound sophistication and agility, but it's underpinned by the classical front-engined rear-drive balance. So I can tip it into a corner and as I get on the power I can almost feel the car. I need less and less steering angle. It's not sliding, but it's like it's unravelling the road for you with the throttle, which is a really nice feeling and then should you want to, you can go the next stage further and start to bully and tease the car around. I tell you what though, the engine feels mighty on the road. It felt great on the track, but obviously when you've got Armco and trees and speed limits. Do they have speed limits? I can't remember, but let's pretend they do. The engine feels even more just outrageously responsive, but when I hang on to it, it wants to rev as well. So you've got this lovely, strong and predictable torque, but it's worth revving out. You get a reward if you chase the red line. So what about other elements? Well, the gearbox is good. They've shortened up the final drive. It is good actually. It's really a nice auto. Engineers will tell you they're blue in the face, that they're better, that they're lighter, that they have advantages because in this car, for example, the gearbox has always got a bit of positive torque. That keeps the car nice and balanced in fast corners if you need a gear change. I understand all that, but you don't get the snap and the response and the feeling of specialness that a really good dual clutch box will bring you. It's not as good as a PDK box. That probably won't be a surprise to anyone, including Aston development drivers and engineers when they watch this. It's just not. That benchmark is out of sight for them. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the brakes also can't quite match a Porsche. They are consistent and powerful, but there's a little dead play at the top of the travel and on track, even the optional carbon ceramics start to struggle against a 1,605 kilo dry weight. However, the Vantage feels on the money dynamically in nearly every respect, and the look, feel and functionality of the interior is a different world to the old car. The glow of hand built is often undermined by the wonkiness of, well, hand built, but the new car gets it right. The infotainment system is good too, and there are even physical buttons for the major controls. Praise the Lord. So the interior is nice. The engine is mighty. Utility is good. This is a heavy car, but it just really changes direction nicely on the road. And I like that it has predictability, but also edge like I don't want my 650 horsepower car to just be looking after me and nannying me the whole time. The car gives you the tools, but if you want to get stuck in, it feels like a 650 horsepower supercar. And under power, the rear axle starts to hob under full noise. It's impressive. It's more impressive on the road than the track, and it's fun on the track. Speaking of fun, there is one new feature I'd like to explore a bit more. So we've started to explore some of the technology in this car, and it really is a leap on from the old version. But there is one thing that I really want to check, and that is the adaptive traction control. We've seen systems like this before from BMW, McLaren, Ferrari even, but I want to see how it works on this. Effectively, you turn off the ESP, and then you can dial up and down the traction control to build the angle as you go along. As it happens, we have this rather lovely racetrack to ourselves, and we're going to use this corner, third gear. We're going to start off low, build up to number eight, which is the very most lenient setting, and see just how good it is. I will pretend to be a really, really terrible driver, because obviously I'm brilliant, and see if it works. The system defaults to position five when you deactivate stability control, but we'll start at level one. Let's try it. Third gear. Basically, zero movement. So, it's not cutting power horrendously. You can feel that it's managing it, but it just won't let the angle build. So, that's one. Let's wind it up to level five. That's actually pretty clever. So, it doesn't really want you to pitch it in, but once you get the tail moving with power, you can commit to the throttle, and it just sort of holds the angle. That's pretty impressive. Okay. Next, we are going to dial to eight. So, let's see if it can have a bigger angle, but a similar level of control. Well, we have tyre smoke at level eight, so I would say that's a win. You would not want to try level eight if you've never done this before, but as a tool to build up to, that's great. Obviously, there's one more level, level nine, which we will now try, also known as off. So, the adaptive traction control is a really nice way to get access to the full advantage experience, but obviously, you can't be just turning everything off and finding out just how good the balance is. So, let's do that. We've got plenty of power. Just turn this thing in on the brakes, and it slides beautifully, and that talks a bit of the accuracy of the platform control that I've talked about before. The car just feels really smooth going over the limit of grip and then coming back, even in track mode, which I'm in now. So, really stiff and aggressive, but the car is just easy to handle all the time. You've got this really cool character that the electronics give you support to enjoy and indulge in, and then you can turn it up to, well, it's nine, but you can turn it up to 11 when you've got the confidence and space to just pitch it in for balance. It's pretty sweet. Criticisms on the track. It's actually pathetic. You can't see it at all, and that just seems ridiculous when you've got a car with this much potential. It is a heavy car. You can't get away from that, but overall, the entertainment and indulgence. This is fourth gear. It's just easy to handle. It's really pretty good fun, and I think just making sure this car is easy to handle, but has the character, the sort of lunatic, hairy-chested character if you want it, but in this really controlled way. Is it a 911 Turbo? No, it's a different car altogether, and it doesn't have the 911 Turbo's unbelievable speed on a track. It doesn't feel as small, as light, and as accurate, but it's got its own character, and it doesn't feel off the pace, which Aston have in the past felt a little off the pace. You're having to make a lot of sacrifice in order to have that badge. Now, I think they realize that's not how you go about building a car that people want. It has to be right, and they're putting in a great effort to do it, and the result is impressive. I like this thing. It's fun. I have been really impressed by this Vantage on the track and on the road. It's got a really clear identity, sense of integrity, and this cohesiveness as well. It's just a really good, fun thing. Now, is it faster than a 911 Turbo, as agile on the racetrack? Absolutely not. Can it cover ground as quickly on the road? Again, no, but I do think it's a Vantage that we don't need to make excuses for. Now, is it more fun than the 911 Turbo on the road? You know what? I think it might be. You can't really do much more than that.