What‘s it? Inside the bad old days of Aston Martin, long before Dr Bez and his team took as well as transformed the corporate into the things today, the revised Aston Martin V8 Vantage you observe here would have represented a shining light towards a bright new future. Its 420bhp V8 engine would have seemed as a pillar of power and efficiency, while its gently tweaked rear-wheel-drive chassis and tastefully appointed styling upgrades would have seemed so modern as to become from another dimension. But which was a then and it really is now – and at this time, despite a choice of entirely worthy and welcome upgrades, the dear old Vantage faces some extremely stiff competition. The new, sixth-generation Porsche 911 is already upon us, having been greeted using a deafening round of applause, while new versions from the Audi R8 and BMW M6 are only just all around the next corner. Life to the 10-year-old Vantage is going to become very hard indeed, or so it would appear. For while the fundamental platform from the car remains unchanged (it’s a similar VH structure that’s been utilized by Aston because the company’s rebirth in 2002 ), this most recent choice of updates amounts to rather not only a mild style makeover. Along with the more obvious visual tweaks towards the front and rear ends, the chassis is retuned to provide something near what’s on offer using the excellent Vantage S model, as the brakes have grown in size together with the wheels and tyres. Better still, the steering rack is modified to provide much sharper responses, again the thought being in order to make the steering more similar in feel to that from the Vantage S.
As well as for those of the sufficiently modern persuasion, Aston Martin V8 Vantage’s new and reasonably swift seven-speed Sportshift II transmission becomes available, albeit being an option that costs an additional £5k. The conventional car’s six-speed manual gearbox remains because it was before. What’s it like? What’s not in doubt is when sharp this latest car feels on an open road. Dynamically it’s as crisp in its reactions as any rival, with lovely precise steering and also a delightful insufficient inertia towards the chassis that enables it to become muscled along most roads with proper commitment. Additionally feels refreshingly small compared with most rivals, which is an effective thing, while the fundamental degree of performance on offer coming from the 4. 7-litre V8 hasn‘t been in question since it was eventually tuned to provide 420bhp. The gearchange, certainly inside the manual test car that many of us tried, also felt unusually clean and precise in its action, albeit inside an old-fashioned way beside the greater modern click-click shifts of certain dual-clutch rivals. And, inside a way, that’s a defining characteristic from the V8 Vantage.
Although entirely modern in its engineering ethos, there’s something appealingly retro in regards to the way this car behaves that causes it to be feel differ from, though certainly not superior to, its more obvious competition once upon the move. Having said that, usually there are some fairly glaring flaws that can’t be excused at any cost. As the Vantage’s interior retains the appropriate feel and smell in an exclusive gentlemen’s club, the dials now seem more heroically rubbish than ever with their ergonomic performance. The clutch also pongs badly if you undertake such a lot as one three-point turn, suggesting that wear rates have failed to enhance. Worse still is that the car’s ride. Although the V8 Vantage is supposed to become a hairy-chested sports car even in its entry-level form, in order to make the conventional suspension set-up this stiff might not function as the wisest move on Aston Martin’s behalf – most especially when there’s a good stiffer sports suspension option available. The trade-off, however, is really a degree of handling precision that Aston Martin owners wouldn’t have dreamed about 10 years back, and that has only recently become available inside the most sporting models. But whether such an uncompromising arrangement is what’s required, adore it or otherwise, even inside the cheapest model, only time will tell.
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