Aston Martin injects adrenalin into latest Vantage

The Vantage is one of the most important models for Aston Martin, with an illustrious heritage going back decades. It sits between performance models from Ferrari and Lamborghini and those more on the side of luxury from Bentley and Rolls-Royce. Traditionally it has been something of a grand tourer, a GT, but one that combines brawn with elegance. While the DBX SUV is now taking a large chunk of Aston sales, getting the Vantage right is crucial for the British marque.

In 2018, it launched a brand new Vantage, one that completely changed our perception of the model. Then the company got a new boss in the form of former Mercedes-AMG man, Tobias Moers. He didn’t think the Vantage was the best it could be and so we got the Vantage V1 Edition.

Moers moved on, former Ferrari executive, Amedeo Felisa came in and now there’s another new boss on the way. Outgoing Bentley boss Adrian Hallmark will take over in October. It’s all shaping up to be a Netflix documentary series.

Then the new DB12 came along and it is superb in every way. We drove it in 2023 in Monaco. Now there’s this, the new new Vantage. Aston people would prefer you to think of it simply as the new Vantage, almost as though we should just forget about the last one.

You should too, not that it was actually bad, but because the latest Vantage is brilliant. The last one was a Porsche 911 chaser, a real sports car instead of the more GT character of its predecessors. Now it’s not chasing the 911, it’s alongside it and heading to an edge of your seat photo finish at the line.

I’ll get to why in a moment, but first there are some other important changes. One of the biggest is the front design, because it appears customers didn’t like the shark nose of the 2018 version. It lacked a proper Aston grille and so the new one has a more familiar look, the large grille addressing both cooling needs and design. The side profile is a bit more taut, leading to a more sculpted rear end and a less obnoxious diffuser. There’s a nod to heritage models with the new side strakes behind the front wheels, similar to those introduced on the DB12.

Then there’s the interior, long a bit of a disappointment in the Vantage and other Astons. That was all fixed when the DB12 came along with its wonderful cabin. The Vantage follows suit, with a great interior that combines the tactility and ease of use of real buttons and knurled dials, with an in-house designed touchscreen infotainment system that works well.

The seats are sculpted and comfortable, even on bumpy roads and longer drives. There’s reasonable space for some tailored luggage or boutique shopping and the Vantage offers a dose of practicality for weekend getaways for two.

Then we get to the headline numbers. Power is up 30% and there is 15% more torque. The torque response is 40% better too. There’s a 260% increase in stiffness across the rear axle and there are now eight traction control modes available within the ESP, all separate to the driving modes. A new eight-speed gearbox helps the twin-turbo Mercedes-AMG sourced V8 take the Vantage to 100km/h in 3.5 seconds and on to a top speed of 325km/h.

The numbers don’t do the latest Aston justice, though. The new Vantage is more luxurious, with more comfort and more tech that you can actually use. It’s faster, more dynamic and more agile, but be under no illusion, if you push it too hard it will bite you. That means more adrenalin, especially for those who yearn for it. But that's where the new model really excels, because it is still a GT car, able to travel through town comfortably, or on a longer journey with ease. Then you unleash its new character, the performance car side to the latest Vantage and prepare to have fun.

It’s still not quite as precise as a 911. The steering can feel electronically overdone at times and the Michelin tyres skip off bumps as though you need to fit warmers before leaving home. You don’t jump in and immediately gel with the car. It took a bit of time on average roads to start to get truly comfortable, but when we hit the twisty mountain pass that is the HU-4103 outside of Seville in Spain, the tyres warmed up, the electronic suspension tuned in and we had our eureka moment.

James Owen, senior vehicle engineering manager at Aston, told us that the focus has been on elevating the performance, but in parallel, elevating the driver connection, the subjective heart element. We discovered how right he was on that amazing stretch of road. Through corner after corner, the Vantage showed its sports car side, its eagerness to make the most of all the engineering work of Owen and his team.

It came through even more on the Monteblanco Circuit, where it was time to play with some of those settings, although not too much. It wasn’t so much about trying to tame its power or tempt the laws of physics through the Michelin Pilot Sport 5 rubber; instead, it was about working with the car. This is where the insight of F1 driver Fernando Alonso probably came in.

Aston Martin has learnt lessons from the DB12. It has taken those and applied them to the Vantage and created something superb. If you’ve been wondering when I’d mention James Bond, then here you go, because it is the charming Bond on the one hand, all relaxed and sipping Martini, but then it throws off its jacket and chases after the villain. It’s the Vantage that revels in the history of the nameplate and redefines its future.