Aston Martin Vantage

A new boss means a new plan for a grand old British brand – and this is how it starts

ROAD TEST No 5539

MODEL TESTED F1 EDITION COUPE

PHOTOGRAPHY MAX EDLESTON

Price £142,000 ● Power 527bhp ● Torque 505lb ft ● 0-60mph 3.6sec ●30-70mph in fourth 4.8sec ● Fuel economy 20.6mpg ●CO 2 emissions 264g/km ●70-0mph 41.8m

We like

• Body control and handling precision make perceptible gains

• Benign, enticingly adjustable limit-handling character endures

• V8 has more than enough grunt to work the chassis and sounds great

We don’t like

• It doesn’t have the grip and incisiveness to go toe to toe with GT3s, Longtails, Pistas etc

• Transaxle gearbox isn’t as slick or quick-witted as rival ’boxes

• Cabin is already showing a few clear signs of antiquation

N ow under new ownership and with former Mercedes-AMG boss Tobias Moers at the helm, Aston Martin has yet another plan and vision for the future. The business has had a much-needed reality check over the past 12 months. It has been made much more efficient and pragmatic, and this time, Moers insists, it will build its success from firmer foundations.

Having become CEO in August 2020, Moers waited until March 2021 to announce the first car in his plan for the most famously elusive business turnaround in global sports car making – and it wasn’t a millionpound collector’s item or a right-on zero-emissions pariah. It was a better version of the firm’s core two-seater.

The Vantage F1 Edition is the new range-topping, series-production version of the Vantage front-engined super-sports car. It’s cheaper than its immediate predecessor (the Vantage AMR) but offers an even clearer connection with motorsport, having been pitched as Aston’s showroom version of its specially engineered Formula 1 safety car.

Months ago, having reviewed all of its current model line-up, Moers’ first challenge to his engineering team was to develop the Vantage to its full potential as a driver’s car, and to make it a considerably faster, better-handling track machine without compromising its on-road performance. The resulting car, Aston claims, is nearly 15 seconds faster around the infamous Nürburgring Nordschleife than the regular Vantage, but it hasn’t resorted to a big power hike or a sticky track-day tyre to produce its magic. Now to find out how much quicker it’ll go around Autocar’s dry handling circuit.

DESIGN AND ENGINEERING

This, says Aston, is the most track-focused version of the current Vantage since its factory introduction in 2018 – and considering that lineage includes the windscreen-less V12-engined Speedster, it’s quite the claim. With the packaging job on that 12-cylinder engine effectively already done for Aston’s smallest model, it’s reasonable to assume that Gaydon’s V12 will power a natural successor to the old Vantage GT12 at some later point; but the F1 Edition isn’t that car.