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When Aston Martin gave us its new V12 Vantage to do with as we pleased for 24 hours, we didn’t waste a single minute of it
Sometimes there just aren’t enough hours in the day. On those occasions you need xenons. It’s nearing midnight, there is a small angry gale blowing across Snowdonia and the interior of the V12 Vantage is awash with what appears to be starlight seeping through from behind buttons and dials. The high, leather-covered dashboard and rakishly low roofline create a windscreen aperture akin to a pillar box slot, but I feel snug inside, sheltered from the battering being dealt to the dark landscape we’re hammering through.
Seven hours ago I was being walked around the car in the sunshine outside Aston Martin’s HQ at Gaydon. When you first lift up the bonnet it makes you laugh as you wonder how many of the engineers at Aston spend their spare time putting ships into bottles. It is hard to work out exactly how the DBS’s 510bhp engine has been shoehorned in there as there is literally no free space – the Vantage is shorter than a 911 remember. The sump has had to be reworked and the oil filter is awkwardly tucked away down the right-hand side, while pipes have been shaved and scallops taken out so that you can get the bonnet shut, like closing the lid on an overfilled holiday suitcase.
On top of the bonnet are what are unofficially known as the Marmite vents. Whatever you think of these four carbonfibre stripes, they certainly make the V12 Vantage distinct from the V8 when it’s coming towards you. The low front splitter (also carbon), the flick-up on the boot and the side skirts all come from the N24 race programme and make the V12 look chunkier and more purposeful than the almost delicate V8.
Insert the ‘ECU’ (key), spin the starter motor and 5.9 litres gargles into life. As photographer Dave Shepherd and I drive away down Aston’s gravel driveway we have little over 24 hours ahead of us with the V12 Vantage and we intend to make the most of them. Up the M40, M42, M5 and M54 and we’re onto the A5 heading for North Wales. Soon, though, we leave the main artery and cut across country. Here, between the neat hedges, the acceleration that had already seemed quick on a three-lane motorway feels almost uncomfortably rapid. The reason for this is not just the proximity of the scenery flashing past the wing mirrors but the way the V12 makes its speed.
Full Story: EVO - Aston Martin V12 Vantage
Stunning automobile. Oops...wrong section...please move to the Aston Martin section!!! Thanks.
M
