Dan Neil, Contributor
The V8 Vantage: Aston Martin delivers a 'look-at-me' car for the six-figure every man who doesn't want to blend into the crowd.
THE V8 Vantage ushers in the era of the affordable Aston Martin, which seems a little like cognac-in-a-box or fast-food truffles - a rare and exclusive thing awkwardly commodified.
Not that US$120,000 isn't a lot of quid. But Aston Martins have always been statement cars, and with the V8 Vantage that statement seems to be, "I can't afford the DB9," the big 12-cylinder 2+2 that costs US$152,000.
Aston Martin is the wholly owned fiefdom of the Ford Motor Co. Under the whip hand of Ulrich Bez who you may have gathered from the name is about as British as the Berlin Philharmonic Aston Martin has been transformed into a real, honest-to-God car company,
that turned its first profit ever
in 2005.
With three fresh and splendid products in the portfolio the Vanquish, the DB9 and now the V8 Vantage Aston expects to sell more than 5,000 cars
world-wide, more than Ferrari's annual beneficence.
Based on a short-coupled
version of the DB9's glued-
and-riveted aluminium frame, the V8 Vantage is a foot shorter (172.5 inches) over a wheelbase trimmed only 5.5 inches
(102.4 inches), giving the car indecently brief front and rear overhangs. Stylistically, the
V8-V is so similar to the DB9 that Henrik Fisker, former
Aston design chief, ought to
be getting royalty checks.
SLEEK DESIGN
Similar, but not the same. Much of the DB9's sinuous amplitude has been ironed out
of the V8-V's lines, and the
car's straight-ahead mission is emphasised by a contour line paying out like a sheet metal contrail along the doors. As compared with the elegantly attenuated 2+2, the V8 Vantage looks fierce, clenched in four-fisted rage. Evil, EVIL, I tell you! If you sell your soul to the devil, this is the car you get as a signing bonus.
At night, when the headlamps' star-white LED marker lights and lava-red LED tail lamps are aglow, the mere sight of the
V8-V will knock crows off power lines and cause pregnant cats to throw their litters.
The Aston's price point is curiously betwixt and between the various Porsches. In
performance, the 380-hp car is closest to the 911 Carrera S,
with a suggested retail price of US $81,400. Which is to say, the Aston buyer will pay 40 grand more and go no faster. In price, the V8 Vantage is closest to the 2007 Porsche 911 Turbo, which will sell for US$122,900. However and just judging by the numbers the Turbo will handily mop road and track
with the Aston.
UNDER THE HOOD
Powered by a 4.3-litre V8
(the Jag 4.2-litre mill slightly stroked, with freer-breathing cylinder head, intake and exhaust plumbing) and stirred with a conventional six-speed ZF transmission no prissy paddle-shifters here the Aston has the spark and bite of a proper sports car.
With 302 pound-feet of max torque, seventy-five per cent of which is available at 1,500 rpm, it's quick 0-60 mph times hover in the five second range but by no means overpowering. What it is instead is effortlessly driveable, well-rounded and complete, pulling hard in every gear right up to the 7,000 rpm redline, which is announced by both the counter-clockwise
rotation of the tach needle and
a red indicator light, as in the cockpit of a race car.
LA Times-Washington Post
