The newest Vantage model iteration, which began sales in 2018 and is the first without a V12 engine, is a direct descendent of the DB10, a non-production model made exclusively for the 2015 James Bond movie 'Spectre.'
Aston MartinContrary to what many believe, the purchase of an expensive sports car has less to do with price or even vehicle capabilities, which a non-pro driver likely can’t fully appreciate. Instead, it’s about something far more vital and visceral to the driving experience: The emotional pull of the car. What does it say about the driver?
Take Britain’s Aston Martin, for example, which is the smallest independent company in the field of making expensive sports cars and struggling financially. By comparison, it makes some 6,000 cars annually around the world, while Porsche makes 60,000 in the U.S. alone. Yet pretty much everyone knows that James Bond drives an Aston Martin, the DB model. That’s the emotional foot in the sales door for Aston Martin. (The Vantage gets its share of looks from the crowds.)
At US$153,000 the “entry level” to the fantasy Bond life is the 2020 Aston Martin Vantage Coupe, and Penta recently put it to the test. (The tester weighed in at US$193,000, including some options like special paint, 20-inch wheels and black brake calipers.) The Vantage-Bond connection is more than imaginary, as the car uses a shorter version of the latest DB11 aluminum platform and shares its eight-speed automatic gearbox, attached to a 4.0-liter, twin turbo- charged V8 engine.
The newest Vantage model iteration, which began sales in 2018 and is the first without a V12 engine, is in fact a direct descendent of the DB10, a non-production model made exclusively for the 2015 James Bond movie Spectre. The story goes that the film director was visiting the Aston Martin design studio when he was struck by a simple sketch, not of a DB model, but one that was to become the Vantage. Aston Martin used that sketch to build the DB10, specially built, non-production car for Spectre.
The 2020 1.5-ton Vantage offers 503 horsepower and is rated 0-62 miles per hour in 3.6 seconds. Top speed is 195 mph. The engine is derived from Mercedes-AMG—an Aston Martin partner. It’s responsive, quick, and delivers a confident burble at idle that becomes a menacing roar when your foot hits the floor. The Vantage offers 3 modes, but don’t look for Street mode: just Sport, Sport+, and Track, each light on the dashboard getting progressively redder as you dial up the speed. In other words, the Vantage is always in Sport mode and ready to rumble.
Its competition is generally Porsche 911 Turbo, the Audi R8 V10 Plus, and higher-priced models of the Mercedes AMG GT. In a world of everyday luxury sports cars like the Porsche 911s and Mercedes Benz AMG 63s, this should get some cred. For purists, right now there’s only one way to get a stick shift, and that’s the Vantage AMR version, with a 7-speed manual transmission (base US$180,000). Next year’s standard Vantage will offer a manual option as well as a convertible.
This Vantage combines a classic, aggressive front-end styling with shark-like face and grille, and a long and sensuously slim-styled body that ends in thick haunches at the back. It’s blessed with tremendous steering capability and a tenacious grip combined with enough unhesitating power to challenge the driver to take it to the limit. The Vantage practically demands you to drive mountainous and felonious curves at speed. When you do, it rewards with the over-the-top satisfaction that can only come from more horsepower than is sanely usable.
You feel the bumps, but part of the appeal is that the car is stuck to the road. The dashboard is simple and direct, no extraneous info—just speed, RPMS, transmission clutch indicator lights.
What are you buying with a Vantage besides an excellent sports car that shares its DNA with the more famous DB model forebear? The Vantage will not leave the road, no matter how hard you try. There’s the tremendous steering and grip combined with enough power to make it fun.
What not to like: The key fob seems made of curiously cheap plastic, as are the stalks on the steering wheel. The sensors are great but possibly over sensitive. And right-side merger visibility is not good. One more: the retro drive transmission buttons seem out of place. If you are interested, the mileage is rated at EPA city/highway fuel economy: 18/24 mpg.
Again, price isn’t the object, for if it was, there are plenty of much cheaper sports cars with similar power and handling, like the 490 hp C8 Corvette (US$60,000). But then it wouldn’t be a Bond car. Probably the only thing that could make the Vantage better is flames shooting out the back, just like its forebears.
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October 17, 2020 at 12:36AM
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The 2020 Aston Martin Vantage Coupe is the Entry Level to the James Bond Fantasy Life - Barron's
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