Aston Martin V12 Vantage arrives!

The Aston Martin V8 Vantage promised so much when it was launched. It looked great, it sounded even better, and Aston Martin promised us it would be cheap (by Aston standards) and show the 911 how it was done. Well…

It didn’t quite make it. Yes, it looked gorgeous, it did sound great, but it wasn’t exactly fast. Brisk probably sums it up better. And it really didn’t wipe the floor with the Porsche 911, although the way it looked could make you forgive it most things.

Aston Martin V12 Vantage - The Real Vantage arrives!

But Aston improved things a bit last year with some revisions and a power boost, making the V8 Vantage a better car in the process. Still not ‘blow-your-socks-off’ fast. But better. But we knew the ‘Real’ Vantage was still to come.

Aston announced the concept back in 2007 as the Aston Martin Vantage V12 RS and, with Aston’s track record of making concepts a reality (even if, as with the Rapide, it takes forever), we waited patiently. And now we have it to look forward to at Geneva, as Aston has announced that the V12 Vantage will launch at the show in March.

The Aston Martin V12 Vantage is powered by Aston’s V12, delivering a very decent 510bhp and promising 0-60mph in just 4.1 seconds. That’s better! The manual gearbox sits at the back, drive is through a carbon fibre shaft and a diffuser at the back keeps things cool and planted.

Big carbon ceramic brakes are covered by 19″ wheels (9″ wide at the front, 11″ at the back) and a much stiffer set-up allows the V12 Vantage to pull 1.3g lateral. Carbon fibre abounds inside and out, and the seats are moulded kevlar. The V12 weighs 200 lbs more than the V8, but the carbon fibre weight saving has pared the overall weight penalty to half that.

Aston hasn’t revealed prices for each of the 1,000 cars to be made yet, but our guess is a base price around £140k. And for that you really will get a car that shows Porsche how it’s done.

Roll on Geneva, I say!

CO2 388 g/km

By Cars UK