The New Vanquish

Cars

It’s bristling with Carbon fibre, sculpturally detailed, whiffs of the One 77 but retains the VH architecture. It is certainly the most dashing car made in these islands – Aston Martin’s brand spanking new V12 superhero is coming.

Launched this week after months of speculation – the car is set to replace the Bondesque DBS and push the Aston brand squarely up against Ferrari – whose front engined V12 the FF occupies the same rarified space.

It’s a beautiful thing this car. Though there’s a strong feeling evoked in seeing yet another Aston that retains that familiar superstructure – albeit her worked realistically to its interpretive limit – launching in a whole new direction is not something that, in this market, is even vaguely feasible.

Not fixing stuff that ain’t broke is a sensible way forward – and there’s a dedicated and globally expanding Aston Martin fan base out there that will doubtlessly gobble the Vanquish up. Indeed, with 27 new dealerships opening up in the next year in China alone, we reckon the sexiness of the brand can retain its potency by pushing forward once more on an appealing set of themes.

So, the existing Aston cues are there, the pumped haunches, the low nose and grille, but this design sweeps sculpturally in Carbon fibre, with the texture of the material exposed on the roof, and at the corners of the body and places like the wing mirrors

Miles Nurnberger, Aston’s chief exterior designer told press in advance of the launch that “An Aston always wears a suit…It is assertive, not aggressive; powerful but polite.”. And you can see from the result of his imagination that he looks to have achieved that.

But under the skin, and in its very texture the new Vanquish is pretty trick. The Carbon Fibre makes it almost 60 KG lighter than the DBS Bondmobile, the six litre V12 produces closer to 600 horsepower but still manages to keep in line with forthcoming stricter US emissions regs – and the fourth generation of that familiar chassis is, apparently, significantly stiffer than that which featured in the DBS.

All this is obviously designed to stave off mutterings, that the company needs to innovate a little more obviously than it is doing with the Vanquish – but bare in mind that Ferrari – who rewrote the rulebook with the FF a couple of years ago – have behind it the FIAT behemoth. There’s cash in the bank, in other words, to take chances that Aston Martin daren’t take. Similarly, Mercedes Gull Winged SLS pushes some boundaries in terms of pure design while remaining relatively conventional under the skin.

Perhaps uncertain times breed conservative decisions. We all want Aston to keep being cool but pay its employees too!






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