Short Take Road Test
Does James Bond drive a convertible Aston Martin? Never, sir! Road draught disarrays the coiffure. Plus, convertibles are for chicks (okay, Bond did once drive a Sunbeam Alpine, worse than unholstering a Hello Kitty edition Walther PPK).
And that slippery roofline is the best part of an Aston’s bod. Cut it off, and it looks like Heidi Klum after her coiffure has been cleaved by a Norelco.
But, oh, what a ride.
The aluminum-constructed Vantage, Aston’s smallest and lowest-priced car, is the triggerfish in the company’s lineup. Switchblade steering, neutral corner trajectories, strong brakes, and a bull V-8 that serenades with Italian arias are all yours for just $122,950 for the stick-shift coupe, $135,950 for a base roadster. The Sportshift paddle-operated six-speed adds $3600, the first of many items on the option buffet.
The hot number pictured here with a caramel-toned interior has $15,320 in extras—24 separate line items. In a car that costs more than two BMW M3s, xenon headlamps take another $795, and cruise control is $450. What Aston calls “fine stitching” fine-tunes the price by $220.
Aston is only emulating Porsche with its have-it-your-way pricing smorgasbord. However, if you must special order a Vantage because the dealer lacks one with the $145 first-aid kit, consider subbing a $3 box of Band-Aids.
Noteworthy changes for 2009: The 380-hp, 4.3-liter twin-cam V-8 is now a whirling 420-hp 4.7, the bore and stroke an even 91 millimeters after growing 2mm and 5mm, respectively. The 60-mph sprint drops from the low fives to a heady 4.5 seconds with this paddle-shift Sportshift. Torque rises by 45 pound-feet to 347. The peaky V-8—we once called it the Honda S4000—now answers with more gusto below 4000 rpm. On a twisty uphill climb, you don’t have to jockey whip it as often to the 7300-rpm limit.
Rally specialists Prodrive, one of Aston Martin’s new owners, worked suspension tricks—stiffer bushings, revised shock mounts—to improve steering response, low-speed ride, and high-speed body control. The gusseted aluminum tub is as stiff as the grandfatherly waiters at Simpson’s on the Strand in London. The 20 seconds it takes to automatically stow the softtop under its sleek twin-fairing cover are 20 good reasons to play the lottery. Driving with the top up, we encountered some wind noise around the driver’s side glass, a squeak in the parcel shelf, and some daunting blind spots.
The Sportshift is an older, single-clutch Magneti Marelli system similar to Ferrari’s. We admire the Vantage’s crawl feature, which makes it easier to inch up to a parking log without accidental impact. And with new programming, the gearbox better butters over the acceleration sags between gears. It even knows via the steering-wheel angle when to postpone upshifts in corners. But it can’t match the seamless transparency of the latest dual-clutch designs.
Dropped between the Porsche 911 cabrio and the new $210,000 Ferrari California, the Vantage delivers both valet-parking status and enthralling romps.
