Aston Martin Vanquish Review

Background

The DB7, you will remember, is the car that saved Aston Martin. It was fast and beautiful but had to play it straight down the middle to a clientele who bought it for that most traditional of reasons: because they wanted an Aston. By contrast, the all-new £158,000 Vanquish was conceived for different reasons and different people.
The company is safe, so it can afford to be more wildly liberating, expensive and daring than a DB7. This is the car Aston Martin wanted to build, not one it had to build.


DESIGN 

While you’ll find the skeleton of an XJS inside a DB7, in the Vanquish there are aerospace construction techniques. Within it you will find a central supporting structure doubling as the transmission tunnel and crafted from carbonfibre.
Around this are bonded and riveted sections of extruded aluminium upon which hand-finished aluminium body panels are hung. The result is a massively strong and torsionally rigid platform.
Its task is to cope with the same 5.9-litre V12 engine in the DB7 Vantage, but to provide a nominal 460bhp at 6500rpm and 400lb ft at 5000rpm. Beautifully machined aluminium wishbones at each corner hold huge ventilated discs (355mm up front, 330 at the rear) which provide the stopping power, abetted by a Teves anti-lock system.

On The Road

Despite a gearchange that doesn’t swap cogs in less than the blink of the eye, the Vanquish still blasted to 60mph in 4.4sec and 100mph in 10.5sec.
Had we been able to use Millbrook and change gear ourselves, these figures would have been closer to 4.1sec and 9.5sec. As it is, the Vanquish is every bit as quick as the Ferrari 550 Maranello.
Behind the headlines grabbed by that sublime engine and smart gearbox lies a chassis of less obvious but no less impressive ability. Your first few yards confirm that, for all its new-found sportiness, this Aston rides as well as a DB7.
It’s firmer, but so fluent is the damping and so well does it maintain its ride height on the most undulating roads that what little (if any) it gives away in secondary absorption, it counters with primary body contol.
Pushing the Vanquish hard reveals the best handling car Aston has ever produced; although in truth, that is not quite the accolade it should be. Its handling can hold its head high even beside the 550 Maranello, a multiple winner of our handling day contest.
But for all its grip and composure, there is no escaping the fact that the Vanquish is a heavy car and, unsurprisingly, feels it.

Living

Sadly, the Vanquish’s interior is one we struggle to equate with a car of this price. Sit in a 550 Maranello and every switch, knob, dial and control feels and appears bespoke; sit in the Vanquish and while individual items look fine in isolation, the overall effect smacks too heavily of parts-bin dependency. Most out of place is the entire centre console which seems to have been lifted wholesale from Jag’s XJ saloon.

But at least the Vanquish is now sufficiently roomy for two tall adults while the sensibly shaped boot should swallow enough luggage to obviate the need to plan touring holidays with military precision. In touring guise, the Vanquish is a splendid companion.
Long gearing, soft but supportive seats, excellent sound suppression and that impressive ride produce a sports car of rare civility. Albeit one that averages 12.6mpg overall, with a best of 20.8mpg on light throttle openings. That falls to a terrifying 5.5mpg under duress.

Verdict  

There is no better way we can describe the Vanquish and no praise more lavish that we can heap upon it than to say that, in almost all ways, it is a credible alternative to a 550 Maranello.

Subjectively, it sounds better and objectively it goes as hard; technologically it is cleverer and it’s prettier – on the outside at least.
We have reservations about the interior, brakes, fuel range and we’re also not convinced on the reliability front. But these in no way diminish the scale of the Vanquish’s achievement. It is Aston’s best effort yet, and Britain’s finest supercar this side of a McLaren F1.