The Engineer Car Review: Aston Martin Vantage

There’s something unmistakably Aston Martin about the new Vantage. It has the British marque’s characteristic blend of aggression and sophistication – like a cage fighter squeezed into a Savile Row suit. But in other respects it’s quite different to the cars that have gone before it, and indeed the rest of the current range.

While the previous Aston Martin line-up sometimes felt a bit like a set of Russian dolls – each one an incrementally different take on the same theme – there is a concerted effort to give every model its own distinct character. For the Vantage, this remit is very clear: It is intended to be the most driver-focused car in the range; not necessarily the fastest or most powerful, but the one that delivers the purest sense of connection and involvement.

That’s not to say there isn’t a certain amount of commonality. Under the steel panels you’ll find a bonded extruded aluminium structure that’s loosely based on that of its bigger brother, the DB11. The front section of the chassis – roughly as far back as the windscreen – is structurally identical (although the tuneable components, such as suspension bushes and engine mounts, are unique to the Vantage). From that point rearwards, virtually everything is bespoke. In fact, Aston Martin says around 70 per cent of the structure is new.