Aston Martin Vanquish review

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Aston Martin gives its big, V12-engined GT concept one last spin, with more power and technical commitment than ever

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The Aston Martin Vanquish is another brand-new, V12-powered, front-engined exotic super-GT to get stuck into, hot on the heels of the one you may have read about only a few weeks ago - the Ferrari 12Cilindri.

The Vanquish joins the Ferrari among a dwindling number of 12-cylinder sports cars setting out to battle upstream, fingers in ears and screaming blood and thunder, for the next half decade or so at least, against a swelling current of pressure to downsize, electrify and generally cut out the old-school combusting of hydrocarbons in one of motordom’s very grandest engine configurations.

Good luck to them, I say. This, you’ll probably already have surmised, will not be a review that lampoons how power outputs have grown to ridiculous and untappable extremes, or that laments the impact that such power has on cars really meant for fast, laid-back, long-distance cruising.

The new Vanquish is certainly a car that could provoke those kinds of reactions. It’s very fast; very, very powerful; necessarily quite purposeful in its grip and body control levels; and, yes, it probably would make a better fast GT if it were, in fact, smaller, lighter, slower and generally gave its contact patches a bit less to do. 

But never mind all that. The bigger point, and one worth celebrating in 2024 as riotously as we may fleetingly be allowed, is that Aston Martin has found a way to make it at all. A couple of years ago, when I drove the last-generation Aston Martin V12 Vantage, I worried that it might be Gaydon’s last-ever series-production V12 (unicorns like the Aston Martin Valkyrie, Victor and Valour notwithstanding). It would have been a rather unfortunate way for Aston’s 5.2-litre V12 to sign off.

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But, thankfully, it was nothing of the sort. The Aston Martin V12 sports car lives again. And how.

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DESIGN & STYLING

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The Vanquish will continue the Aston V12 bloodline for years to come yet, though it’ll sell at only about two-thirds of the volume that the Aston Martin DBS Superleggera hit at its peak – around 1000 cars a year. 

And yes, you guessed it, also at a slightly higher price. For that, however, you get plenty more technical uniqueness than the heavily DB11-based DBS offered. Aston Martin has completely redeveloped its biggest combustion engine for this car, for starters. Now manufactured by Grantham-based Autocraft Solutions (after the closure of Ford’s Cologne engine plant in 2021), the new 5.2-litre mill may have the same cylinder dimensions and bank angle, but it has in fact been entirely re-engineered. 

This is a handsome car all right, though I’m not totally sold on the oversized grille, or the new ‘shield’ design feature on the tail, which both look to me like blemishes on an exterior that should somehow be purer. It didn’t bowl me over like older Vanqs and DBSs have in the past.
Matt Saunders
Road test editor

Smaller, faster-rotating turbochargers enable more broad and responsive torque production. New induction and exhaust systems make for more efficient combustion and onward gas flow. What results is peak power of 824bhp (enough to put that new Ferrari in the shade, if only by five imperial horses) - and a monstrous turbocharged torque peak of 738lb ft (238lb ft more than the atmo Ferrari). Enough torque, as it turns out, that the Vanquish’s various electronic systems have to devote quite some digital brainpower to capping and managing it - depending on drive mode, gear selection and conditions - in the general best interests of car, driver and surrounding flora and fauna.

The new Vanquish gets its own bonded aluminium platform this time, rather than adapting a lesser model’s and putting carbon bodywork over the top (although it does, indeed, have carbonfibre bodywork). It's 80mm longer in the wheelbase than a DB12 (and all of that between A-pillar and front wheel centre, in order to squeeze in that engine) and wider across the axles than the DBS was, but also more torsionally rigid - particularly across the frontal structure, thanks to special bracing measures. 

This is the first big Aston to move to a rear-mounted transaxle gearbox, to the improvement of weight distribution (which it has at better than 51:49 front to rear) - and the stoutness of that new ZF eight-speed gearbox is part of the reason why it can bring such phenomenal torque to bear. It has 325-section rear tyres, the DB12’s impressive Bilstein DTX adaptive dampers, a rigid-mounted steering system – the benefit of everything technical learned, of late, and applied to Gaydon’s lesser sports cars, in other words. It’s a big V12 Aston flagship super-GT done, arguably for the first time, with uncompromising commitment.

INTERIOR

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That the Vanquish is a strict two-seater also distances it from the DB12 and speaks of its greater status and exclusivity. It offers a little luggage space behind the seats, and a boot at the rear that’s just about big enough for a couple of small flight cases, but nothing more. Aston’s top-level GT could certainly use more cargo space.

But, just like its sibling cars of late, the Vanquish’s expensive-looking cabin materials and switchgear and its prevailing standard for fit and finish all impress. There are knurled metallised knobs and switches to lure your fingertips, and plenty of tactile substance besides. The digital instrumentation is familiar from DB12, and pretty clear and readable. The touchscreen infotainment system is likewise transferred from Aston's other models. It's a little less easy to navigate than some touchscreen systems, and a bit less responsive too - also having a habit of getting hot and becoming unpleasant to the touch. But it's fully furnished with smartphone-mirroring compatability and remains a huge step forward from where Aston Martin was on digital technology a couple of years ago.

The Vanquish's driving position could be a shade lower, to the improvement of head room underneath a standard-fit glass roof (a carbonfibre one is optional). Aston’s seats do still lack some dimensions of adjustability for the longer of leg. But the car’s placement of secondary controls and general ergonomics are otherwise very good and it’s not remotely difficult to settle very happily into and then spend considerable time in the cabin.

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

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The V12 is roused only moderately loudly, the car defaulting to its buttoned-down GT running mode to begin with, but it doesn’t remain a moderate for long. Spin the car’s drive mode collar selector around to Sport, and then Sport+, and the car’s presence is widely and unapologetically announced.

Aston’s aim was to make this car significantly more characterful and more capable than the DBS Superleggera, and the first part is achieved via a much more effusive-sounding engine, whose appeal doesn’t feel impinged upon by the presence of turbochargers. It can really bellow at low crank speeds, and then erupt into a vibrating, multi-faceted howl when extended. 

In our test car, at least, it wasn’t what you’d call a well-mannered engine when working hard - Aston has evidently embraced almost all that it has to give in terms of noise and vibration in a warts-and-all way uncharacteristic of a modern luxury GT, but very telling about the Vanquish’s particular performance agenda. It certainly isn’t short of audible drama.

Nor, for that matter, outright muscle. You’ll need those fiercer drive modes to get unfettered access to the V12’s fathoms-deep torque reserves in the lower intermediate gears – and, crikey, they’re something. The car resists turbo lag really well, and so surges forward in second and third with a violence that you simply can’t believe its rear tyres can actually transmit. Thanks to the extra dynamic capability that Aston has added here, however, they do. For this tester, it was only when feeling particularly brave that I risked full power in third gear, never mind second (when it’s a throttle you squeeze, not stamp on).

Even fourth is made to feel pretty savage, the bristling, whining V12’s ferocity still building, rather than tailing off, beyond 6000rpm.

The Vanquish gets carbon-ceramic brakes as standard, which offer strong power and fade resistance, though they're a little reluctant to hold the car stationary, requiring a firmer press on the pedal once the car has come to a stop lest it creep back forwards (a quirk typical of carbon brakes due to the way their pads create friction).

RIDE & HANDLING

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In chorus with all that, the Vanquish’s low-speed ride is a little firm and conductive by class standards. It's more fluent at higher speeds, though, when those adaptive dampers allow appealing fluency when left to run soft, but it can also tauten things up when your pace quickens. Across the range of driving modes, there's plenty of dynamic versatility here, although perhaps not the silken-edged refinement some might look for in this kind of car.

Just as you’re committing the car to a bend, there’s a moment’s pause to the handling response that speaks a little to the car's size and weight. But it’s there, no doubt, in order that the Vanquish takes a stable and settled line thereafter - and the car can then be pushed really hard through tighter corners, to explode out of them with much better traction and composure than really powerful Astons of this kind have commanded typically.

The Vanquish is a big car, in other words – but it works its dampers and torque-vectoring electronic differential hard enough to handle like a much smaller, lighter, keener one and can be really entertaining on a road wide enough to suit its size. These were few and far between on Aston Martin's Sardinian press launch, admittedly, but it was to the car's credit that it made its talents plain in any case.

MPG & RUNNING COSTS

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Prices for the Vanquish start at £330,000 - and it's expected that two-thirds of owners will depart a long way from there thanks to the customisation options afforded by Aston's Q bespoke division (and quite when the company will be bold enough to stop trading on a now rather tired association with the Bond movie franchise is anyone's guess).

The DBS 770 Ultimate Edition signed off a few years ago as a £300,000-plus car, of course, so that's perhaps not the leap into the unknown on price that some might imagine. Nor is it out of step, by any means, with what rivals Ferrari and Lamborghini now charge for a car with V12 power.

VERDICT

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In terms of outright pace as well as dramatic voice, grip, handling composure and all-round driver appeal, the Aston Martin Vanquish takes the game on a long way from the standards of its predecessors.

It’s a pretty direct and uncompromising fast GT car and one farther removed from its more luxurious rivals now, in this tester’s opinion, than any Aston flagship since the retirement of the original Vanquish in 2007. We look forward to testing it on UK roads to find out if the impressions given to us on Sardinian ones are confirmed. But if they are, we wouldn't expect very many customers to move towards this car from better-mannered luxury options.

If you like a big Aston that’s a bit of a brutal, unreformed character, however, you’ll love this one. The Vanquish is a big, savagely fast Aston with the soul of a much smaller, sportier one - and, as such, it may just be a bigger threat to Ferrari than any Aston flagship has posed before.

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Matt Saunders

Matt Saunders Autocar
Title: Road test editor

As Autocar’s chief car tester and reviewer, it’s Matt’s job to ensure the quality, objectivity, relevance and rigour of the entirety of Autocar’s reviews output, as well contributing a great many detailed road tests, group tests and drive reviews himself.

Matt has been an Autocar staffer since the autumn of 2003, and has been lucky enough to work alongside some of the magazine’s best-known writers and contributors over that time. He served as staff writer, features editor, assistant editor and digital editor, before joining the road test desk in 2011.

Since then he’s driven, measured, lap-timed, figured, and reported on cars as varied as the Bugatti Veyron, Rolls-Royce Phantom, Tesla Roadster, Ariel Hipercar, Tata Nano, McLaren Senna, Renault Twizy and Toyota Mirai. Among his wider personal highlights of the job have been covering Sebastien Loeb’s record-breaking run at Pikes Peak in 2013; doing 190mph on derestricted German autobahn in a Brabus Rocket; and driving McLaren’s legendary ‘XP5’ F1 prototype. His own car is a trusty Mazda CX-5.