New Aston Martin V12 Vantage Roaster is the first of its kind

New Aston Martin V12 Vantage Roaster is the first of its kind

The V12 engine may be slowly facing a demise and some manufacturers aren’t ready to give up without a fight. Hence the birth of the new Aston Martin Vantage Roadster that wields a V12 powerplant for the first time.

Just like its hardtop counterpart, the roadster wields a 5.2-litre twin-turbo V12 powerplant, with 515 kW of power and a neck-wrecking 753 Nm of torque. It also has a rousing sprint time of 3.5 seconds to 100 km/h en route to a top speed of 321 km/h. The roadster shuffles through a ZF 8-speed automatic transmission and a mechanical limited-slip differential mounted at the rear.

The roadster has almost every component in common with the hardtop version. These include standard carbon ceramic brakes that measure 410 mm x 38 mm at the front and are gripped by 6-piston callipers, as well as rear brakes that measure 360 mm x 32 mm and are paired with 4-piston callipers.

As a weight-saving measure, the front bumper, clamshell bonnet, front fenders and side sills are constructed from carbon fibre, while the rear bumper and deck lid are made from composite material. Aston Martin has also fitted a lightweight battery plus a special centre-mounted twin-exhaust system that weighs 7.2 kg less than the one underneath the hardtop variant.

Aston Martin’s V12 roadster puts power on the tarmac through 21″ alloy wheels, which are offered in two finishes; satin black, or satin-black with diamond wrapping. The Roadster grips into corners using Michelin Pilot 4S high-performance tyres – 275/35/ R21 in front and 315/30/ R21 at the back. The rims further save 8 kg of unsprung mass.

The interior is bolstered with Sports Plus seats trimmed in full semi-aniline leather and featuring ‘Wings’ quilt and perforation pattern as standard. Not your favourite feature? Well, you can fit light-weight carbon fibre performance seats with an exposed carbon fibre shell and manual 6-way adjustment as options.

Buyers can also customise their V12 Vantage Roadster according to their liking via the marque’s bespoke personalisation service, Q by Aston Martin.

The Gaydon-based carmaker will only build 249 customer examples globally and unfortunately, all examples have been spoken for. Aston Martin will begin production of the V12 Vantage Roadster in Q3 of 2022, with the first deliveries scheduled to begin during Q4 of 2022.