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Take a look at the all-new Aston Martin Vantage. That’s all it takes to leave you in no doubt that cars can stir something within you. It’s why Aston Martin exists—to create masterpieces of engineering art that cause an emotional response. Vantage is an emotionally powerful statement, and that’s just from looking at it.
Of course, Aston Martin is a business first and foremost, not just an organisation that creates aesthetically moving sports cars but one that needs to turn a profit for shareholders, something that Aston Martin hasn’t always done particularly well over the decades. Recently, under Chairman Lawrence Stroll, the tide has turned, with Aston Martin showing increased profits in 2022 and 2023, though 2024’s first quarter results showed net losses. There’s a good reason for this, as Aston Martin transitions from running out some of its older models and moves into a period of an all-new product offensive that is supposed to lift the company into profitability once again. The new Aston Martin Vantage is the first of these new offerings, an almost entirely new sports car that lifts the covers on some of Aston’s latest investments into its future-proofing and profit-building strategy.
It's clear from the moment you take in the new Vantage that it’s a significant step up. Vantage is muscular, yet beautiful. Pure, yet brimming with modernity. Compared to the car it replaces, almost every panel is new, as are the 21-inch forged, tuning fork lightweight alloy wheels. Its signature grille is 38% larger, and every detail of its rear bodywork exudes considered contrasts. Personalisation options abound, such is the luxury core of the brand, but suffice to say, you can build the Vantage you want in almost any colour and spec combination you can imagine. Your money, your choice. It's a significant amount of money. In SA, that price starts at R4,949,999, a few hundred grand short of a new Porsche 911 Turbo S. Are you surprised? We were just as surprised, but there’s a bit more to Aston's pricing strategy, which we’ll get to in a moment. More on the Aston brand itself...
There’s a shift in the Aston Martin narrative. On the index of luxury and performance, Aston wants to be the perfect in-betweener, which means delivering the levels of luxury that you can expect from Bentley or Rolls Royce while also offering more performance than is currently the purview of Ferrari, McLaren, and Lamborghini. Aston’s gap is somewhere where evocative design, ultra-luxury, and earth-shattering performance meet.
The new Vantage adopts the latest interior architecture from the DB12 and DBX707, now fully integrated into its compact cabin. There’s a real sense of purpose and occasion to the interior dash structure, the floating console, and the twin-stitching between a composed mix of alcantara and weir leather. The switchgear is particularly enthralling, especially for those who prefer buttons and wheels to screens. Aston’s been able to create a really intuitive blending of both worlds, with beautifully designed wheels for controlling the temperature and volume, next to which the start button and driving mode dial are housed. The steering too has been reworked with a similar treatment, now sporting capacitive switches on the wheel with cast aluminium paddle shifters embedded onto the actual wheel and not the column as they were before.
Press the start button, and the Vantage comes alive in a high-definition mix of graphic animation from the onboard, twin 10.25-inch screens. If anything, the font size on the infotainment screen could be larger. Far-sighted people may struggle to read certain bits of information especially while driving. Apart from this, the cabin is aptly appointed with a mix of sportscar dynamism and excitement with the luxury expected at this end of the luxury car envelope.
The Vantage is a stark reflection of Aston's future intentions. Its headlining USPs must cause your mouth to twitch. Boasting a class-leading power-to-weight ratio of 280kW per tonne, the new Vantage’s twin-turbo V8 engine produces a staggering 489kW and 800Nm of torque. 0–100km/h is 3.4 seconds, and its 0–200km/h of 12 seconds is excellent, yet that doesn’t quite tell the full story. The Vantage was built to thrill drivers, to ingratiate those purists among us that live within the nirvana of driving sharp and engaging sports cars. It’s why Aston has spent a considerable fortune on bolstering, tweaking, and refining the driving experience through a myriad of engineering touchpoints. That power has been achieved by introducing larger turbos, modifying the cam profiles, and readjusting the compression ratios. To manage the increase in power, a new 8-speed ZF transmission has been mated to the V8 with tweaked shift patterns and a shorter final drive ratio that makes for faster in-gear acceleration but also a top speed of 325km/h. Further work has been done on the body structure, with bracing at both the front and rear for an altogether more rigid shell. The reality, though, is that more power, more speed, and more torsional rigidity aren’t necessarily going to win you the sports car of the year award by any measure. The beguiling magic of the Vantage is down to the translated substance of being behind the wheel.
Significant investment has been made in the chassis, dampers, steering, tyres, and weight distribution. A key element to this is the adoption of the Bilstein DTX adaptive damping system, which works in tandem with a new Active Vehicle Dynamics control management programme. This is a complex bit of kit, but in essence, these systems manipulate the control of the steering, brakes, chassis, and damping components to deliver on various levels of driver feedback and control. These systems execute their tasks in microseconds, ensuring the most thrilling, immersive, and driver-focused experience possible. The electronic power-assisted steering is the best I have felt in an Aston, whether on a racetrack or a winding mountain road. And it’s from this position that the rest of the systems integrate to offer a stunning driving experience.
Pre-launch criticisms mostly focused on the Vantage having too much power. I can certainly say that the power, though insatiably ample, is absolutely usable. Power delivery is linear, and turbolag is nearly nonexistent. The Vantage starts out its ignition in Sport mode. That’s the standard mode—this is a sports car, after all. And then you amp things up by dialling through to Sport+, ideally configured for carving through a mountain pass outside Seville. The Vantage is fully immersive and fully responsive to your inputs. The steering feedback is fast and intuitive. The braking feel is solid and predictable. The chassis is masterful. Vantage’s front-engine, rear-wheel-driven layout, and 50:50 weight distribution are all pleasurable on paper, but it's translated onto the road as they should be. Sport+ mode allows a slight bit of slip for some controlled drama out of hairpins, but Track mode dials that up a notch. I don’t venture too far in track mode, as that is reserved for the actual track, but Vantage is playing in the upper echelons of the sports car heap now.
The second half of this test, sees me on the actual race track surface of the Circuito Monteblanco. Monteblanco’s undulating course, bumpy braking zones, and heady mix of corners is a fantastic testing ground for a new Vantage. A few laps in and I can ascertain that Vantage has enough depth to its competence that you really can dial up the performance as you become more and more familiar with the track and the car. For a start, Vantage rotates well, most at home in medium-speed corners. High-speed corners require a bit more downforce at the rear, and slow-speed corners show up some understeer at the very limit. It’s a high limit, though; it's certainly a far more balanced car than it has been, but it’s also far more entertaining and involving.
The Vantage sports an electronic rear differential that works with the ESP to manage stability and slip. The benefits of an electronic diff, as opposed to a limited slip, are that it has faster reaction times, can be manipulated for different modes, and can integrate with other systems to deliver an overall dynamic experience. Aston’s Integrated Traction Control (ITC) system offers nine levels of slip allowance, allowing drivers to adjust traction control manually. Starting at one, the car is fully alert to any slip and intervenes at every point. Dial it higher up, and the system allows for more grip loss, which allows you, as the driver, to really build towards some spectacular power slides and ultimate enjoyment. I found the most ‘entertaining’ programme to sit between five and seven, depending on your own driving wits, but as for me, let’s say that eight was a step too far before I lost all traction in a bid to look good on camera. If you love driving, the Vantage is simply brilliant.
The Aston Martin Vantage is available exclusively through its distributors in South Africa, Daytona. While that price of R4,949,999 looks like excellent value, Aston’s pricing strategy has also slightly changed. The idea is that the base-priced car shows considerable value for money, with some decent options already available. But customers can still tailor their cars for a highly optioned and personalised car, as would be quite normal or customary for a brand of this distinction. All of the bespoke stuff through Q by Aston Martin allows for all of that, but that will, of course, potentially hike the price by quite a bit.
What may also play into the Vantage's pricing favour, is the fact that the new 992.2 Turbo S may still come in at a higher price point, something closer to the R5-Million mark. Will that sway customers from one to the other, that is yet to be seen, but suffice to say that the Vantage, as a thrilling product, is certainly worth the thought.
The big question is, is it better than a 911? In some aspects, yes it is and that's almost good enough. The Vantage offers more emotion and a more visceral experience, and it’s a stunning piece of aesthetic beauty. It isn't as good in other areas, such as its overall practicality or its overall 0–100 time or perhaps its perceptions around build quality and customer satisfaction in the local context. Porsche's PDK is probably also a better transmission, but these are qualified guesses at this stage. We’ll do our best to drive them back to back in similar settings, but I’d hazard that the Vantage is the more thrilling sports car now. That’s a big claim, of course. That’s what Vantage is—a big claim from Aston, and it’s only the beginning. There’s more to come in the Vantage line-up, and we look forward to seeing what that is.
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