2010 Aston Martin V12 Vantage First Drive

The German autobahn remains one of the last bastions of automotive freedom, and a 2010 Aston Martin V12 Vantage is its perfect foil. Above 100 mph, its acceleration is nothing less than extraordinary. Punch the throttle and the V12 takes a gulp of air, raises the nose of the Vantage and proceeds to give palpitations to German truck drivers. On one stretch of three-lane highway we see an indicated 190 mph and the engine is still pulling.

The V12 Vantage might have begun life as an engineer's plaything, but it's now very much a production reality. Priced at a hefty $209,000 in the U.K., it must do battle with the Ferrari F430, Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 and Porsche 911 GT2. For now, it's a Europe-only special, but Aston Martin's Managing Director Dr. Ulrich Bez has assigned his team the task of making a federalized version. If they're successful, the V12 Vantage could be in the U.S. by late 2010.

Not Exactly Introverted
Anyone who thinks that an Aston Martin should be demure and understated should look away now. The 2010 Aston Martin V12 Vantage takes the gentle elegance of the V8 Vantage and injects it with a heavy dose of testosterone. The whole car has been lowered by 0.6 inch, but the effect is amplified by the styling mods.

A new carbon-fiber chin spoiler directs the air flow to cool the standard carbon-ceramic brakes. Wider, deeper rocker sills, a more pronounced spoiler and a carbon-fiber rear diffuser also add machismo. Arguably the most controversial feature, though, is the new hood, which boasts carbon-fiber louvers. Aston reckons they're needed to help cool the V12 and help reduce front-end lift, but on light-color cars, they look dangerously aftermarket.

Not So Special Inside
Aston only really does one interior. The layout of the 2010 Aston Martin V12 Vantage's imposing fascia will be familiar to anyone who's sat in a V8 Vantage, DB9 or DBS. The stitched leather trim is present and correct and so are the cheap plastic control knobs, which still feel out of place on such an extravagant car. The sense of occasion that you get from the cabin of a F430 or Gallardo is missing here, but at least the quality and detailing are much improved over early Vantages.

The V12 Vantage's interior does have a couple of distinguishing features. The steering wheel comes wrapped in suede, there are carbon-fiber door handles and the aluminum gearstick has been pinched from the DBS. The carbon-fiber sport seats from the DBS are a treat, even though they cost $2,723 extra in the U.K. The seats and steering wheel offer plenty of adjustment, but if you were in the toilet when God handed out the gift of height, you'll probably find that the shift lever is set too far back to be comfortable.

A Genuine Supercar
This car's alpha-male aesthetics are not without justification. The V12 Vantage is easily the fastest and most extreme of all the modern Aston Martins. Bolting the 48-valve 5,935cc V12 from the DBS into the much smaller Vantage has not been the work of a moment, however. The engine is around 12 inches longer than the V8, which squeezes some of the engine package ahead of the front axle. It also has occasioned a change in the weight distribution from 49 percent front/51 percent rear to 51 percent front/49 percent front. The total weight is 3,594 pounds, some 143 pounds less than a DBS, which is one of the keys to the car's monster performance.

The engine's raw stats are impressive: some 510 horsepower and 420 pound-feet of torque. And the performance is equally impressive, with zero to 60 mph in 4.1 seconds and a flat-out speed of 190 mph within reach. But this is only part of the story.

Prod the Sport button to engage a more aggressive throttle map for the V12 and you unleash a fury that can be matched by few road cars. Happy to pull from 40 mph in 6th gear, this engine is at its best in 3rd and 4th gears, where the huge reserves of torque can be deployed to the full. So easily and stealthily does the car gather speed that you find yourself traveling at least 30 mph faster than you think.

The thrust is matched by the noise. Aston's V12 has always had one of the world's great soundtracks and it's played at extra volume in the Vantage. Tunnels are something to be actively pursued.

Uprated Chassis
Not surprisingly, Aston's engineers have been to work on the Vantage's chassis. The spring rates at the front have been almost doubled to cope with the extra weight of the V12, while the biggest rear antiroll bar ever used by Aston has been employed to balance the handling.

The ride is predictably firm, but it's never genuinely harsh. It gets better the harder you drive, and body control is generally excellent. The Pirelli P Zero Corsa tires offer prodigious grip, although this is still a car that demands a firm hand.

The action of the six-speed manual gearbox is positive, but the shift lever requires a determined shove. The steering effort is also surprisingly heavy, loading up considerably in fast corners. Sadly, it's also disappointingly mute in terms of road feel and this, more than anything else, undermines your confidence in a car so fast. Under heavy braking, the V12 Vantage can feel slightly skittish as the weight transfers toward the nose, yet the brakes themselves are superb and are more than a match for the engine's thrust.

You have a natural instinct to adopt a relatively slow-in, fast-out cornering technique, relying on all that engine torque. The poise, delicacy and fluency of the brilliant, new Lotus Evora are not matched here, as the Aston serves up more brutal, simplistic fun. In many ways, the Aston Martin V12 Vantage has the character of an old-fashioned muscle car.

We didn't get the chance to try the V12 Vantage on a track or in the wet, but given the relatively short wheelbase, lots of weight up front and so much power, it could prove something of a handful. You're certainly never left in any doubt that the engine is the dominant force in this package.

The V8 Dilemma
Whichever way you look at it, the 2010 Aston Martin V12 Vantage is expensive. In the U.K., it costs $80,650 more than a V8 Vantage, a margin of 40 percent. Given that the V8 Vantage offers a 420-hp 4.3-liter V8 that gets it to 60 mph in 4.7 seconds, this price differential seems mighty hard to justify if you're just looking at performance. Aston claims that the two cars will appeal to different people and that they're really stand-alone models, but the economics will put you off unless you understand the engineering effort it took to get the V12 into this car in the first place.

The V12 Vantage is undeniably an exciting car, with a soundtrack and a level of performance that more than justifies a premium price. It also offers something genuinely different from the midengine cars from Ferrari and Lamborghini. If this car cost 20 percent more than the V8, we'd be hailing it as a huge success, but at this price, we'll call it an appealing but irrational choice.

Edmunds attended a manufacturer-sponsored event, to which selected members of the press were invited, to facilitate this report.