Remember the Vanquish? Of course you do. What a thing that was. Launched in 2001, it was designer Ian Callum’s final car for Aston Martin, a 190mph six-litre V12 monster, star of various Bond epics, the remake of The Italian Job and name-checked by Lil Kim and the Pussycat Dolls. From zero to legend in less time than it took to get to 60mph – five seconds since you asked.
“I had a poster of that original car on my wall,” says Miles Nurnberger, Aston Martin’s Director of Design, who has overseen the styling of the new Vanquish.
“The name carries quite a bit of meaning at the company; weighty, mighty and athletic, that was the tone that had been set by the original” he says, “but athletic like a boxer perhaps, so you know you’ve been hit.”
We’re walking around the new, third generation of the Vanquish, a study in what time and inflation can do to icons. With a smaller V12 engine (5.2 litres) plus two turbochargers, this Vanquish can summon 835PS/1000Nm and achieve a top speed of 214mph and charge from 0-60mph in 3.2 seconds.
Sardinia is living up to its autumn weather reputation, it’s raining and the water pools and spills off the deep-crimson coachwork. The original Vanquish launch was in Scotland, where I and several others had taught then-Chief Executive Officer Ulrich Bez to play croquet (he was a natural). Not much chance of that today on the Costa Smeralda’s rocky, soaking shores. I’d thought the new Vanquish looked too long in the photographs, not so in the metal.
“It needed road presence,” says Nurnberger, “and I think with 80mm in the wheelbase it has that top-of-the-range feel, but there are elements of past, present and future in it. Just look at the tail spoiler, with its Kamm tail which could have come off a DB6.”
He’s right, there is a lovely melding of old and new, tradition and high tech in the shape. My favourite bits are those languidly curved wings and the vents in the front, not as I’d thought, from the DBR1 race car, but the DP214 Project car – this car is an Aston Martin spotter’s dream. The cabin likewise, as you slide into the tan leather cockpit, specially designed to be cosseting, sybaritic and beautiful, but without the kind of glassy touch-screen dominated mien of some contemporaries.
Nurnberger’s got some interesting ideas on what constitutes an Aston interior and it doesn’t start and end with a touch screen. But it’s not just a paean to the analogue, more a cri de coeur for the physical touch of finely crafted materials.
“You have to remember these are emotional objects,” he says. “We quite like visible fixings, too, which say, ‘this car is built’. We’re looking for a mix of the physical and the digital, but in this car, the emphasis is on the physical.”
The weather clears and mindful of the words of Simon Newton, Director of Vehicle Performance, I leave the drivetrain settings in Wet as we pull out. Even on drying roads, you can feel the way the V12 leans into its torque curve at low revs. This is a seriously brisk motorcar even when you aren’t travelling particularly briskly. The eight-speed ZF transaxle is gentle or fast as you like depending on the drivetrain setting, and the body control on the Italian island’s considerably-less-than-pristine roads is sublime.
The new V12 engine has a redesigned block and heads, new cams, connecting rods, porting and bigger injectors. The turbos are the same size as before, but speeded up so they blow more, and then there are the dark arts of conserving turbo boost including using valves to build pressure in the inlet system to give a faster and smoother response to the throttle.
Speed up and again Vanquish is fast but not like a weather strike, more that of a gathering storm. I’m beginning to think this car is a bit of a pussy cat as I blithely push the drive mode into Sport and watch the digital rev counter pop.
Squeeze not push the throttle and I’m glad I did. The engine note builds, and the horizon starts to peel itself off the back. Finally, go to Sport + and it feels as though the sky fell in, at 7,000rpm the shriek is addictive and you’re clinging on, eyes wide and senses in overdrive. The Vanquish isn’t finished yet, though, and at a speed beginning with a two, the rear tyres are still trying to light up on a dry road, such is the power and torque. My days this car is fast.
But Newton’s team have worked to give you time and control. The steering is a precision instrument, sited down the long wings, the throttle is an intuitive slider, determining just how early you want to be and the chassis is a chatty companion telling you about places it would be happy to go and those it wouldn’t. Oh and those progressive brakes, if only other cars stopped this way.
Owners might take their Vanquishes to the track, but, actually, this is principally a road car; a devastatingly goodlooking, comfortable and swift way of joining here and there. It’s about the journey, not the arrival of course, and what a journey the Vanquish gives you.
In 23 years Vanquish has been a flitting presence and the new model won’t be exactly crowding our roads, since Aston Martin won’t be making more than 1,000 a year, so think rare. But for all that, I’m really, really glad it’s back.
