The new Vantage is expected to use the current car’s 4.0-litre V8, but with an uplift in power
Two-seat Aston prepares for reinvention with its own character over DB12 and DBS replacement
The new Aston Martin Vantage will be given its own obvious character over the DB12 and the DBS replacement as the first Aston Martin to break cover before a slew of new models arrive in the coming months.
The Vantage will be styled to be a “complete hooligan” as part of a plan to make it even sportier, chief creative officer Marek Reichman has told Autocar.
Although the Vantage will undergo a similar interior overhaul to the DB12, it will be differentiated by its character on the road. Given the high-riding DBX 707 offers Vantage-baiting levels of performance and the DB12 has been given a power boost and significant handling upgrade over the DB11 it replaces, “you get more sporty anyway”, said Reichman, when it came to creating the next Vantage.
“The next Vantage can separate from a DB12 with huge performance and a DBX that feels like it. It has to be completely different,” said Reichman. “The replacement for the DBS will then be “completely different to both of them.”
Product and market strategy director Alex Long echoed Reichman, saying: “We’ll see in our sports car and GT range much more breadth and separation between one end and the other, where today they’re quite similarly positioned. We’ll see a much broader operating range.”
Reichman also said Aston’s road car operation will be making full use of the Formula 1 team’s resources, likely resulting in several tweaks in the Vantage’s design. The upgraded model was recently seen testing at the Nürburgring, revealing a smaller grille and smoother lines around the front end. The car’s rear appears to have received a reworked splitter with a quad-exhaust set-up and more aggressive air ducting from the wheel arches.
The chassis set-up is expected to take after the track-honed V12 Vantage, with improvements in poise and pace ranking high on the to-do list. Lightweighting is not likely to extend to a smaller engine, however: AMG’s six-cylinder wouldn’t work for the Vantage, Long said, because “the sound is so much” of the car’s raw emotional appeal. “We don’t build transport. We build dreams,” he added.
As such, the Vantage is expected to use an uprated version of the 503bhp 4.0-litre V8 from the current-generation car. The new Mercedes-AMG SL 63 uses the same unit, but boosted to 577bhp, hinting at its potential in the new Vantage.
Prices are likely to rise significantly compared with the £133,920 starting price of the existing Vantage, given Aston’s push to become a profitable luxury brand. For reference, the larger DB12 is anticipated to start from £185,000 when it arrives later this year.
Source: Autocar
