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 What would James Bond
drive?
Agent 007’s sportscar has had a bumpy ride. Yet, even with
corporate ownership changes, Aston Martin retains its hand-made
quality – and at a price that’s a quantum of solace
by
TONY WHITNEY
During
the filming of the new James Bond movie Quantum of Solace, a
luckless engineer wrote off a new Aston Martin but a collector
quickly moved in and bought the remains for a reported $350,000.
Thankfully for the production team, they still had five Astons left
to work with.
I only needed one Aston Martin to confirm that this still is one of
the world’s great marques and, happily, I got it back to
Vancouver’s spiffy new Aston dealership on Burrard Street
undamaged.
The British supercar builder has certainly had its share of ups and
downs in recent times – perhaps not a “roller coaster ride,” but
something pretty close.
After several years of stability under Ford Motor Company, the
brand was put on the block and the rumour mill worked overtime,
speculating wildly on who would end up owning the operation. It was
finally bought by a UK consortium headed by David Richards, best
known for his involvement with Prodrive, which runs the successful
Subaru World Rally Championship Team and other racing operations
worldwide.
One
Ford legacy must be in the pricing department, because it was a
surprise to me to find that you can buy an Aston for as little
(forgive the use of the word “little”) as $129,500. Like most other
people, I’d gotten used to thinking $250,000–$350,000, but right
now, the basic list price for a V-8 Vantage Coupe is a figure
easily topped by several models from Mercedes-Benz and Porsche for
starters.
The V-8
Vantage Roadster I tested expectedly costs more than its coupe
equivalent, but not that much more. Competitive price or no, this
is very much a classic Aston Martin design, which means it ranks
with the world’s finest sporting cars, regardless of nameplate. It
looks, perhaps, like a Jaguar XK that’s read a few Joe Wieder
weightlifting manuals.
The
Vantage is built at Aston Martin’s new worldwide headquarters
facility at Gaydon in the UK midlands. As enthusiasts will know,
Aston Martin’s ancestral home is Newport Pagnell, but that’s now
all part of history.
Superb
styling is one thing, of course, but engineering is the key when it
comes to serious sports cars and the DB9 doesn’t disappoint. It’s
built almost entirely of aluminum, but when I suggested to an Aston
Martin executive that they’d been looking over the shoulders of
their opposite numbers over at Jaguar with their XK sports car and
XJ sedan (also all-aluminum), he emphasized that the Vantage uses
different technology and was developed separately. The body
structure uses a combination of aluminum pressings, extrusions and
diecastings to create a very strong and rigid shell. Many of the
body components are bonded together, aerospace style. The nearest
automaker using this kind of fabrication technology is Audi with
its Audi Space Frame (ASF) system.
The
power-operated top is tight and windproof when in place, but there
is some cargo space sacrificed as might be expected. Despite this,
there’s enough room for a bag of golf clubs in the back. The Coupe
is a hatchback and thus has very good luggage room for a car in
this class. As always, Aston Martin will sell you a set of fitted
cases for either car, but these are quite expensive.
As its
name implies, this is the Aston with a V-8 rather than a V-12 and
for 2009, it’s a 4.7-litre unit developing 420-horsepower and 346
lb. ft. of torque. It is potent and responsive and under full
throttle, makes a roar that will delight enthusiastic drivers. The
latest version of this V-8 is built at Aston Martin’s engine plant
in Cologne where a small team of specialists build them one at a
time – just like the cars. The current engine was upgraded in just
about every aspect about a year ago – partly to deal with the extra
power and torque it has compared to its predecessor. The earlier
engine block was shared with Jaguar, but the 4.7 is unique to Aston
Martin.
Buyers
can choose from two transmissions – a six-speed manual or a
six-speed Sportshift auto/manual with steering wheel mounted paddle
shifters. If you choose the Sportshift (my tester was equipped with
this) there is no traditional shifter at all, modes being selected
with a row of dash-mounted buttons. The Sportshift proved very
effective with smooth, seamless manual shifts and the ability to
drive the car in fully automatic mode. For the record, the
Sportshift is made by the same outfit that builds Ferrari’s F1
transmission, but Aston Martin people claim (naturally enough) that
theirs is better.
Serious
sports cars always feel just as safe at race speeds as they do on
the freeway burbling along at 100 km/h. With its healthy torque
figure, the Vantage can get underway very quickly indeed and the
transformation to high speeds from back-road dawdles is both swift
and free of fuss. The car inspires great confidence and seems to
want to just get up and go, rather than cruise gently along and I’m
sure a race-car driver could get astonishing performance out of a
Vantage V-8. Aston Martin quotes a zero-to-100 km/h figure of 4.9
seconds and a top speed of 288 km/h.
Interior ambiance is
excellent with superb leathers almost everywhere, a perfect driving
position and a general feeling of being part of the car. It is a
tad on the snug side, but this is all part of the experience. The
trim is very well done with fine leather just about everywhere.
Among much fine detailing, there’s even a nifty recess for a Lamy
pen on the dash. The elegant nose with its classic Aston Martin
grille seems to stretch way out in front and care has to be taken
not to grind it over those concrete parking markers that always
seem twice as high as they need to be.
Best of
all, the Vantage V-8 follows a long tradition of Aston Martin to
build cars that are true sports cars and not just attractive
boulevard cruisers. There are few places in the world to exploit
the performance of such a car, but it’s good to know such
automobiles exist should we ever be lucky enough to afford
one.
The
price for a Roadster, including freight, PDI and fuel tax, is
$153,500 and with its long list of options, our car stickered out
at $167,870. The bulk of this extra expense came from handsome
19-inch wheels, the navigation setup and a very fine audio
system.
Aston
Martins are very much handbuilt, even though they feature very
advanced performance and safety technology (the brakes are awesome,
for example). Each one is “signed off” by a key employee at the
manufacturing plant and a plaque noting this inspection process is
the first thing you see when opening the hood. I have to thank
Martyn Askill for mine – great job Martyn!
SPECIFICATIONS – Body
style: Two place roadster. Engine: 4.7-litre V-8. Transmission:
6-speed auto/manual. Performance: Zero to 100 km/h in 4.9 secs.
Fuel economy: Not yet listed by Transport Canada. Price: $153,500
base.
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