22 Mar 07
This is nit-picking, though. Fundamentally the V8 Roadster is great entertainment, especially if you keep the engine revving over 4,000rpm, below which the fire goes out a bit. So you'll be hanging on to the lower gears a lot, which, combined with the engine's effortlessly revvy nature, makes the Vantage seem longer-geared than it really is. The manual gearshift is smooth and easy (it wasn't always so; thinner gear oil has improved it), but many buyers are likely to opt for the Sportshift.
This uses the same Graziano transaxle but with sequential, steering-column-mounted paddle shifters. I tried a pre-production Sportshift coupe at the end of last year and found it to be a work in progress with some annoying surges on upshifts and a nasty snatch when coming to a halt. These faults have now been fixed, as the engineers promised they would be, and the result is a sequential transmission as good as anyone else's, if not ultimately as quick shifting as the F1-superfast shift of a Ferrari 599.
The downshift throttle-blips are impeccable, the upshifts are fine if you ease the throttle at the right moment and even the automatic mode is bearable if you're driving gently. Lots of manoeuvring will make the clutch smell, though, and reverse is still slow to engage.
At £91,000, the V8 Vantage Roadster is expensive next to an open Porsche 911, the more so if you add £3,000 for the Sportshift option. But it's a fabulous machine in which to snake along a sunny mountain road, exhaust echoing off the rocks, cornering forces balanced on the throttle. I loved it.
And what a great way to start Aston Martin's latest chapter.
