06 Oct 04
Somewhat staggeringly, it sounds even better than it looks. The new engine, which has new heads, injectors and mapping, is a wonder - all the more so when you consider that, at its heart, it's still two conjoined Mondeo V6s. You no longer need to dream of the definitive V12 supercar snarl-howl-shriek when you drive a Vanquish S: it's with you on every journey. They've even refined the paddle-shift gearbox, so now changes come and go almost as soon as you've tugged the lever. You need to learn its ways before it's completely smooth-shifting, but it's no longer tiresome.
Even greater progress has been made with the chassis: whereas the old Vanquish felt great up to around eight tenths effort and decidedly queasy thereafter, the new suspension and brakes on the S bring a whole new level of control and fun. Grip levels are astonishingly high for a front-engined car and its braking ability is now fully commensurate with the level of available performance, something you'd have struggled to say about the previous Vanquish. All you have really to bear in mind on a fast cross country run is that the Vanquish S still weighs 1875kg and takes a lot of room to round up should it start sliding. Those who deactivate the traction control need to know their subject, their road and their limitations.
So, in many ways, even the Vanquish S fails to subscribe to old Aston values: in the main it is much too good to withstand such comparison. Happily however, some vestige of the old order remains: the driving position is terrible, the Jaguar XK-sourced air-con looks awful and the rest of the facia is a mess. But it's not enough to spoil what is a unique car. Sure, a DB9 is better value, a more rounded package and, ultimately, not that much slower. But the Vanquish is even prettier and yet more memorable.
Is it worth the extra? As a car almost certainly not. But factor in that eight DB9s will be built for every one Vanquish that hits the roads and a new perspective emerges: faster, more beautiful, characterful and rarer by far. So those who thought the old-style Aston was dead should think again. It's alive and, from what I can see, in better health than ever.
