17 Mar 08
At its most basic, the V12 Vantage RS is exactly as described on the tin - An Aston Vantage with the 4.3-litre V8 motor replaced by the 6-litre V12 used by the DB9 and DBS. And were it as simple as that, the proposition would be enticing enough, but describing this car as a Vantage with a V12 motor is like calling the Titanic a boat.
It is so much more than that. For a start, the engine is neither the 450bhp version used in the DB9 nor the one with 510bhp used by the DBS. It is a full race engine with a whole host of expensive modifications from forged pistons to dry sump lubrication that allows it to pump out a mighty 600bhp.
That would be impressive enough and would confer startling performance upon the little Vantage even if the extra mass of the big engine did push its weight far beyond its current 1630kg.
But the V12 Vantage does not weigh much more than a V8 Vantage: if fact it weighs less, 130kg less in fact, thanks in part to the removal of non-essential items such as air-conditioning, airbags and a chunk of sound deadening. The main weight loss, however, is down to the replacement of aluminium body panels such as the bonnet, bootlid and door inners with flyweight items made from carbon fibre.
To help put this in perspective, imagine a car weighing the same as a basic spec, 1.8-litre diesel powered Ford Mondeo but with the same power as the Aston Martin DBR9 racing car that won the GT category at the Le Mans 24-hours last year. You might expect the result to be certifiably insane. And you'd be right.
Because the car you're looking at is the only V12 Vantage RS currently in existence and was designed as a concept car to sit on a show stand and not rocket up the public road, it is entirely road illegal and can, therefore, only be run on a test track.
However, unlike most concepts whose doors start to fall off if you drive them at much more than 30mph, this one was still yelling for more when I had to brake for the corner at the end of the back straight at, conservatively, 175mph. I'd estimate its 0-60mph time to be around 3.5sec with no more than the same again being required to get from 60-100mph. So that's 0-100mph in a nice, round 7sec which, as you will have noticed, is a perfectly respectable 0-60mph for most normal performance cars.
