17 Mar 08
To accompany the V12 Vantage RS's epic straight-line speed comes a soundtrack straight from a Steve McQueen race car movie.
For those who have never heard a racing-specification V12 engine at full cry, all I can say is get yourself to Le Mans this summer for there is something missing from your life. For while the motor in a DB9 or DBS sounds wonderfully invigorating at full throttle, this one is nothing less than savage and the better for it. Even if you merely brush the accelerator while at a standstill, the engine barks its approval. Give the pedal a proper stab and it will emit a howl of such ferocity that it makes you want to duck.
And it's true that, at first, it is an entirely intimidating car. Very experienced drivers not known for being scared of anything much were seen giggling nervously before climbing aboard and trying their luck around Bernie Ecclestone's Paul Ricard private test track. For while the cabin looks little different to that of a normal Vantage, once underway, there are no further comparisons to make.
This is a car to make you sweat on a cold day. Its acceleration is not unmanageable but it lives in a place right on the outer edge of your comfort zone. Instead of looking eagerly at the instruments to see how fast you're travelling, you actively try quite hard not to think about it. You wonder if there is any point returning your hand to the wheel for that ever so brief pause in its insatiable appetite for gears, but you do anyway, just because guiding this thing with just one hand on the helm seems a long way from a good idea.
As you reach the end of the 1.8km straight it's clear that very little work has yet been done on the car's aerodynamics because the steering is worryingly light and the car starts to wander across the track. So you tread on the brake and the feel the pedal sink disconcertingly under your foot with little sign of any meaningful retardation. Then, suddenly, the temperature of the carbon ceramic discs hit their correct operating zone, the nose dips, stability returns and your excess speed is discarded in an instant.
Surprisingly, given its early stage of development and the weight of the huge engine in the nose, it's astonishingly good in the corners. It's running on road legal Pirelli track tyres and while their grip levels are not quite so good as pure racing slicks, they cling to the track massively better than any normal road rubber and give you at least a chance if it's raining which, thankfully, it was not. The steering feels reassuringly heavy and precise, guiding the nose of the car with unquestioned accuracy onto your chosen line and once in the corner, even when you're right on the limit, it feels neutral, progressive and, above all else, on your side.
Of course it could still land you in more trouble than you could conceive in less time than you could imagine, but it would only happen if you were treating the car with less than the respect it deserves. If you are not constantly aware, not simply of its power, but its short wheelbase and the fact that traction control is provided by your right foot alone, frankly you deserve what's coming. If you look after it, it will look after you. If you don't, say hello to a hedge.
