17 Mar 08
The significance of the V12 Vantage RS extends so much further than its role as an ultra-high performance supercar. It's also a new breed of product for Aston Martin.
Even if you gaze into the mists of times, you'll find that despite the very sporting image of the company, it has mainly busied itself with building fast touring cars - more cruisers than bruisers. The normal Vantage is pleasingly sporting but still very much an everyday, all-purpose machine, while even the flagship DBS is clearly a Grand Tourer at heart, though a fairly rapid one.
The Vantage RS is none of these things: it is a track-inspired, uncompromising driver's weapon that shares more conceptual ground with the most sporting Ferraris, Porsches and Lamborghinis than any Aston Martin produced in the last 40 years. Indeed you have to look back to the start of the 1960s when Aston Martin produced another road-going racing car called the DB4GT before you will find an antecedent with a similar level of focus on pure driving pleasure.
All that remains to be seen is now much of that character can be retained as the car goes through the production process which, sadly, will inevitably result in it losing power and gaining weight.
Even so, if the result is 100kg heavier and 50bhp less urgent, it seems hard to imagine that it won't still be the most exciting Aston Martin of the last generation. Aston Martin still doesn't know what the worldwide demand for the car will be, but suggests perhaps 600 cars might be built for around £150,000 each over a three-year period starting next summer. At that price and volume, I expect queues for it.
