Aston Martin Vanquish review

The official sequel to the lightly iconic Aston Martin Vanquish, but soaked in performance-enhancing modernity. And it needed to be just a little extra; the DBS Ultimate 770 was already a DB11 with 760bhp (770 metric PS), so the Vanquish had to be more brawny, with some striation to those muscles.

And it is. Some 824bhp and 738lb ft of torque from a familiar twin-turbo 5.2-litre V12 make it a red-toothed powerhouse, with performance figures to match. We’re talking 62mph from rest in 3.2 seconds and a 214mph top speed.

Which is all very nice, but by no means the whole story: this isn’t some be-winged, mid-engined, carbotanium race refugee, but a car that ought to be capable of distance cruising. Quite a broad remit, hence the ‘hyper GT’ tag. 

There’s also a new look, complete with a generous stretch in the bonded (fancy word for ‘glued’) aluminium chassis forward of the windscreen pillar to give an ambitious - and really very cool - profile, mostly carbon bodywork. It’s not breaking too much ground in terms of outrageousness, but you’ll look back when you park it. And not be disappointed.

What’s the tech?

The Vanquish gets the new-style Aston interior (check out the blue option below, preferably while sitting down) with the central console laid a little flatter, so there’s plenty of the cabin-bound premium bits ’n’ bobs that you might expect from a car north of £330k. Yes the icons are small, but the car more than makes up for in ferocity what it lacks in font size.

That V12 gets a new block, heads, ports, camshafts, connecting rods, turbochargers, fuel injectors, and relocated spark plugs. The turbos are low-inertia, higher-speed items, and there’s ‘boost reserve’ where the electronic wastegate and intake port work together to preserve some pressure when momentarily off-throttle, ready to re-introduce it when you get back on the gas. It’s not hugely noticeable without trying the engine without the system fitted, but the Vanquish certainly has some mid-range flexibility. Honestly, this thing fires through a decent straight like the horizon owes it money.

Out back is an eight-speed auto, absolutely capable at slow speeds and the Casino Square dawdle, perfectly useful when operated by the paddles either side of the wheel. Yes, we’d like a more aggressive downchange - waiting for the engine to drop enough revs for a particular corner seemed slightly mismatched - but if you row with it rather than trying to force things, it’s much more agreeable.

Is it fast?

In the same way a jet is fast, or something powered by a rocket. It’s a slight build rather than instant hit, but once going, the mid-range is a mile wide. Overtakes are glorious operas of noise and fury, and it’ll accelerate from normal human speed to prison velocity in less time than it takes to say ‘I think that’s a police car’.

Full throttle in third gear is like falling horizontally towards the view. And even though it doesn’t have the spine-tingling arias at hand of a naturally-aspirated engine, there’s something a bit brutal and expressively nasty about a V12 with turbos exhausting all that gas.

Does it handle now?

Perhaps the most impressive thing is that while the previous iteration of the Vanquish was wonderful, it lacked some of the delicacy and ability when it came to technical corners. You could make it work, but it took an experienced hand to get the best from it.

The new Vanquish is ten times more deft, and easier to drive. There’s more confidence, more grip, more body control. Part of that is the damping, part is the electronic rear differential, but there’s also the feeling that it’s just a much stiffer car from which those systems get to push/pull and work. Yes it gets a bit busy at high-speed and big loads, and you have to be careful switching all the electronic minders off in the wet, but it’s now got the ability to be actual fun in corners, rather than just dealing with them.

An impressive rebirth of the Vanquish. Slightly old-school vibes, big power, ferocious delivery, but now with Grand Touring ability and enough handling nous to be exciting and fun in the twisty bits when you get there. It can be slightly busy in the wet, but that’s kind of what you expect. It’s also now got a cabin more worthy of the Aston price/positioning, and looks pleasingly brutal. It’s a standout job all-round.