2013 Aston Martin Vanquish
Through a carbon-fiber driveshaft hidden inside an aluminum torque tube, the V-12 spins gears inside the same rear-mounted six-speed automated manual transaxle the DBS used. Aside from the composite body, perhaps the only way in which the Vanquish is cutting-edge is that it offers no conventional manual transmission. But like high-tech transmissions everywhere, the Vanquish’s can be controlled with paddle shifters, and it zings the revs on downshifts. Sport mode allows the driver to hold the redline longer than in the other settings, but lest grand-touring drivers be caught off guard by the rapid onslaught of rpm, shifts eventually will occur automatically, no matter what. Huge carbon-ceramic brake rotors-15.7 inches up front and 14.2 out back-are standard and help even inattentive drivers bring things back below the speed limit in a hurry. They’re actuated by a pedal that, like the rest of the car, is nearly perfectly calibrated for those who want to go fast but aren’t too intent on going the fastest.
People spending nearly $300,000 on a grand tourer probably are pretty intent on being comfortable, though, and the Vanquish delivers on that front. Occupants see almost nothing that isn’t leather or faux suede, and Aston boasts that there are about one million separate stitches in each quilted Vanquish interior. Sure. We’re not gonna count. Those trimmings are standard at the car’s $282,110 base price, as are heated front seats; a 1000-watt, 13-speaker Bang & Olufsen audio system; and navigation. The sweeping center stack of the DB cars remains, but the controls are redesigned in the Vanquish for a more modern look, complete with haptic-feedback clusters for climate and infotainment functions. Although it looks elegant, this cabin can be a surprisingly noisy place. Aston explained away wind noise from the driver’s door as a preproduction fit issue, but the tire noise emanating from all four corners isn’t going to be fixed by a last-minute tweak.
Aston pushed the dash forward more than an inch, and we’re told the doors and the center console are slimmer, too. The result is a noticeably more spacious Aston, although the passenger-side footwell still ends early and abruptly. And in moving the dash forward, Aston lost its glove box. Hey, you could get more elbowroom by removing the doors; the challenge is to figure out how to minimize such compromises. Then again, things that normally go in a glove box can go in the back seat-or the void where you’d expect one. As with the DB9/S, the seat is useless for people larger than your average garden gnome. It is, however, optional. Forgoing it won’t get you any more front-seat travel, but it will keep friends from getting into your Aston and laughing.
Allow us, then, to amend our opening statement: Maybe England isn’t so much the land that time forgot as it is the land of “good enough.” Driving on the left side of the road, using imperial units-these things are good enough. Why bother with the way other people do things? This philosophy underlies Aston CEO Ulrich Bez’s answer when asked why there’s no redline on the counterclockwise-reading tachometer. He explains that those last few hundred rpm don’t really make a difference, that most drivers aren’t going for a best lap time on a track and don’t need the few extra 10ths of a second provided by redline shifts. His company seems to bank on its customers’ sharing this conviction. For people who want Aston Martins, this one is most definitely good enough.
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