**Aston Martin Vantage: A Sports Car That Delivers**

The Aston Martin Vantage is a sports car that has been designed to deliver exceptional performance and handling. In this review, we'll take a closer look at the features and characteristics of the Vantage, and see how it stacks up against its competitors.

One of the things that sets the Vantage apart from other sports cars is its suspension system. The car features an active damping system that adjusts to different driving conditions, providing a smooth ride on the road and exceptional handling on the track. This system introduces heavier steering weight when switched into Sport+ mode, which can be adjusted to suit individual preferences.

The steering response of the Vantage is quick and responsive, making it a joy to drive on twisty roads or at the track. The car's powertrain modes are also worth mentioning, as they offer a range of driving experiences that can be tailored to suit different conditions. Whether you're cruising down the highway or taking the track by storm, the Vantage has a mode to suit your needs.

The paddles on the Vantage's gearshift are among the best in the business, with an easy-to-use design and a reassuring feel when switching between manual and automatic modes. This makes it incredibly easy to get in and out of first gear without too much fuss or fiddling about.

One of the most notable features of the Vantage is its size. Despite its spacious boot and generous interior, the car feels surprisingly wide on the road, thanks to its unique design and stance. The visibility from the cabin is also noteworthy, with a high window line and a hatchback-style rear end that provides a good view out behind.

The Vantage's engine note is particularly noteworthy, with a deep and resonant sound that belies its V8 powerplant. This is one of the best-sounding engines in this class, and it's a major factor in the car's appeal. Whether you're cruising down the road or taking the track by storm, the Vantage's engine sounds like a proper sports car.

The interior of the Vantage is also worth mentioning, with high-quality materials and attention to detail that suggests a premium brand. Some of the plastics are merely adequate, but the leather and stitching are generally excellent, with just a few minor flaws here and there. The overall impression is one of craftsmanship and quality, with a sense that this car has been put together by someone who genuinely cares about its customers.

The Vantage's price is certainly a point worth considering, at £120,000+. While it's more than some of the competition – indeed, it costs as much as a well-specced Porsche 911 GTS – it's hard to argue that you're getting value for money. The car has been thoroughly sorted by Aston Martin, with a range of features and kit that make it one of the most comprehensive on the market.

Ultimately, whether or not the Vantage is "better" than a Porsche 911 GTS is subjective, but it's clear that both cars are exceptional in their own right. The Vantage has a unique charm and character that sets it apart from its rivals, while still delivering exceptional performance and handling. If you're looking for a sports car that delivers the goods, the Aston Martin Vantage is certainly worth considering – even if it means spending a pretty penny.

**Aston Martin Vantage: Features at a Glance**

* Active damping suspension

* 4.0-liter V8 engine with 600 horsepower and 516 lb-ft of torque

* 8-speed automatic gearbox with paddle-shift mode

* Sport+ mode for track driving, which introduces heavier steering weight

* 911 GTS rival in terms of performance and handling

**Aston Martin Vantage: Conclusion**

The Aston Martin Vantage is a sports car that delivers exceptional performance and handling. With its active damping suspension, quick steering response, and range of powertrain modes, it's an incredibly versatile driving experience. While the price may be off-putting for some buyers, it's hard to argue that you're not getting value for money with this kind of kit and quality. Whether or not it's "better" than a Porsche 911 GTS depends on individual preferences – but one thing is certain: the Aston Martin Vantage is an exceptional sports car that deserves serious consideration from anyone in the market.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enThis, as you know, is the new Aston MartinVantage, we’re going to do a couple of simplethings right, I’m going to go for a driveon the track and then talk you through a cutawayof the chassis because it’s really, reallyinteresting indeed, don’t miss that and3, we’re going to go for a drive on theroad and see exactly how good this new sportscar is.Right, welcome then to the inside of the newAston Martin Vantage and this one is in quitea racy trim.Now there will be differences between roadand track versions that you see in this filmfor complicated reasons that they don’twant us using the same car on road and track.This one is on lightweight forged wheels whichsave about 10kg all round, it’s on carbonceramic discs which save another 24kgall round so I think these seats are optional,this alcantara’s certainly optional too.All in then with those weight saving bitsin place, you’re looking at a car whichis 1530 kg dry, add another 100kg tothat for a wet weight so it is probably notas light as some of the stuff around it, 911sparticularly.First impressions, well they’ve turned upthe V8 engine, it’s in the same tune itis in the DB11 V8, so it’s about 500 horsepower.Maximum torque about the same in lbs-ft comesin at 2000 rpm and then the torque curve isdead flat from there but they have turnedup the noise and I can turn it up even furtherwith 3 drive modes.Now in the DB11 you get GT, Sport, Sport Plus, Ithink they’ve moved them a stage further,more sporty if you like from there, so mystandard one is sport but I can make the powertrainSport+ which turns things up a bit or I canput it in track which turns the exhaust upagain, sounds quite good doesn’t it?The DB11 doesn’t sound that V8-y but thisactually kind of does, they’ve turned itup.You can switch chassis modes too obviously,so there’s normal mode or you can put itin sport and you can put it in sport+.We’re at Portimao in Portugal, which is a circuit witha few lumps and bumps on it, and the maximummaximum suspension setting Aston’s engineers sayis probably too harsh for this so it needsa really smooth track like Silverstone orsomething like that.So I am going to put it in, I’ve got thesort of plus on the suspension, track on thedrivetrain and what I can tell you straightaway is that it feels impressively stable,it’s a front engined car don’t forget.Gearbox is responsive, steering has two weights, this is the firmer of them,but it’s still not heavy, it’s heavierthan a Ferrari, probably not as heavy as aGT3 Porsche or something like that.You can just feel there traction control inits full on state is quite hard, it doesn’tlet you play around too much so it takes twopushes because it’s a Mercedes derived systemand now that’s in ESP track as we just arriveat a second gear hairpin which is handy.So it allows a little bit more slip, the enginerevs to 7,000 and stays there when you’rein full manual mode until you change up andanother long push takes everything into offand at that point Aston says everything isoff, conveniently there is another hairpin.What I love about front-engined rear-wheel-drivecars is that they just have a beautiful benignhandling balance to them that is just honest, it’sstraightforward and great fun and loveableand when it’s got this much power, thismuch torque, mechanical layout I will talkyou through it in a minute.Oh god that is so nice, engineers at Astonthey just like doing this sort of thing andthey are aware of how muchfun it is and if you make a great handlingcar in its extremes, you end up with a goodhandling car, a rewarding car all the time.In addition to the differential it also hastorque vectoring via braking so on turn init will ease in say an inside rear wheel to justtry and help the turn in and it feels likethe point of rotation is right about here.You sit in the middle, the weight distributionis balanced, you get all of those things rightand I mean about half the battle is won intomaking a great handling car and the rest ofit is all in brilliant tuning, they’ve gotsome gifted people doing that sort of thing.Now techy bit, I don’t quite understandthis yet but I’m getting there, it’s notjust what the front wheels do that make acar really nicely balanced if it’s goodlike this, what matters is the lateral stiffnessat the back.If you stand at the back of the car and youpush it sideways, forget about roll, if youwere to try push it sideways, it helps ifit’s very rigid because then the front justgoes where you want and then the back is verywell supported against lateral loads.This has got a rigidly mounted rear subframe,rear subframe is for the most part sharedwith the DB11 but that is mounted squishilyto give more on road GT-ness, this would allowmore road noise and lack of refinement becauseit’s rigidly mounted but what it gives isthat lateral stiffness that makes this carso enjoyable and playful.Oh god, it’s just ridiculous, it’s justridiculously easy to do that, that’s absurd,that is absurd, what a car, in a way it remindsme in the way it wants to play is like a,and I use this as a compliment, a bit likea Ferrari 458/488, they’ve got that reallynice lateral grippiness at the rear, there’sa real honesty to it, a real willingness todo exactly what you want, it’s quick, I’mgetting enough back through the steering,I’m getting loads back through the chassis,as a track car it’s really good fun, youcan drive it too in a sort of fast way ifyou want to and what’s nice about it isyou get to a corner and you can choose yourangle exactly how you want, if you want todrive it racily with sort of neutral steeror a tiny bit of lock or a tiny dab the otherway then it’ll do it and if you want tobe a total hooligan, it will do that too.Okay now here comes what Jennifer Anistonused to call the science bit.This is then the bare chassis of the new Vantage,ostensibly it’s the same architecture asthe DB11 but actually only 30% of the componentsare shared between the two and now I havea sheet because I’ve got quite a lot ofnotes here.The wheelbase is 100 mm shorter than the DB11and that makes the overall length of the carabout the same size as a Porsche 911 in length.Now it doesn’t look like it, it looks likeit’s slightly longer and that’s becausewhat the engineers call the ‘colouring indepartment’ have made it very sleek andvery elegant.Now it’s an all aluminium structure, thenice thing about aluminium is that for a specificweight it is very stiff, stiffer than steel,but it tends to use more material doing it,slightly complicated but anyway it does.The good thing about the new architectureis there are more castings and there are moreforgings and there are slightly less extrusionsso it is more space efficient than the oldAston VH architecture, that means two things,1.You can make the car feel a bit differentinside from one to the other, old Astons usedto feel a bit similar and look a bit similar,this time the DB11 will be very differentto Vantage, will be very different to Vanquish,so on and so forth.Now, the other thing about aluminium is becauseyou have to use a little bit more material,this ends up being quite a wide car, it’swider than a 911 for example but if you thinkabout other all aluminium cars like the JaguarF-type and the Mercedes AMG GT, they’realso quite wide, probably the only aluminiumstructured car that isn’t wide is maybea Lotus Elise and Evora, they’ve got allthe strength in the sills so they’re verydifferent to get in and out of and they don’thave to worry about a transmission tunneldown the middle which this car does, otherfront engined cars do which is where quitea lot of the strength is in this.Now, that brings me to the powertrain, theengine is in the front but if you look here,the entire block sits behind the front axleline then the propshaft runs at engine speedall the way through to the rear axle wherethere is a ZF automatic 8-speed transmission,now that’s not a twin clutch because actuallymodern torque convertor autos hook up, theylock up really quickly, you don’t get muchbenefit from a twin clutch and a conventionalauto is more refined.Also at the back, and this is new to thiscar is an e-differential, now that is a limitedslip differential which is electronicallycontrolled which means it can do all thata mechanical limited slip diff does, so itcan slide as you will have already seen, butit also means that it can unlock very easilyso when manoeuvring or when you’re just on theroad and you want an ultra agile feel, thereis no locking to that differential.Finally then, all of that together means thatthe weight distribution is pretty much bangon 50/50 because there is so much weight atthe back of the car to counteract the factthat the engine is at the front and that iswhy it feels so well balanced and so agileon a circuit, so let’s go and find out whatit is like on the road.So then, to the road driving impressions ofthe new Vantage, different Vantage you might notice, leatheryinterior rather than the alcantara sportyone, this is a sort of more luxo spec, sowe don’t ruin them all on the track I suppose.This one has not got the lightweight wheels,the unsprung mass presumably would help improvethe ride even further but the ride is prettygood, I’m in the most leisurely of everymode at the moment so I’m in sport on thepowertrain, I’m in normal on the suspension,if I go into sport+ or track on the suspensionthat introduces heavier steering weight too,the steering weight is quite good as it is, theride is fine as it is, sport+ you can useon the road, track just gets way too muchfor the road.The powertrain modes are a bit more usableall round, what they tend to do, they giveyou a little bit of extra response but thebig difference is on the waffle of the exhaustand the reactions of the automatic gearboxbut to be honest, so easy is it to go in andout of manual mode, between automatic andmanual mode on that gearbox, you just pulla paddle and these are the best paddles inthe business bar Ferrari I would say, mountedto the column rather than the wheel, I cansee the argument either way on that.Anything more than a quarter turn then havingthem on the column because at least you knowexactly where they are all the time and theseare big paddles, they’ve got an easy pullto them and if you give an extended pull onthe right, you go straight back into automaticmode which is great, you don’t have to faffaround with anything down here and I reallylike that about Astons and the other few cars,not as many do it as you’d think.You know I mentioned it’s a wide car, itfeels its width on the road actually.If you were to come straight from a 911 intothis you might think wow this is actuallyquite a large car, you can’t see any ofthe bonnet, got a very high window line, visibilityout the back is not bad, there’s a hatchbackat the back, that gives it a fairly sizeableboot, actually there’s quite a lot of storagespace behind these seats which have also gota lot of room, so it feels like quite a spaciouscar.If you’re looking for a tiny, nimble, agilefeeling sports car, I don’t think this isthe one.I mean I say that, it’s agile in its ownway, it’s just not little, what gives itwhat agility it has is that it has a perfectweight distribution and it feels like it pivotsright around here and even on the road youkind of get that impression of a quick directionchange where the steering response is reallygood, it’s quick enough, it’s got thesame ratio as the DB11 but because it’sgot a shorter wheelbase, effectively the steeringis quicker, gearbox response is really good,it does make a good noise, it does make agood noise.Thats is in standard mode as well, I likethe fact that they’ve really turned thewick back up on the engine note and the exhaustnote over the DB11, whose V8 arguably soundsquite flat, this V8 sounds proper and if Iswitch it back into sport +, track mode thenthe exhaust goes up another notch.Hehe!Or you can turn it back down, and an extendedpush on the start button, this is good whenyou start it, starts it in quiet mode so youdon’t irritate all of your neighbours.Not that at £120,000+ this is the kind ofcar whose owners are likely to have neighboursin close proximity.It’s a lot of money isn’t it £120,000and that is more than most of the competition,gets you a really good 911 at £120,000 soyou get some serious kit but it is a seriouslygood car.What’s it like in terms of interior fitand finish and refinement?Some of the plastics are merely okay, theleather and stitching is generally very goodactually, there’s the occasional bit whereyou can just sort of see a little pull onthe leather, that might be because this isan early car, there’s also a bit down herethat I can sort of pull around far too easilybut generally this car feels special, it feelsa little bit handmade, by which I mean crafted,not botched together, it feels a littlebit crafted but it also feels like it is theproduct of a proper company, you know, somebodythat does things well.I like this car, I like this car very much.Do I like it more than a Porsche 911 GTS?There are elements of it that I do, I loveits natural handling balance, I love its trackhandling balance where you can just play withit front to rear, I love the engine note,I think ultimately I might love a 911 GTSa tiny bit more but the fact that we’remerely having this conversation and comparingone against the other and saying well thisoutdoes that there but that outdoes that there,shows just how far and just how good a jobAston Martin has done with the new Vantage.\n"