We've Been Expecting You...

Aston Martin’s new Vantage is revealed, with DB10‘ influenced styling and power from a 503bhp twin-turbo AMG V8

- Stuart Gallagher

THERE ARE DAYS WHEN IT CAN feel as if Aston Martin is never out of the news. DB11, Valkyrie, new showrooms, a new factory, submarines, final-edition Vanquish S models and Formula 1 – every news sector covered, no sleep for the product, marketing and PR men and women.

The arrival of the next Vantage is a different story, though. A much bigger story. This is Aston Martin’s most important new car for years. The outgoing version sold over 16,000 examples during its 11-year life, more than any Aston that had gone before and a number that is only expected to be eclipsed by the DBX SUV and this, the all-new twin-turbocharged V8 Aston Martin Vantage.

Evolution and revolution have been combined in the development of the new Vantage. With a design team led by Marek Reichman, the chassis development spearheaded by Matt Becker, and the whole project overseen by the enigmatic and energetic CEO Andy Palmer, this Vantage is also the first all-new Aston Martin that the latter two have overseen from inception. ‘With everything that Aston Martin has on its agenda at the moment and going forward, the Vantage is what I am looking forward to the most,’ Palmer told evo. ‘It’s my first Aston Martin. The first car I’ve been involved with from the beginning.’

It’s quite a car, too. Its platform and core structure is a further development of the DB11’s aluminium architecture, the replacement for the venerable VH platform that served Aston so well for so long. But the Vantage is more than simply a re-bodied DB11 – 70 per cent of its structural components are new. And a focus on providing better balance an increase in rigidity and weight efficiency has provided Becker with the blank canvas required to hone the Vantage’s handling.