ATTENTION PLEASE

The new Vantage Roadster is waving the flag for a resurgent Aston Martin, but can it win favour over its open-top rivals from McLaren and Ferrari? JAMES DISDALE slaps on the sunscreen

- JAMES DISDALE

The mercury is climbing steadily into the high twenties, and above us the blue sky is dotted with only a smattering of little fluffy clouds. At last, summer is here. Better still, we've got the scenery and roads to match: the B4518 scythes up, through and around rolling Welsh hills before depositing us at a viewpoint overlooking the stunning Clywedog reservoir, its gently wind-whipped waters glinting and sparkling in the sun a few hundred metres below us.

Behind us, their exhausts and engines pinging away like a distant steel band as metal components cool and contract, are three of the fastest hair dryers £200,000 (and a bit more) can buy. Effortlessly combining game-on driving dynamics, drop-top glamour and power outputs north of 600bhp, this open-air trio could just be - right here and now, on these roads and in this weather - the best cars in the world.

However, this is an Autocar group test, so there has to be a winner. But which one? Well, we'll get to that, but first let's take a look at the contenders, starting with the car that inspired this gathering of upper-class alfresco entertainers: the new Aston Martin Vantage Roadster, the latest offering from the resurgent and newly confident British brand.

As the name suggests, it's essentially a convertible version of the recently launched coupé. In fact, it's so closely related that, addition of a fabric roof and 60kg of strengthening aside, the handsomely thuggish Roadster shares pretty much the same setup as its tin-top sibling. The rear damper's operating software has been tickled, but in all other mechanical respects Aston's cloth-topped contender is identical.