V12

This is the end, the last ever Aston Martin Vantage to carry a V12, bringing a unique line of fantastically over endowed sports cars to a close. Going, going, gone

- TOM FORD

There's no way this doesn't sound like a good idea - get your smallest, most nimble car, and use crowbars, grease, and bloody-mindedness to force it to swallow the biggest engine you have at your disposal. Forget design parameters and subtle intention, fail perfectly, just make it fierce. Make it feral. Make it an event. It's a recipe that's worked for years by not creating objectively the best cars with benign intentions, but in terms of roadgoing weaponry, things that tend to be fully self-aware and happy with their brutality. Variants with all the subtlety of a snooker ball in a sock. Aston Martin knows. It's why the idea of a Vantage that's inhaled a V12 is not a new thing. Say hello to the next generation of gentleman thug; the new Aston Martin Vantage V12.

The blueprint is familiar territory; the 5.2-litre twin-turbo V12 from the larger DB11 and DBS Superleggera inveigled into the front of the much smaller Vantage, roughing out 690bhp and 550lb ft of torque. Enough for a 0-62mph time in the mid-threes and the double tonne, given space and lack of applicable laws. A wider body. Out there aero. No hybrid, no real attempts at fuel efficiency, no regrets and no apologies. An outrageous swagger of a car that subverts the usual subtleties of Aston Martin's image.