Aston Martin Vanquish Volante

Volante might be slightly slower than coupé on paper, but it's still the fastest front-engined convertible on sale

- Richard Ingram

ON looks alone, the Aston Martin Vanquish Volante could, quite rightly, sit at the top of any man, woman or child's lottery-win wishlist. Building on the aggressive but elegant profile of the Vanquish coupé, the drop-top pushes the six-figure supercar into new, uncharted territory.

At the front, you get that gaping grille and sharp LED lighting signature, plus wide arches and 21-inch wheels hiding standard-fit carbon-ceramic brakes, all from the latest Vanquish coupé. But it's from the A-pillar rearwards where things get interesting; the 'K-Fold' fabric roof can be lowered at speeds of up to 31mph, tucking away discreetly in just 16 seconds.

Aston says that the roof requires just 260mm (a class-leading figure, we're told) to stack behind the front seats, and adds only 90kg to the car’s weight. But by stiffening the front end and adding greater support at the rear through a slightly higher spring rate, the company’s engineers claim the car offers “the same overall driving experience” as the coupé.

They also insist that the Volante is “the fastest, most powerful front-engine production car on sale today” and “the fastest, most powerful open-top series-production Aston Martin to date”. The numbers largely speak for themselves: 824bhp and 1,000Nm sent to the rear wheels, via an eight-speed ZF automatic transmission.

It’s just 0.1 seconds slower from 0-62mph than its fixed-roof sibling, completing the benchmark sprint in 3.4 seconds and not slowing until it hits a frankly absurd 214mph. WLTP fuel consumption figures are still being homologated, not that they’re likely to matter to anyone shelling out around £360,000.