ASTON MARTIN VANQUISH VOLANTE

UK test of Gaydon's V12-powered super-GT in top-down Volante guise

- MURRAY SCULLION

It's 90kg heavier. Anti-roll bar stiffness and rear spring rates have been upped by 7%. And the roof goes up and down. There you go: the material differences between the coupé and Volante.

The Volante's underlying structure, confirms Aston's chief engineer Simon Newton, is in effect the same as the coupé's. Newton is also keen to note that the weight gain is from underbody bracing, which helps make this roofless Vanquish some 75% stiffer laterally than the DBS Volante it replaces. Weight distribution is now slightly closer to 50:50 front to rear, too.

The Vanquish is not a small car, though. It weighs a shade over two tonnes at the kerb, so that 90kg really makes no material difference. This is a £360,000, 5.2-litre V12-engined, 2.0-metre-wide super-GT-cum-supercar that signifies a certain taste, lifestyle and significant wealth.