Aston Martin Vantage Roadster

FIRST DRIVE Far from being a boulevard cruiser, new roadster is a hardcore sports car with no roof

- Steve Sutcliffe

THE latest Aston Martin Vantage is a fearsome sports car. Think of it as Britain's answer to a Porsche 911 Turbo, with more panache but a little less performance, and you'll be getting the picture.

Well now Aston has gone one better by removing the coupé's roof to give us this, the Vantage Roadster. It has even more style, not an ounce less performance, and more reasons than ever to go wobbly at the knees.

At £175,000 before options, it's not cheap, and its 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 engine makes only the thinnest of attempts to be ecologically responsible. But in this part of the market, does that even matter? Certainly not to Aston Martin's customers, who might otherwise be considering rivals such as the Ferrari Roma Spider, Lamborghini Huracán Spider, Mercedes-AMG SL, and the aforementioned 911 Turbo Cabriolet.

These are big-hitting competitors with huge performance, desirability and luxury - yet the Vantage either matches or trumps most of them on paper. And in the flesh - to these eyes at least - it blows all of them into next week. Inside and out, the Aston really is a breathtakingly lovely-looking car, even if its hind quarters do look a touch congested compared with a Roma Spider's.

Its hood is also the fastest in the world, claims Aston, taking just 6.8 seconds to open or close, which it can do at the press of a button at up to 31mph. The wind deflector behind the seats is fixed, however, so unlike in some rivals, you can't opt for a hood up/deflector down set-up. Roof-down refinement is excellent up to 70mph and beyond, and with the top up, it feels almost like a coupé.