Aston Martin Vanquish Volante

We've raved about the Vanquish coupe; can the Volante retain the same winning blend of GT and supercar?

- by STUART GALLAGHER

BEST ASTON MARTIN OF THE LAST 25 years.’ So said John Barker, editor-at-large, evo co-founder, and a man who knows a thing or two about engineering cars, in our review of Aston Martin’s latest Vanquish in its coupe form (issue 328). Of course, it’s always a bit of a worry when the roof is removed in the name of al fresco motoring to create a convertible version or, in the case of the Vanquish, a Volante. Thankfully the days of floppy afterthoughts when it comes to convertibles based on closed-roof cars are a thing of the past, predominantly due to improved materials and manufacturing techniques, but also because of engineers and designers working far more harmoniously with each other rather than trying to make each other’s working lives a misery. The Vanquish Volante was designed, engineered and developed alongside its coupe sibling and it shows in the way it feels so in tune with the road and how it encourages you to explore the performance it has to offer.

There’s certainly plenty of that to go round. Its 5.2-litre twin-turbocharged V12 matches the coupe’s 824bhp and 737lb ft of torque, the latter available from 2500rpm and yours to do with as you will until 5000rpm, when it starts to tail off. And then the colossal power takes over for the final run to the red line. It’s not a V8 screamer, but it revs with a potency unexpected of a turbocharged twelve, with a crisp reaction to throttle inputs throughout the rev-range and across all eight ratios stacked in the ZF automatic gearbox.