There are certain faux pas that wedding guests must avoid at all costs. Wearing a white dress, for example. Forgetting to silence your phone during the speeches. Discussing divorce statistics. Revealing what really happened on the stag do. Coughing when instructed to “speak now or forever hold your peace”. And rocking up with the roof down in an Aston Martin Vanquish Volante.
The nuptials in question took place in North Wales, a region blessed with many of Britain’s best driving roads. Having a new drop-top supercar booked for the same weekend thus seemed like a remarkable stroke of luck. And so it proved, until my partner and I arrived late at the stately home, with all eyes on us rather than the bride’s Bentley. Still, it could have been worse, as the groom’s father pointed out later. At least the Vanquish wasn’t white.
Whether you’re photobombing a wedding or just rumbling down the high street, an Aston Martin will always turn heads. Unlike a Ferrari or Lamborghini, though, nobody questions your virility or tries to goad you into a race. Perhaps it’s the association with James Bond, or just patriotic pride, but most people treat the Vanquish with the deference this automotive blue-blood surely deserves.
A brute in a suit
Powered by an 835hp twin-turbo V12 that drives its rear wheels via a paddle-shift auto gearbox, the Vanquish assumes the role vacated by the DBS 770 Ultimate: perched above the 680hp DB12 and new 700hp DB12 S as Aston Martin’s flagship front-engined grand tourer. At £345,000 in open-air Volante guise, its only true rival at this rarefied altitude is the £366,500 Ferrari 12Cilindri Spider. Alternatively, you could save nearly six figures and spend £259,500 on a Bentley Continental GTC Speed. How’s that for consumer advice?
Don’t be too hasty, though, because the Vanquish Volante offers a unique blend of 98 RON hedonism: one that mixes old-school glamour with outrageously modern performance. It’s a potent cocktail that will leave you both shaken and stirred (OK, that’s quite enough Bond references already – Ed).
Like a DB12 after several months on a diet of raw eggs and bench presses, the latest Vanquish already had the ‘brute in a suit’ aesthetic well and truly nailed. As a Volante – Aston Martin’s name for open-air GT cars since 1965 – it’s even more arresting. To create space for the V12, there is 80mm more metal between the windscreen pillar and front wheelarch than in a (V8-powered) DB12. Its most distinctive detail is the floating ‘shield’ panel between the tail lamps, which can be painted a contrasting colour or left as naked carbon fibre.
From London to North Wales
The Volante’s multi-layered fabric roof looks elegant, disappears beneath the rear deck in 16 seconds, and is claimed to offer ‘a level of thermal insulation directly comparable to the Vanquish coupe’. The downside is that it eats into luggage capacity, shrinking the boot to a measly 187 litres when stowed. Using every crevice of available space, my partner and I squeezed in a carry-on flight case, my suit bag and no less than six pairs of shoes (rolling eyes emoji) for our weekend in Wales.
Lift the carbon fibre bonnet and you realise why nearly five metres of car only accommodates two people, and offers less space for your shopping than a Volkswagen Up. The huge 5.2-litre V12 is mounted well back almost behind the front axle, helping achieve near-perfect 49:51 front:rear weight distribution. The Volante’s suspension (double wishbones up front and multi-link at the rear, with Bilstein DTX adaptive dampers) is also tweaked to account for being 95kg heavier than the Vanquish coupe.
Aston Martin quotes a dry weight of 1,869kg, which adds up to north of two tonnes by the time you add fuel, engine oil, coolant and hydraulic fluid, let alone a driver, one passenger and a surplus of shoes. Still, when you have this much torque – 738lb ft, developed between 2,500rpm and 5,000rpm – coupled with a ‘boost reserve’ function to help the turbos react almost instantly, any sense of inertia is swiftly obliterated. The Vanquish hurls itself to 62mph in 3.4 seconds and won’t stop accelerating until you reach 214mph. At that speed, we could drive from London to North Wales in, oooh… just over an hour.
Inside the Vanquish Volante
Sadly, having to navigate the M25, M40 and M6 means we need to allow a little longer. It has also just started raining, so I set off in Wet mode, which limits torque to around 300lb ft, with the roof up, heated seats on and demister blasting. Forget any notions of glamorous grand tours along the French Riviera; welcome to a real-world British road test.
With double-glazed windows, noise-cancelling tyre technology and a V12 that is barely ticking over in eighth gear at the legal limit, the Vanquish dispatches motorway miles in calm, long-legged comfort. Its cabin feels snug and beautifully appointed, and there is a welcome array of ‘proper’ buttons to complement the 10.25-inch driver display and matching 10.25-inch central touchscreen.
Speaking of screens, Aston Martin is the world’s first automotive brand to introduce Apple CarPlay Ultra. The new software allows you to access many of the car’s functions – such as changing radio stations or switching off lane-keep assist – via the familiar iPhone interface. It generally works well, although Apple’s simple graphics look a tad ‘ordinary’ in a car of this calibre. We also lost signal a couple of times in the wilds of Wales, which showed the limitations of relying on a 4G or 5G signal. Don’t have an iPhone? You can connect wirelessly via Android Auto, albeit without the added level of integration.
A V12 wake-up call
Close to Gaydon on the M40, another new Vanquish flashes past on the opposite carriageway. Apart from here, perhaps, in close proximity to Aston Martin’s HQ, these cars will remain a rare sight; no more than 1,000 will be sold worldwide each year, made up of both coupe and convertible versions. Around two thirds are expected to feature some level of personalisation from Aston Martin’s bespoke ‘Q’ division, too – potentially pushing the ticket price above £400,000.
After stopping for a coffee just beyond Birmingham, we finally spear off the M6 towards Whitchurch, then across the border into Wales. The rain has subsided now and the roads are suddenly more interesting, so I retract the Volante’s roof and switch from easygoing GT mode into Sport. A long straight opens up ahead… Holy moly! The wake-up call is like downing another double espresso.
There’s something about V12s that makes them feel greater than the sum of their (many) parts. From vintage Rolls-Royces, Maybachs and Cadillacs to the post-war Colombo and Bizzarrini V12s made famous by Ferrari and Lamborghini, these engines have long been synonymous with power and speed. All three generations of Vanquish launched since 2001 have featured a V12, but this will likely be the last. With new petrol engines being outlawed in the UK from 2035, it must speak now or forever hold its peace.
Muscle and flow
Still, this V12 has no intention of bowing out quietly. Flatten your right foot and its potent rumble swells to a searing crescendo, syncopated by explosive thuds from the quad tailpipes – and all amplified by the absence of a roof. With all 835 horses unleashed at 6,500rpm, Aston Martin’s turbocharged engine has a very different personality to the Ferrari 12Cilindri’s naturally aspirated V12, which musters 830hp at a frenetic 9,250rpm. On the road, however, both cars feel equally exciting.
Crossing the Denbigh Moors, we skirt around the ‘Evo Triangle’ (a cluster of roads famously used to test performance cars by Evo magazine, but now monitored by average speed cameras) and head westwards towards Snowdonia. On meandering hedge-lined lanes, there is no escaping the width of the Aston’s haunches, and I involuntarily hold my breath every time we meet a kamikaze Amazon delivery van. Here, you could make swifter progress in a well-driven hot hatchback.
Thankfully, as the daylight seeps away and the air skimming our heads starts to chill, the home run to the hotel is on fast and flowing A-roads: the kind of terrain where the Vanquish comes into its own. Its demeanour is burly and aggressive, like an over-engined muscle car, but there’s a real deftness to its damping and steering response. It feels like an Aston Martin Vantage turned up to 11 – or perhaps 12 – and that’s very much a good thing.
Verdict: Aston Martin Vanquish Volante
A key contributor to the Vanquish’s fluent, controlled cadence is its electronic differential, which assists turn-in and helps keep the car stable while changing trajectory. The result is a lovely sense of throttle-adjustable balance that encourages you to hook up the power mid-corner and exit with a smidge of sideways attitude. There’s no discernible flex from the bonded aluminium chassis, either. How can a car with 835hp coursing through its rear tyres feel so approachable?
Our AirBnB cottage is located down a rutted track that even Aston Martin’s DBX SUV would struggle to negotiate, so we park at the end of the lane and complete the final 100 metres on foot. I take a lingering look back at the Vanquish, then listen to its titanium exhausts cool and contract as I walk away. Tomorrow will be filled to bursting with friends, food, drinking and ill-advised dad dancing. But I’m already looking forward to the long drive home.
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