Our man heads down to see the Aston Martin Vulcan in the flesh during its regional unveil. And even though it looks the bee’s knees, there’s something about it that’s still bothering him…
I’ve only seen Aston Martin’s mental Vulcan in pictures, but still I’ve loved every inch of it ever since. Now, following its unveil at the Geneva Motor Show, the Vulcan’s full 1:1 scale model has been shipped overseas to the Aston Martin showroom in Dubai, and crankandpiston.com had the chance to get down there for a closer look.
I crossed everything, hoping – praying – that in the flesh, the Vulcan would look just as it good as it did on the page: “Please Aston. PLEASE. Please don’t ruin it.”
They hadn’t.
The venting, the sleek lines of the body, and the way it sits with such beautiful height and fitment. It was worth the drive, and just goes to show that although Aston has been playing the ‘DB9-styling card’ for some time, its still have a few tricks up its sleeve. Not least of which concerns the drivetrain, the Vulcan producing ‘800bhp-plus’ from its enormous naturally aspirated 7-litre V12, which incidentally is mated to an Xtrac six-speed sequential gearbox. Speaking with GM of Aston Martin MENA Neil Slade during the unveil, he mentioned the Vulcan – the actual finished product – will be full carbon fibre for added weight reduction. It does make you wonder what the end power-to-weight ratio will be.
I only wish though that Aston Martin would reconsider the limitation of the Vulcan (so far only 24 will be produced at $2.3million a pop) and actually make a road legal version. Are there any doubts that a full road-legal production model would sell out in a flash? Take the Scuderia Glickenhaus, possibly the best example of a road legal car that looks like it was born to compete on the track. And that’s hardly been found wanting for supporters…
Not only that, but Aston Martin also recently established a partnership with Daimler Benz, which means a conglomeration of the company’s technology and mechanical genius is surely just a matter of time. Might a turbo road-legal Vulcan realistically be just around the corner? We’ll have to wait and see…
Either way, I hope they’ll leave the bodykit alone. Have I mentioned that I think it looks quite good?
