Aston Martin Vanquish
There’s a decade-old design lurking beneath its carbon
bodywork, but can the latest updates push the Vanquish yet closer to
perfection?
How refreshing... Despite protestations as to the startling
dynamic benefits wrought by nigh-on undetectable engineering upgrades,
model-year facelifts are, almost without exception, precisely that these days;
a nose job with attendant bruising. Here, however, we find exactly the
opposite.
Aston Martin
Vanquish
A brace of new exterior colours, new ten-spoke alloys
offering a 7kg weight saving and new leather trim colours including the deeply
suspicious Fandango pink aside, everything that differentiates the 2015
Vanquish from its predecessor is dedicated to upping the driving entertainment
quota and the commensurate size of the passenger-seat wet patch.
Most significant is the first incorporation of ZF’s 8Hp automatic
transmission into a transaxle layout. Three percent lighter than its
predecessor, the new eight-speed touch-tronic III gearbox adds two further
ratios to the equation and boasts 130-millisecond shift speeds.
One of the last
remaing naturally aspirated V12s. Makes wholesome 568bhp/465lb ft
Meanwhile, a new bosch engine management system has gearbox
and Am29-spec V12 chatting away with the easy enthusiasm of a first date
destined to wind up in the sack. And the 6.0-litre V12’s peak power and torque
both rise a whisker, to 568bhp and 465lb ft respectively.
All of which, allied to gear and final drive ratio changes,
makes the Vanquish swifter and, relatively speaking, more frugal and cleaner.
The 0-62mph dash has been reduced by a stout half second to just 3.8 seconds –
making this the quickest accelerating series-production Aston in the company’s
101-year history – and top speed rises to 201mph. Simultaneously, CO2 emissions
tumble some 10% to, erm, 298g/km, and average fuel consumption is up to 22.1mpg.
Aston Martin
Vanquish Interior Seats
Commensurate undercarriage enhancements include the
stiffening of dampers by 15% at the front and a whopping 35% at the rear, and
20% stiffer rear suspension bushings. Both brake booster and DSC stability
system have been retuned, and the steering ECU has been revised, as has the
torque tube to reduce transmission noise in the cabin. Yeah, right... Like
you’re ever going to hear transmission noise aboard a Vanquish.
The unique vocal signature of Aston’s V12 remains
all-consuming. It instantly and irrefutably becomes the defining attribute of
any machine within which it is installed...
With a start-up tang of such metallic intensity overlaying
the basso profundo rumble of tick-over it’s always something of a surprise not
to actually smell blood curdling as the engine barks into life... And,
thereafter, a fabulous range of noises vacillate between John Landis’ peckish
American Werewolf and that never to be bettered simile: tom Jones picking up
the soap in strange ways’ showers…
Aston Martin
Vanquish cockpit
And therein lies entirely the cause of my misgivings on
clocking the size of the Mercedes vehicle fleet supporting these Vanquish
launch proceedings. to wit: $828,62 million of investment over the next five
years is clearly terrific news, but just how strong is Daimler’s influence at
Aston already, how much more dominant is the former set on becoming in the
future, and is that glorious noise destined to become an early victim of
desperately needed profitability?
