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2018 Aston Martin V8 Vantage Likely To Get Manual Gearbox

Aston Martin’s Vantage is preparing for a major overhaul, which will include a new engine and a refreshed design.
Aston Martin V12 Vantage S with seven-speed dogleg manual gearbox 1 photo
Photo: Aston Martin
The engine will be sourced from the Germans at AMG, and this is already a confirmed fact by the officials of both brands. However, what is not known about the new power plant, called M178 in the Mercedes-AMG catalog, is if it will get a manual gearbox, or just a twin-clutch automatic transmission.

While our spy photographers have filmed an Aston Martin V8 Vantage that was evidently featuring an automatic gearbox, which any enthusiast could hear in the spy video embedded in this article, some say that a manual gearbox is on the table for this model as well. Offering a manual transmission for a GT in 2017 has become obsolete for some, but Aston Martin might still do it.

If you have any uncertainties concerning the possibility of launching a manual in the Aston Martin range, just remember that the Gaydon brand released a production car for the road with a seven-speed dog-leg manual gearbox. We are referring to the 2017 Aston Martin V12 Vantage S, which can be ordered with the described transmission type.

For the moment, it is unclear whether Aston Martin has definitively approved the manual gearbox for the V8 Vantage, but the low-volume automaker might not need too much impulse from its potential clients to green light such a move.

In spite of the absence of an official endorsement of this transmission in the V8 Vantage lineup, there is nothing that would indicate the absence of such a gearbox. However, do not expect it to be offered from day one, but rather as an incentive proposed at a later date.

After all, they already have a capable transmission that was freshly developed, and their average fuel economy figures fly below the radar of the European Union because of the small volumes they manufacture.

It is important to note that European clients of the 2017 Aston Martin V12 Vantage S do not have to pay extra to get a manual transmission, while their American counterparts have to cough up more dough for this privilege. Only 100 Americans will get to buy a V12 Vantage S so that it will be a rare car in the USA.

2018 Aston Martin V8 Vantage spied

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About the author: Sebastian Toma
Sebastian Toma profile photo

Sebastian's love for cars began at a young age. Little did he know that a career would emerge from this passion (and that it would not, sadly, involve being a professional racecar driver). In over fourteen years, he got behind the wheel of several hundred vehicles and in the offices of the most important car publications in his homeland.
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