Photo: Stefan Baldauf/SB-Medien
The current generation of the Vantage, be it the V8- or V12-powered model, is a sexy machine. The only thing it didn’t have going for it is, incidentally, the way it looks. More to the point, it always resembled the DB9. Aston Martin knows it all too well.
With the advent of the DB11, the British automaker gave the public a glimpse of where the company is heading toward concerning design. But with the 2018 Aston Martin Vantage, which is due to have its first public outing in late 2017. “Around November, report the peeps over at Motoring, which is a month or so after the 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show (IAA) opens its doors.
Speaking to the Australian publication, Dr. Andy Palmer declared that the new Vantage will be bewitching. “It’s more revolutionary,” Aston’s head honcho commented. “To give you a hint, take a DB10, mate it with a Vulcan. Then you start to get somewhere close to how it will look.” So let’s make a quick recap: James Bond’s car plus Aston’s track-bred hypercar equals new Vantage.
The DB11 and Vantage are so clearly separated now, Palmer thinks no one will mistake one for the other, not even the elderly. “One of the clear briefs I gave to Marek [Aston Martin’s design head] coming in, is that my now 79-year-old mother needs to be able to tell the difference between a Vantage and DB11.”
And just as if things couldn’t get any better, Palmer reiterated that the company he manages “will always offer a manual.” That’s a particularly bold statement from such a small automaker, more so when you remember that big names such as Ferrari and Lamborghini have abandoned the stick shift.
In the first instance, the next-generation Vantage will be available with the M178 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 from Mercedes-AMG. It’s not known if it will mirror the Mercedes-AMG GT specs in Aston’s tune, but then again, expect more ponies than what today’s 4.7-liter V8 offers. More specifically, expect 476 PS (350 kW) and 630 Nm at the very least from the M178 blunderbuss.
These numbers translate to 4.0 seconds to 100 km/h (62 mph) in the facelifted Mercedes-AMG GT, and a top speed of 304 km/h (189 mph).
Speaking to the Australian publication, Dr. Andy Palmer declared that the new Vantage will be bewitching. “It’s more revolutionary,” Aston’s head honcho commented. “To give you a hint, take a DB10, mate it with a Vulcan. Then you start to get somewhere close to how it will look.” So let’s make a quick recap: James Bond’s car plus Aston’s track-bred hypercar equals new Vantage.
The DB11 and Vantage are so clearly separated now, Palmer thinks no one will mistake one for the other, not even the elderly. “One of the clear briefs I gave to Marek [Aston Martin’s design head] coming in, is that my now 79-year-old mother needs to be able to tell the difference between a Vantage and DB11.”
And just as if things couldn’t get any better, Palmer reiterated that the company he manages “will always offer a manual.” That’s a particularly bold statement from such a small automaker, more so when you remember that big names such as Ferrari and Lamborghini have abandoned the stick shift.
In the first instance, the next-generation Vantage will be available with the M178 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 from Mercedes-AMG. It’s not known if it will mirror the Mercedes-AMG GT specs in Aston’s tune, but then again, expect more ponies than what today’s 4.7-liter V8 offers. More specifically, expect 476 PS (350 kW) and 630 Nm at the very least from the M178 blunderbuss.
These numbers translate to 4.0 seconds to 100 km/h (62 mph) in the facelifted Mercedes-AMG GT, and a top speed of 304 km/h (189 mph).
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