Aston stuffs 600hp V12 into Vantage
Newswheel staff :: 13 December 2007 :: Filed under Coupe, Front engine sportscar, Aston Martin, Aston Martin V8 Vantage, Europe & UK
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It's only a concept, for now...
Aston’s new Bond-backed, DB9-based flagship coupe, the DBS, has taken a critical pounding. By the lofty standards of Aston’s recent produce, at least. Fortunately, the company has something altogether tastier cooking in the form of this new V12 Vantage RS. With no less than 600 ponies crammed into the Vantage’s compact and relatively light body, performance should be more than adequate. For now, it’s only a concept. But heavy hints from Aston suggest the car will receive a low-volume production run.
It’s quick, to be sure. But we hope Aston thinks twice about bolting those Halfords-esque rims, the silly little rear wing and Lexus lights onto the production V12 Vantage RS.
Shown at the unveiling of Aston’s new design studio at the firm’s Gaydon facility, the engine powering the new concept is a development of the V12 unit fitted to the DBRS9. That’s Aston’s factory-made endurance racer version of the sleek DB9 model.
Thus equipped, the Vantage tips the scales at less than 1,600kg. Still hefty for a compact coupe, but pretty competitive for a 600bhp V12 barge. Performance is claimed to be predictably epic. The dash to 62mph (100kph in Euro money) is crushed in four seconds flat while the 100mph mark blows by in a ludicrous 8.5 clicks.
600-horse V12 lump is lifted from the DBRS9 racer.
Aston’s head honcho, Dr Ulrich Bez, described the Vantage RS as a thoroughly “feasible” concept car. Bez also insinuated that sufficient demand from well-heeled punters will see the car make production. The only catch is pricing. Bez reckons the car could be built on a “low volume production run in the near future with a price that will reflect the exclusivity of the car.” So, expect something north of the DBS’s painful £160k sticker.
Serious bit of kit though the Vantage undoubtedly is, what it isn’t is a properly new car. Until Aston wheels out a genuinely new flagship model rather than jazzed-up rehashes of its existing line up, doubts will remain regarding the company’s health following the break up from Ford.
