After months of anticipation, the all-new Aston Martin Vantage is finally here. To get the technical lowdown on the new V8 model, we speak to Aston Martin chief technical officer Max Szwaj.
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How did you balance form and function with the Vantage’s styling?
“The aerodynamics of the Vantage were totally developed with the design. The vehicle has no active aero. The balance is achieved by the low front end, the spoiler and the airflow with the flat underbody.”
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What does this car take from the Aston Martin DB11?
“The body and structure of the car is only 30% common with DB11. We utilise some things, such as the firewalls. But there are only a couple of bodywork parts that are common – the door handles and the badges.”
What splits the Mercedes- AMG-built V8 engines in the new Vantage and the DB11?
“They come from the same family and are built specially for us, and we’ve increased the torque for the Vantage by 10Nm [7lb ft]. That might not sound like much but, with the transmission mapping, you get a really sharp throttle response.”
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How much emphasis did you put on achieving a 50/50 fore-aft weight balance?
“You can’t cheat physics. Physics is physics, and when you sort that out and the main components and architecture is done correctly, the rest is tuning. Sorting the physics to support the architecture is the bread and butter of what we do.”
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