Aston Martin Vantage V8 AMR 2017 first drive

The switchgear, incidentally, is now much better and easier to use than the fiddly controls that were fitted to early Vantages, although the clumps of buttons do look a little like the controls you’d expect to find on a mid-range microwave oven. At least the latest infotainment system is now intuitive and easy to navigate while the seating position is just about spot on. Having said that, the optional fixed back bucket seats are more supportive than this car’s conventional two-part chairs.

Everything about the Vantage AMR’s start up procedure and low speed nature makes you think it’s a hefty, burly sort of thing, as though it’s intent on giving you a good old workout. You have to press the oblong key surprisingly hard into its slot in the dashboard to fire the engine, while the clutch and gearshift have a certain weight to them. The fly-off handbrake that nestles between the driver’s seat and door also takes a bit of muscle to operate and the steering feels heavy. You’re reminded the Vantage is very much the sports car in Aston Martin’s line-up and not the effortless GT.

Accordingly, the Aston Martin Vantage comes into its own with a little pace. Whereas the low speed ride is very tight and fidgety, it relaxes markedly as the passive dampers come into their range over 50mph or so. There’s plenty of wheel travel and movement in the body, too, so the car actually flows along the road quite serenely rather than skipping and hopping along it manically. The steering relaxes with speed, too, feeling quite light and vague at first, but you soon tune into the steady stream of messages that pour back from the front tyres, wheel constantly fidgeting and tugging at your finger tips. No matter how good electrically-assisted racks may have become in recent years they’ll never match a hydraulic system like this for purity of feel and feedback.

Given that Aston Martin’s chassis engineers have had more than a decade to master the Vantage’s ride and handling it should come as no surprise to learn the car is simply brilliant to fling across a moorland road. It’s poised and agile, front axle clawing huge amounts of grip from the tarmac on the way into a bend. The rear end takes a fraction of a second to find its set in a corner, but when it does so the car feels perfectly balanced. Even when it’s loaded up in a bend in the chassis has enough in reserve to brush away a mid-corner bump or sudden depression with a single damper stroke.