Aston Martin Vanquish review

The Vanquish will continue the Aston V12 bloodline for years to come yet, though it’ll sell at only about two-thirds of the volume that the Aston Martin DBS Superleggera hit at its peak – around 1000 cars a year. 

And yes, you guessed it, also at a slightly higher price. For that, however, you get plenty more technical uniqueness than the heavily DB11-based DBS offered. Aston Martin has completely redeveloped its biggest combustion engine for this car, for starters. Now manufactured by Grantham-based Autocraft Solutions (after the closure of Ford’s Cologne engine plant in 2021), the new 5.2-litre mill may have the same cylinder dimensions and bank angle, but it has in fact been entirely re-engineered. 

This is a handsome car all right, though I’m not totally sold on the oversized grille, or the new ‘shield’ design feature on the tail, which both look to me like blemishes on an exterior that should somehow be purer. It didn’t bowl me over like older Vanqs and DBSs have in the past.

Matt Saunders

Road test editor

Smaller, faster-rotating turbochargers enable more broad and responsive torque production. New induction and exhaust systems make for more efficient combustion and onward gas flow. What results is peak power of 824bhp (enough to put that new Ferrari in the shade, if only by five imperial horses) - and a monstrous turbocharged torque peak of 738lb ft (238lb ft more than the atmo Ferrari). Enough torque, as it turns out, that the Vanquish’s various electronic systems have to devote quite some digital brainpower to capping and managing it - depending on drive mode, gear selection and conditions - in the general best interests of car, driver and surrounding flora and fauna.

The new Vanquish gets its own bonded aluminium platform this time, rather than adapting a lesser model’s and putting carbon bodywork over the top (although it does, indeed, have carbonfibre bodywork). It's 80mm longer in the wheelbase than a DB12 (and all of that between A-pillar and front wheel centre, in order to squeeze in that engine) and wider across the axles than the DBS was, but also more torsionally rigid - particularly across the frontal structure, thanks to special bracing measures. 

This is the first big Aston to move to a rear-mounted transaxle gearbox, to the improvement of weight distribution (which it has at better than 51:49 front to rear) - and the stoutness of that new ZF eight-speed gearbox is part of the reason why it can bring such phenomenal torque to bear. It has 325-section rear tyres, the DB12’s impressive Bilstein DTX adaptive dampers, a rigid-mounted steering system – the benefit of everything technical learned, of late, and applied to Gaydon’s lesser sports cars, in other words. It’s a big V12 Aston flagship super-GT done, arguably for the first time, with uncompromising commitment.