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A top-down winter drive through the temperate truffle country of southern France and up
to the snow-swept peak of Mont Ventoux—in Aston Martin’s V8 Vantage Roadster—is a
mixed blessing to be sure. Making memories of madness. The roads are narrow twolanes,
silky smooth and fast. They climb and fall and sweep through postcard landscapes.
Passing is a challenge. Blind corners over crests and dense little woods are everywhere.
Overtaking can be a terror; there is no berm. Twelve inches of multi-layer blacktop has
a square shoulder at the edge of an 18-inch drop into a stone-lined gutter—for miles.
The car is the right answer. It is not a darty, overly sensitive, boy racer, it is a sports
car in a comfort zone. The steering is precise and friendly. You can put the front tire
against the brink at speed and hold it there through corner after corner with your arms
relaxed. No bump steer. No surprises; except the truck on the line coming over the blind
crest that requires an accurate response to save the mirror and
avoid the short flight to the bottom of the ditch. When you know
where the tires are, and how big they are, you can split one at the
edge and know it will come back when the truck is clear, without
lifting. While the Aston’s set of balanced, dynamic compromises
leaves the steering a little short of feedback, few sports cars offer
that kind of confidence.
When the road is clear and the scenery goes into the distance,
the response is immediate and the sound is worth the trip. Under
4000 revs at even throttle, the 4.3-liter, 32-valve V-8 offers a
constant, atmospheric rumble. With road and throttle both open
the sound explodes, as the exhaust re-routes through the muffler
boxes and finds a much more direct route to your ears. It is a
stirring thing. The satisfying voice of an engine created to sing
in higher octaves.
Speed builds quickly. Zero to 60 is accomplished in 5 seconds,
but 60 to 100 in third and fourth seems even quicker. The Graziano
six-speed transaxle can be had with either a paddle set or a central
stick, which includes an electro-hydraulic clutch or a left-foot
pedal, respectively, and both are satisfying in different ways. While
a practicing Luddite during the early development of road-going
paddle shifters, the editor has been won over to the other side.
There is a certain satisfaction in making a flawless gear change with
feet and hands all involved, but these latest automatic clutches with
electronic rev-matching down changes are a joy to experience.
And when they are accomplished more quickly than
you can detach your fingers from the wheel—never mind
make their way down to the lever to move it to some solidly
delineated place—it seems foolish now to even consider that
last-century talent.
What we will not relinquish is the perfect alignments
of the ancient art of ergonomics. With one’s bottom securely
located between two well-cushioned side bolsters, both
feet able to do their respective work without undo stress,
and hands on (or about) three and nine with elbows lose
enough for a rapid reach when called for, all is well with
the driving world.
While Ettore Bugatti famously remarked to a driver’s
complaint that his cars were meant to go not to stop, the
engineering staff of Aston Martin has accomplished the
Vantage advantage of forward performance, and a satisfying
compromise between breath-taking deceleration and enough
pedal cushion to easily modulate the rate. Constant regular
use at high speed brought none of the last-century degradation
of stopping power.
Supporting those brakes are double wishbones at all four
corners, allowing very precise geometry and an unsprung
weight that leaves the dampers less work to do when the
road becomes a
challenge. All the
current electronic
nannies are in
place for the
overzealous and
over esteemed,
but the incredible
level of grip suggests
if it all lets
go (we are told it
is a gentle transition)
it will be at
an astonishing
load of gs, and
you better have
all your talent
carefully focused.
The way the car
arrives, the geometry and alignments are as near perfect as we amateurs are
likely to know how to use. If the new N24 racing version of
the coupe is better, it must be positively brilliant.
Aston has given high honor to the founding father’s brief,
“a car that works like a Bugatti and is finished like a Rolls.”
The quality of the leather assembly and the adjoining
uncovered surfaces is superb. Stitches we know are aligned
on hand-fed machines are flawlessly applied. It is all done
in-house, but one could easily be convinced the craftsmen
and women were trained by the masters
of the double R. The roadster’s interior
is both comfortable for a full day’s
high-speed motoring and satisfying to
examine while the fuel tank is filling. If
the weather begins to look iffy, and
your driving companion has a valuable
coif, the folding top comes out of its
compact bin (it takes nothing from the
luggage space) and locks into place in
about 20 seconds. Climbing Mont
Ventoux through the 50-knot gusts of
freezing atmosphere, we controlled the chill by simply raising
the windows and dialing up the heat and fan. A cleverly
designed windbreak between the seats eliminated any rear
entry of the high-altitude cold.
For more on this article and much more grab a copy of Auto Aficionado Magazine on newsstands nationwide!
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