ANOTHER NEW DESIGN IS ON THE WAY FOR ASTON MARTIN
Aston Martin is at the beginning of something of a renaissance, which CEO Andy Palmer is calling the “Second Century Plan”, and it starts with the new DB11.
The DB11 was officially released in Auckland last week, and this month will be shown to existing and potential Aston Martin customers in Queenstown.
The Vantage is the next model in line to be replaced and, like the DB11, will be a completely new design based on Aston’s new bonded aluminium architecture, which replaces the old “VH” underpinnings.
Presume a design that draws a lot of influence from the DB10 Bond car that CarAdvice drove briefly after Spectre’s London premiere, as well as design cues from the hardcore Vulcan track car that CarAdvice first saw at Goodwood in 2015.
Although the DB10 was a made-for-movie model of just 10 units, the new-generation Vantage will be a series production car, which Aston’s chief creative officer and design director, Marek Reichman, says is an entirely different design to the current version.
“While I can’t tell you how it drives yet, I can tell you how good it looks.
“And it’s not just me talking, either. When I take the cover off new Vantage to show dealers and prospective customers ... people just clap. It’s the one car where I literally don’t need to say anything at all.
“DB10 is a beautiful looking car, but we did things [with the new Vantage] that make it even better than DB10; wheelbase, overhangs and such, and it blows DB10 away”.
And despite the new Vantage being powered by a Mercedes-AMG V8 engine, Reichman says it will definitely sound as you would expect a Vantage to.
“It may be an AMG V8 but we top and tail to suit the Vantage. So we use our own sump and we put our own manifold system on top and its obviously badged Aston Martin.
“Sure the engine will have a core sound but we’ll develop the sound of this engine with manifolds, exhaust, catalytic converters and mufflers, which can all be tuned by us to deliver a special note”.
Expect to see the new Aston Martin Vantage emerge in the later part of next year.
-CarAdvice.com.au