We meet the British Ferrari 488 fighter to see how the Vanquish is shaping up to take on the supercar establishment
More than 50 years is a lot of catching up to do, but that’s how far behind Aston Martin is when it comes to challenging the likes of Ferrari and Lamborghini in the mid-engine supercar arena.
Put simply, Aston’s never shown up to the supercar party. Sure, there’s been the odd car along the way that has strayed into the Prancing Horse’s paddock. We’re talking cars like the front/mid-engined One-77, but for the most part Aston has been happy to limit itself to GTs, both big and small.
This has proved a costly mistake.
Mid-engine supercars like the Ferrari 488 and Lamborghini Huracan are both as fast as they are profitable and have a magnetic attraction to a more youthful audience of wealthy buyers the British car-maker has simply missed out on.
Worse still, in its absence new rivals like McLaren have crept into the segment and carved themselves a piece of the action. Hell, even GM now fancies a go with its new mid-ship C8 Chevrolet Corvette.
Now that’s all set to change, with the arrival of not one, but three mid-engined cars – two hypercars and one supercar.
Aston Martin has also upped the credibility stakes among supercar buyers, not least by teaming up with Red Bull Racing in a technical partnership involving none other than F1 aerodynamicist legend, Adrian Newey, overseeing the creation of the Valkyrie.
Supercar credibility? Aston’s now got it by the boat-load and, following the arrivals of the headline-grabbing sold-out Valkyrie and Valhalla, the British car-maker will have paved the way for its most important mid-engined model, the Vanquish.
Priced directly to go head-to-head with cars like the McLaren 720S and the forthcoming Ferrari F8 Tributo, the cheapest Aston supercar is still estimated to cost the thick end of $450,000 – a tenth of Valkyrie’s price tag.
Which is fitting because according to the man who designed it, there’s a lot of the Valkyrie thinking that has gone into the design, including its advanced aerodynamics.
In the metal, it’s hard not to fall for the Vanquish. Low, feline-looking and with complex lines, the concept shares its bigger brother’s deep fender extractors behind the front wheels, hinting at its F1-derived air-bending properties.
In fact, the real beauty of the Vanquish is claimed to lie beneath its striking skin, with underfloor channels said to carefully manage air for maximum downforce without impact on drag.
Powering the Vanquish is a twin-turbocharged 3.0-litre V6 mild-hybrid powertrain that has been designed and developed by Aston, sharing nothing with the Mercedes-AMG V8 under the bonnet of the Vantage.
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Rumoured to produce more than 600kW, Aston Martin Vanquish has shunned a plug-in feature to place the emphasis on performance.
With an electric motor designed to launch it off the line, when the twin turbos come online the driver will be treated to devastating levels of performance that will match today’s hypercars. Expect a 0-100km/h time of less than 2.5 seconds and a top speed in excess of 340km/h.
If there’s any weakness surrounding the forthcoming Vanquish, unlike the Valhalla and Valkyrie, it misses out on full carbon-fibre monocoque undergarments.
Instead, it uses a bonded aluminium chassis that, Aston claims, means the Vanquish does without a high sill to clamber over, making it more practical — but it means the McLaren will no doubt edge it out in the weight stakes.
Helping offset that, Aston Martin will bless its Vanquish with something none of its established rivals have – an old-fashioned manual transmission, which could see the British become the most engaging and involving supercar yet.
Convertible roadster and faster AMR versions are also confirmed to be in the pipeline and we’ll no doubt see Aston Martin go racing with a GT3 version.
All this means that, for supercar buyers, the Vanquish will be well worth waiting for 2022.
While Aston Martin is aiming to redefine the hypercar with the outer worldly Valkyrie, it seems the Vanquish could become yet another genre-defining car in Aston’s arsenal, all the more remarkable for the British car-maker that has no supercar heritage.
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Keyword: BEST OF BRITISH: Aston Martin Vanquish up close