The Aston Martin Vanquish may be the perfect automotive metaphor for absolute power corrupting absolutely. This British Grand Tourer packs a 5.2-liter twin-turbocharged V12 engine, sending a hypercar-like 824 horsepower to the rear wheels only. If you can manage the grip well enough, Aston Martin says the Vanquish Coupe can hit 60 mph in 3.2 seconds, while the drop-top Volante takes 3.3 seconds.You may imagine that, aside from the mid-engine Valhalla, which costs over $1 million and produces 1,064 hp, there should not be any car with an Aston Martin badge that can out-accelerate the Vanquish. However, after CarBuzz recently spent a week reviewing the new 2026 Aston Martin Vantage S Roadster, we learned why power is not the end all be all for zero-to-60 acceleration. A Quicker Aston For Half Price 2026 Aston Martin Vantage S Roadster1The Vantage S is a new trim for the 2026 model year, marking the first time you've been able to get a Vantage with an S badge since 2018. Like the standard Vantage, the S is powered by a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 sourced from Mercedes-AMG, but it's tuned up from 656 to 670 hp to match the DB12. Aston gave the same power upgrades to the regular Vantage, but the S benefits from chassis upgrades, suspension tweaks, a minor weight reduction, and some subtle aero enhancements.Our tester was a Roadster, meaning it's significantly more expensive than a Vantage S Coupe. Aston lists the MSRP at $211,000 (not including $7,900 for import costs plus $3,500 for transportation and handling), and optional equipment brings the total price to $249,500. That's far from cheap, but it's practically a bargain compared to the Vanquish.Our 2025 tester, despite being a coupe and not a comparable Volante, came with a $429,000 starting price. The import tax was listed at an eye-watering $31,600 with a $5,000 handling free and $1,300 gas guzzler tax, and the total options brought the as-tested price to $552,600. That's more than double the cost of the Vantage S Roadster. The Vanquish's twin-turbo V12 is potent, but 824 hp is only 23% more power than the Vantage's V8, despite a price tag that is 103% higher before options. Putting The Power Down Jared Rosenholtz/CarBuzz/ValnetIn our review of the Vanquish Coupe, we struggled to match Aston's quoted zero-to-60 time of 3.2 seconds. Even with Launch Control, the rear tires struggled to put down all 824 hp effectively, and we could feel the system taking a moment to calculate a cut power before giving us the maximum output. This cut, even while brief, matters when you are counting in tenths-of-a-second. 3.36 was our quickest recorded launch, formerly the best time for a front-engine car with rear-wheel-drive. "Was" being the operative word.Despite being down 154 hp to its V12 sibling, the Vantage S is much lighter, even in Roadster form. Aston's smallest sports car is a relative lightweight at just 3,670 pounds, while the twelve-cylinder Vanquish tips the scales at 4,211 lbs. This may explain why the Vantage S was able to rocket off the line with zero drama, hitting 60 mph in 3.27 seconds. That is now our record for a front-engine, RWD car in our 0-60 mph testing. Though the Vanquish technically maintains a superior power-to-weight ratio (.1957 to .1826 hp/lb), the Vantage's superior grip allows it to clock a quicker 0-60 number. 2024 McLaren 750S Spider: 2.98 seconds 2025 Mercedes-AMG GT 63 Coupe: 3.0 seconds 2025 McLaren Artura Spider: 3.06 seconds 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 N: 3.1 seconds 2025 Porsche 911 Carrera S: 3.26 seconds 2026 Aston Martin Vantage S Roadster: 3.27 seconds 2025 Aston Martin DBX 707: 3.27 seconds 2025 Aston Martin Vanquish Coupe: 3.36 seconds Perhaps more impressively, that 3.27-second time manages to tie the Aston Martin DBX 707, which has 697 hp and AWD. It's worth noting the Aston's practical SUV is significantly heavier at 4,940 pounds. That time puts the Vantage S only a few tenths behind our quickest RWD time of 2.98 seconds, set by the McLaren 750S Spider, and the 3.0-second time of the AMG GT 63 4MATIC+ Coupe, which uses the same 4.0-liter V8 with about 100 fewer hp but the added benefit of AWD.2026 Aston Martin Vantage S Roadster2