The Aston Martin Vantage is the stepping stone to the revered brand and packs more power than a Ferrari Enzo. We head towards the hills outside Pune in the British marque’s newest super sports car.
‘When was the last time you did something for the first time?’ I asked myself as I woke up at 4.30 am after a couple of hours of slumber, anticipating what the day would have in store for me. The new Aston Martin Vantage was in Pune and some twisty hill roads beckoned at daybreak—a worthwhile location to try and unleash the British Bulldog’s latest small sibling. This was also my first time behind the wheel of an Aston Martin, so I’ll try to keep it real.
There is a lot to love about Aston Martin, other than Fernando Alonso’s face plastered on the website, especially when it comes to their approach towards building cars. Their focus is on delivering sport-luxury cars with a natural tilt towards sport without any perceivable lack of luxury. Unlike Bentley, whose cars are much heavier, and Rolls-Royce, who leave no stone unturned, making them both heavy and outrageously expensive, Aston Martin have adopted a more no-nonsense approach. This makes the Vantage able enough to pose a threat to the Porsche 911 Turbo S as well as those who want a little less car than what Bentley will deliver pound-for-pound, all while going toe-to-toe with Lamborghini, Ferrari, and Maserati as well.
It’s no secret that the Aston Martin Vantage—and the higher models, too—use hardware and underpinnings from Mercedes-AMG. In fact, when Tobias Moers moved from AMG to AM, it was almost surreal. That back story apart, what we have here is a car that uses a legendary sports car name backed by British engineering and a base reference that is spelt out A-M-G-G-T. That said, the engine is AMG’s “M177”-spec wet-sump twin-turbo V8 petrol direct-injection powerplant which has been significantly tweaked and which puts out a neighbour-of-the-beast 665 hp and 800 Nm. The V8 Vantage weighs just 1,670 kilograms, so that means it has twice the torque of a regular executive luxury car’s engine while weighing as much as just one of them. That is nearly 400 hp/tonne and enough for spectacular performance.
As I watch the Aston Martin Vantage being unloaded from the container truck and then crunch the gravel as it rolls out, in a beautiful ink blue shade that strikes through the morn’s golden hour, there is a flurry of thoughts and emotions. That’s what it’s about, isn’t it? Emotion. And power, beauty, and soul, of course. The face is reminiscent of the very exclusive One-77 and the low, wide, and seductive silhouette urges me to get in and do my thing quickly.
The doors swing outwards and slightly upwards in classic supercar style. The tan brown premium upholstery contrasts well with the deep blue exterior finish. The screens, knobs, and buttons draw me back to reality. It is 2025 and, yes, it has not one but two screens, a little stub of a gear lever for the eight-speed automatic, and many bings and bongs from the various warnings from the many onboard systems to ensure I don’t break the car or, worse, drive off the hillside. But this is a car and not a gadget with wheels. And it’s a V8. So, it’s a proper sports car too. And 665 hp? That may not be much in this day and age of four-motor moving appliances with four-figure horsepower, but in my millennial book the Aston Martin Vantage is a gosh darn supercar.
