Friday 9th March 2018

Aston Martin V12 Vantage S: Pic of the Week

PH drives the new Vantage next week; time for POTW to bid an emotional farewell to the old one

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It was at the Detroit show 15 years ago that Aston first showed the AMV8 Vantage concept, and two years later when the largely unchanged production car was shown at Geneva. Then, as we all know, it spent more than a decade on sale as perhaps the prettiest new car in existence. It was quite some achievement.

There was nothing revolutionary about the Vantage's design, but it so perfectly finessed the compact, front-engined, rear-drive sports car that it didn't matter one jot. It was more aggressive than the earlier DB9, prettier than a contemporary 911 and has arguably aged better than the Ferrari F430 of the same time - the Vantage really was a highpoint for Aston design.

Now, though, its time is done, drives of the replacement Vantage are taking place very soon; the car we've come to know and (mostly) love will be consigned to Aston history. To mark the occasion we're dedicating Pic of the Week to the iconic Vantage, with perhaps the most desirable version of them all: the V12 Vantage S manual.

As the world moved to automatic, turbocharged sports cars, Aston's reintroduction of a manual V12 Vantage looked like a shrewd piece of business. The resulting car was fantastic, too, described on these pages as "brimming with charisma". Fortunately enough for POTW as well, Aston's pics for the car are brilliant, scenery and vehicle as stunning as each other. So if you're sad at the mighty Vantage's demise, you know what to do - a new wallpaper is below!

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[cib24]

What a beautiful photo.

[Krikkit]

Wow, absolutely first class.

[Europa1]

Stunning car, but spoiled for me by the yellow accents.

The car and the scenery brings to mind the Clarkson review of it, blasting through beautiful scenery to the strains of Brian Eno - "old new Tope Gear" in its prime.

[cookie1600]

So that's what heaven looks like....

[gl20]

Europa1 said:

Stunning car, but spoiled for me by the yellow accents.

The car and the scenery brings to mind the Clarkson review of it, blasting through beautiful scenery to the strains of Brian Eno - "old new Tope Gear" in its prime.

Agreed on both points.

This article rightly talks about how resolved the design is. For me, it's on level pegging with the 355 in that regard. But if someone had somehow never seen this car during the past 15 years and then saw this photo I don't think they'd be convinced. The yellow band round the grille ruins the front. Suddenly the lights resemble a Mitsubishi FTO.

[DPSFleet]

An all time great Aston, end of an era, we shall not see the like again, buy now whilst you can!

[Mr-B]

DPSFleet said:

An all time great Aston, end of an era, we shall not see the like again, buy now whilst you can!

Agreed, fantastic design, still looks good today. The yellow accents though do not do it any favours, a straight deep metallic red or Cobalt blue would look far better.

[David87]

A stunning vehicle. I'd dump my 4.7 V8 for one in an instant (obviously!), but in pure aesthetic terms I don't think the original 'pure' design of the 4.3 V8 Vantage has been bettered. Smooth sills, original bumper design, red rear lamps, small mirrors, classy 7-spoke 19" wheels, just beautiful. My own car is a kind of mish-mash between the two!

Amazing photograph too!

The original:

Edited by David87 on Friday 9th March 13:11

[*Al*]

David87 said:

A stunning vehicle. I'd dump my 4.7 V8 for one in an instant (obviously!), but in pure aesthetic terms I don't think the original 'pure' design of the 4.3 V8 Vantage has been bettered. Smooth sills, original bumper design, red rear lamps, small mirrors, classy 19" wheels, just beautiful. My own car is a kind of mish-mash between the two!

Amazing photograph too!

The original:

Edited by David87 on Friday 9th March 13:10

That's beautiful, reasonable money now.

[Bincenzo]

They are epic cars, but the new Vantage is in a different league dynamically.

[jonby]

Bincenzo said:

They are epic cars, but the new Vantage is in a different league dynamically.

How are you enjoying yours ?

I'm sure the new one will drive brilliantly. But it's not a manual with a naturally aspirated V12 :-)

14 sleeps til mine.....

[peteA]

Love mine...

[stuthemong]

It's when I see a thread like this it reminds me how lucky I am.

It's the baby of the bunch, but it's mine!

[Buster73]

Europa1 said:

Stunning car, but spoiled for me by the yellow accents.

The car and the scenery brings to mind the Clarkson review of it, blasting through beautiful scenery to the strains of Brian Eno - "old new Tope Gear" in its prime.

Couldn’t agree more , look at this V12 with no accents , 100 % better imho.

[Spiker]

Here's my new (2012) Vantage GT4 at a wet Portimao today, testing for the Aston Festival Race at Le Mans this June. Just getting used to it and starting to fall in love. The new Vantage and GTE race car are quite special and will give the Germans and Italians some proper competition, at last. Thanks AMG for that engine.

[VXBertie]

Great photo (and amazing car...). Any idea where the photo would have been taken ?

[cib24]

I am actually a fan of the accents.

[David87]

Buster73 said:

Couldn’t agree more , look at this V12 with no accents , 100 % better imho.

That car does have black 'lipstick' and mirror accents, but they're very subtle because of the colour.

[peteA]

Here’s a colour pic of my ‘Mako blue’ car showing the lipstick and others bits more clearly - other than the black pack bits I’ve never understood the lipstick if I’m honest, but I don’t think it detracts from the overall car. I think the Vantage is an out and out classic bit of British sports car design, one of the very best?

[Glendower]

I really don’t understand why Aston persists with these visually disturbing primary contrasting colors. I have been driving Asrons since January 2006, currently a V12s Roadster in Black, it’s simply stunning....without yellow or green flashes... I have not seen the new Vantage in the flesh yet, but will probably stay with my atmospheric V12....