Aston Martin’s much-loved V8 Vantage just got better

At first glance the latest Aston Martin Vantage “might appear to be little more than an extreme and expensive new version of a car we already know and mostly love”, says Steve Sutcliffe in AutoExpress magazine. “But in reality, it is a sign of things to come under the new regime at Aston Martin, and it’s a good sign.”

The luxury car brand re-entered Formula One just over a year ago as a manufacturer in its own right, having taken a break from 1960. It has also appointed Tobias Moers as its new boss. It felt right, then, to “launch a new version of an existing road car” to commemorate both events. The Vantage F1 has been made “sharper, quicker and more focused than the V8 Vantage on which it’s based”. 

And it’s far from just a “stripes and fancy paint special edition”, says Adam Towler on Evo. A myriad of structural improvements have delivered a new “calmness and precision” to the way the F1 changes direction “that simply wasn’t there before”. Drivers can feel “genuinely connected to the car now”, accurately placing it on the road thanks to its stable steering, “which in turn makes you... enthusiastic about dispatching a sequence of curves with gusto”. Although “barely different on paper”, the engine “certainly feels more energetic” and gear shifts have become more sophisticated. This upgrade has made it “a lot less intimidating, while simultaneously being much more effective and enjoyable at the same time”. 

It is “a thorough dynamic revision of a car that was already pretty well sorted”, says Matt Bird on Piston Heads. Anyone who “feels a modern sports car lacks a sense of occasion owes it to themselves to drive an F1”.

Price: from £142,000. Engine: 3,982cc, twin turbocharged V8. Power: 535bhp at 6,000rpm. Torque: 505 lb ft at 2,000-5,000rpm. Top speed: 195mph; 0-62mph: 3.6 seconds.