Aston Martin Vantage V8 Roadster Sportshift

Road Test
Aston Martin Vantage V8 Roadster Sportshift

Two Pedals, No Roof
by David Finlay (24 Oct 09)

The ultimate Aston Martin Vantage is the one with the six-litre V12 engine also found in the DB9, DBS and Volante, but it's not the one being tested here. Instead, we've picked the top of the V8 Vantage range, the one with the six-speed Sportshift semi-automatic transmission and a folding roof which together make this car just over £10,000 more expensive than the manual Coupé.

Those items are important, of course, and not just because they account for a tenth of the car's value, but since they're incidental to what the Vantage is really about I'll talk about other things first. A more obvious starting point is the fact that the Vantage is a very handsome car, especially with the roof folded, though personally I don't think it looks anything like as good roof-up as the Coupé does.

Inside it is, if anything, even better, and I hope our non-UK readers won't think I'm being unduly nationalistic if I say that the Vantage is one of several cars (including most Jaguars) which implies that premium British manufacturers tend to have absolutely world-class interior designers. I might avoid the red colour scheme, though, since it makes the leather look rather brash, while the alcantara trim on the windscreen pillars immediately reminded me of an Indian restaurant. No offence intended to Indian restaurants there - it's just that I wouldn't particularly like my own Aston Martin to look like one.

The 420bhp V8 engine may be the lesser unit in the Aston line-up, but if you ignore the existence of the V12 it's pretty impressive. It has to be revved very hard to work at its best (maximum power is developed at 7000rpm, just short of when the revlimiter cuts in) but it has enough grunt lower down for you to be able to make storming progress on an appropriate road even at much lower revs.

The only problem with driving the Vantage this way is that you miss out on one of its greatest features. Below about 4000rpm the engine makes little more than a high-pitched whirring noise which isn't going to gladden anyone's heart. You have to push well beyond that to sing its wonderful V8 song (in complete contrast to the V12, which sounds great even from tickover).

One of the best things about the Vantage is that it is not dominated by its engine. The back end seems quite capable of taking more than the maximum available 420bhp, so you can really drive the car hard without fear that it's going to do anything silly; whether or not you do anything silly yourself is of course up to you.

And there's a lot of temptation to push on, because the Vantage is in many ways quite wonderful to drive. The steering is possibly the best bit - it's light (at least at higher speeds) and firm and precise all at the same time - but all the controls are smooth and similarly weighted, while the brakes are exceptionally effective and confidence-inspiring.

The downside is the Sportshift transmission. Although it works like an automatic, with driver selection achieved either by flicking the lever or using the paddles behind the steering wheel, it's actually an electronically-controlled manual, and in my experience nobody has ever made one of these work properly. The lag between gearchanges is no worse than you would commit yourself if you had a clutch pedal, but the fact that you don't do anything (and can't be seen by the passenger to be doing anything) during this short period makes the shifts seem very cumbersome. What the Vantage really needs is a twin-clutch transmission of the type increasingly found in much cheaper and less dramatic cars.

Sportshift doesn't affect the Vantage's performance figures, though, and it actually improves the official combined fuel economy and CO2 emissions. Just don't expect this to make it significantly cheaper to run than the manual.

On bumpier roads, and sometimes on fast corners, you can feel the lack of a solid roof, but the resultant shaking is no worse than you might expect, and for most customers it's probably a reasonable price to pay for the chance to drive an Aston with the wind teasing your hair. The roof folds into its own compartment, so luggage space is identical whether it's up or down, but that space amounts to just 144 litres - rather less than is offered by a MINI hatchback - compared with the much more useful 300 litres of the Coupé.

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Price: £97,867
Capacity: 4735cc
Power: 420bhp
0-62mph: 4.8 seconds
Maximum speed: 180mph
Economy: 29.5mpg extra urban, 21.4mpg combined
CO2 emissions: 312g/km
Insurance: Group 20
Aston Martin figures.

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