The Best of British - Two Days with an Aston Martin Vantage

Last month I posted some images of a feature I was writing for the FIA WEC Silverstone programme on the Aston Martin Vantage S V12.  Eight pages of the programme were dedicated for this feature and now that it has been published I can now share it here on the blog.

Two days with the Vantage S was spent near the Aston Martin HQ at Gaydon, Aston Martin Racing HQ in Banbury and then up to Silverstone.  Day two was spent in the Malvern Hills getting some great dynamic shots of the car on some magnificent country roads.  

John Rourke of Adrenal Media was taking the images while I was composing my prose while I drove the car around, but all of the shots here are ones that I took during a wonderful two days with an Aston Martin.

THE BEST OF BRITISH
Italy has Ferrari, Germany has Porsche and Britain has Aston Martin; these manufacturers are very much part of the national identity for each of these countries.  The Aston Martin brand, which celebrated its 100th anniversary last year, is the very essence of being British in the same way as is the Royal Family or Big Ben.

The Aston Martin Vantage is the latest in a long line of road cars that have taken to the track to race against, and beat, the best in the world.  The Aston Martin Racing Vantage V8 starts life on the same production line in Warwickshire as Aston’s other road cars and is then taken 14 miles to Banbury where it is worked on by the engineers at AMR to produce the car which will be seen on track in the 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship.

The Aston Martin Vantage S V12

When you first sit in the cockpit of a road-going Aston Martin you know you are in a very special place and this top of the range Vantage S V12 is probably the closest you will get to the performance of the actual race car.

Now the Vantage S V12 is no light weight, stripped out, race car for the road.  This is the height of luxury with hand stitched leather on every panel, beautifully detailed instruments and controls that are exquisite to look at but are ergonomically perfect so as not to distract the driver from the whole driving experience.

For comfort, the electronically adjustable sports seats wrap the driver and passenger in style, climate control keeps the cabin temperature at a constant level and a Bang & Olufsen sound system is provided for in-car entertainment.

When you slide in behind the steering wheel the real fun begins: putting your foot on the brake and pushing home the Emotional Control Unit to bring the 6 litre V12 to life.  A primeval roar from the exhausts has you smiling like a Cheshire cat.  After selecting ‘Drive’ on the semi-automatic gearbox, release the handbrake, press the accelerator and you’re off. 

At low speed the Vantage is very easy to drive; this isn’t a snarling beast trying to pitch you into the nearest wall at the earliest opportunity.  In fact it is very smooth around town.  The suspension doesn’t crash over the notorious British pot-holed roads and also handled the traffic calming humps around Banbury with consummate ease. 

Take it onto the open road and you find yourself in charge of the perfect GT car.  The Vantage S is perfect on the open road and is the embodiment of the Grand Tourer which could be driven down to the Cote d’Azur or the Italian Riviera in style.  There is even a decent sized boot, easily big enough for luggage for two – Aston Martin Nubuck leather holdalls, of course.

Press the ‘Sport’ mode button and the gear changes are made higher up the rev range and the exhaust note changes above 4000 rpm.  Taking charge of the gearbox by flipping the paddles behind the steering wheel, you are now the master of your own destiny and the car encourages you to change up later as the glorious engine note rises.  Even the downshifts are aurally dramatic as the engine blips the revs as your speed drops off – that key is well named!

Driving the Aston Martin Vantage S V12 was a motoring experience like no other and the link between the road car and the race car is there for all to see.  The Ferrari 458 Italia and the Porsche 911 RSR would undoubtedly provide a similar motoring experience, and this is why the LMGTE class in the FIA World Endurance Championship continues to engage the fans around the world. 

The Le Mans Prototypes are beautiful and are technologically the ultimate in endurance racing machinery.  However the Aston Martin, Ferrari and Porsche GT cars provide an equally beautiful,  tangible link to the cars seen on the road which fans can aspire to own and drive.   

Images taken on a Fujifilm X100, Nikon D800 or Fujifilm X-Pro1

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