ASTOR MARTIN VANTAGE V8 S The marginally faster Aston with the marginally higher price proves commensurately more fun.
The S trailing the name of this Vantage stands for “sport”—hardly astonishing news—but the differences between sport and standard (one simply cannot employ so mundane a descriptor as “base” in connection with an Aston Martin) are a bit elusive. S means a little more motor, a little more brake, a little more rubber, a little less weight, some small trim distinctions, and, of course, a little more money.
The engine is Aston’s familiar 4.7-liter aluminum V-8, with improved intake airflow, new mufflers, and new programming that keeps the exhaust system’s bypass valves open longer. The net is 430 hp and 361 lb-ft of torque, gains of 10 ponies and 15 lb-ft. Although it’s a small gain in output, the S’s new transmission (more on that in a moment) should help it whittle the Vantage’s 0-to-60-mph time down from the 4.3 of the to about four flat. Beyond that, the menacing V-8 sounds that emerge when the bypass valves open up and the engine soars toward redline are almost worth the price premium on their own, with or without the extra thrust.
There’s just one asterisk. The single-clutch gearbox, chosen for packaging and weight-saving reasons, doesn’t quite measure up to the car’s other mechanical elements. Nor does it match the performance of the dual-clutch boxes found in many of the Aston’s peers. It offers two modes, sport and normal, but upshifts in the base setting are a little slow and convulsive, reminiscent of BMW’s unlamented SMG tranny. In sport, there’s more urgency, particularly when shifts are tucked close to redline, but even then the responses are a bit deliberate compared with something like the whap-whap shifting of, say, a Ferrari 458 Italia.
