First Impressions:
Beautiful, balanced and powerful, the Vanquish S defines what an Aston Martin is meant to be.
Featured Specs
*520-hp 5.9-liter DOHC V12
*6-speed automated sequential manual transmission
*Zero to 60 mph in 4.9 seconds
*200-mph top speed
*$366,700
An Epic Drive in the Last True Aston
By Henry Catchpole
Date posted: 10-11-2007
Edmunds Inside Line
We could compose a nice, reflective piece about the 2007 Aston Martin Vanquish S, the last-ever hand-built car from Aston Martin. We could have looked back at all the wonderful cars that have been built at the old Aston Martin factory at Newport Pagnell, from the DB4 in 1957 right through to this $366,700 Vanquish Ultimate Edition (no. 50 of 50), which rolled off the line on the 19th of July, 2007.
But if this was the first and last time you were going to drive an Aston Martin Vanquish, what would you do? We'd want to drive as many miles as humanly possible, and we'd want to do it on the best roads.
So if it's all right with you, we'll point you in the direction of Aston Martin itself for the history lesson in the tradition of hand-built cars that has come to an end with the Vanquish. Because we think a trip to Scotland is in order.
Art in Motion
We're sitting outside the now-empty Newport Pagnell factory midway between London and Birmingham. The last 2007 Aston Martin Vanquish S looks as fantastic as it did when it first appeared as the Ian Callum-designed Project Vantage at the Detroit auto show in 1998. There have been no face-lifts since it went into production in 2001 (and subsequently appeared in the U.S. in 2002). With good reason, as it has the perfect musculature of a Michelangelo sculpture.
Pulling away from the wonderful wooden gates that shelter the old brick buildings of Newport Pagnell from the street, it's rather sad to think that this is the last hand-built Aston Martin. A team of men in immaculate overalls carefully crafting and assembling components adds something special to each car, and the team of robots that build the DBS, DB9 and Vantage at the new facility in Gaydon just can't re-create the same thing. A hand-built car already has a little bit of history in it before it's even turned a wheel.
As we head toward the main highway, the first surprise is the automated sequential manual gearbox. It's come in for some criticism over the years, and as we're a three-pedals sort of chap, we were worried that this aspect of the Vanquish would spoil our enjoyment of the drive. But the shift paddles mounted on the steering column are beautifully thin waves of glossy metal, and each gearchange is actuated with a perfect metallic snick.
The Scottish Express
The traffic on the M6 high-speed motorway is mercifully free-moving up to the Lake District, at which point it seems to miraculously and mysteriously dissipate altogether. From here it's but a brief flex of the right foot across the border from England into Scotland. A pace of about 90 mph is relaxed but interesting. The chassis is communicating a surprising number of bumps and blemishes but never in a way that's uncomfortable or unsettling. The Vanquish is just as a GT should be, really.
There's a splendidly swooping part of the A74M that weaves in, out, over and under with the main line of the West Coast railway, and a high-speed Virgin Train suddenly emerges from the scenery to our left. As we thunder along side by side for a few miles, it feels like one of those splendid early jousts where cars took on steam locomotives racing from London to Edinburgh. The Vanquish is, of course, the perfect blend of automotive aristocracy and modern performance for such daydreams.
We reach Glasgow in good time and manage to nip through just before rush hour to be released onto the wide single carriageways of Scotland. These roads run alongside the shores of lochs and dive through glens but unfortunately, this being at least nominally "summer," there are lots of chemical toilets being towed up to the Highlands for camping tourists.
Fortunately, the 520 horsepower of a 5.9-liter V12 is the ideal overtaking antidote. It kicks hard with 425 pound-feet of torque at 4,500 rpm and then sustains unrelenting pressure all the way to the 7,000 rpm rev limiter before a flick of an index finger triggers the next melodious surge forward.
As the wide-open spaces of Rannoch Moor unfold, there's a long, pale, deserted strip of road reaching out in front of us, shimmering slightly through the heat haze escaping from the vents in the Aston's hood. There seems only one thing to do. Third sees 100 mph, 4th 130 mph, we forget to look as we change from 5th to 6th and we're closing on seriously big speeds. This is why we've come to Scotland.
Road Song
The run into the long, barren mountain valley of Glen Coe has to be a strong contender for the most spectacular piece of road in the country. The sun is sinking, spreading a golden carpet across the landscape. The Aston, meanwhile, is providing a suitably epic soundtrack. The road cuts right through the rock in places, providing massive sounding boards for one of the best exhaust notes ever. It seems to cover multiple octaves all in one go, part feral animal, part racecar. It may have been concocted by engineers but they did a bloody good job.
We do several runs up the road, and the first thing to note is that the traction control has quite a relaxed attitude to life. This is fun, but we can imagine it's given a few elderly owners some heart-stopping moments down the years as they summoned up some opposite lock whilst gently puckering the soft leather.
The next thing you notice is how small and wieldy the Vanquish feels. At 4,134 pounds, it gives away 165 pounds to the DB9, yet it feels much lighter than its other V12 stablemate, changing direction with more fluency, more immediacy and generally feeling more modern.
It's raining now, and the 19-inch, 40-series Yokohama tires are displaying a disconcerting lack of grip and feel in the wet, which makes for slightly unnerving progress. Where many supercars would be reduced to a nerve-wracked crawl, the front-engine, rear-wheel-drive platform developed by Aston Martin allows you to push further into its limits than a midengine twitcher would.
Running for Home in the Dark
We stop in the bright lights of Fort William on the way back. McDonald's is closed so it's more fuel and more petrol station confectionary, then back out to Rannoch Moor. As we plunge back between the rock faces, the car howling like a wild beast in the night, the interior feels like a good place to be.
The borrowed switchgear and other bits from Jaguars and Fords always struck a slightly odd note in the Vanquish, like finding a ratty old video player plugged into the wall of a beautiful drawing room in a stately home. But since 2006, all the electronics have been modernized at last. Now slate-colored fittings lend a much more sophisticated ambience, while backlights glow cleanly through each button like light shining through ice.
As we head across the roof of the moor, deer suddenly start appearing out of nowhere. A 12-pointer stands defiant at the side of the road, majestic in the headlights. It checks our pace considerably and not until we're well away from the heather and tarns do we relax the watch for the twin pinpricks of yellow that signal eyes in the darkness ahead.
Civilization Reappears
Finally we reach Perth. It seems strange coming into a big town, an oasis of artificial light in the empty hours just before dawn. The rain has stopped and the journey into St. Andrews is lonely, fast and glorious. Eventually the sun sticks with tradition and emerges above the North Sea, painting the Aston's bodywork in molten light.
We weren't expecting the wide-hipped Vanquish to excel on the small Fife roads but we could stay here and play all day long. At speed it can get a little floaty over the rear axle, just not settling quite as quickly as you expect, and the steering could do with a fraction more precision, but otherwise it's fantastic.
There's a small road leading to Cupar and, like some John Constable painting of rural English life in the late 18th century, there's a boy sitting on the grassy verge. As the black Vanquish S passes him, we hear an audible "Wow." We drop two gears in quick succession and nail it.
Over the Forth Road Bridge round Edinburgh and then it's a brilliant run to the M6, past the wonderfully named Devil's Beef Tub. We could just about have made it to the Alps and back with all the miles we've covered but it makes you question the need to when you've got roads like this.
Returning to Earth
We've been in the 2007 Aston Martin Vanquish S Ultimate Edition for 31 hours and nearly a thousand miles and there's only motorway ahead of us now.
This should be the moment when we'd prefer a plane or train or teleporter to get back. Yet every time we turn the key of the Vanquish, pull back both shift paddles for neutral and press the glowing red starter button, the high whirr and deep eruption from the V12 that follows still makes goosebumps prickle on our forearms.
When Lionel Martin and James Bamford brought Aston Martin to life in 1913, they defined the special character of the cars they would build, a description that still holds true for the Vanquish S: "A quality car of good performance and appearance; a car for the discerning owner-driver with fast touring in mind."
Beautiful, balanced and powerful, the Vanquish S defines what an Aston Martin is meant to be.
Featured Specs
*520-hp 5.9-liter DOHC V12
*6-speed automated sequential manual transmission
*Zero to 60 mph in 4.9 seconds
*200-mph top speed
*$366,700
An Epic Drive in the Last True Aston
By Henry Catchpole
Date posted: 10-11-2007
Edmunds Inside Line
We could compose a nice, reflective piece about the 2007 Aston Martin Vanquish S, the last-ever hand-built car from Aston Martin. We could have looked back at all the wonderful cars that have been built at the old Aston Martin factory at Newport Pagnell, from the DB4 in 1957 right through to this $366,700 Vanquish Ultimate Edition (no. 50 of 50), which rolled off the line on the 19th of July, 2007.
But if this was the first and last time you were going to drive an Aston Martin Vanquish, what would you do? We'd want to drive as many miles as humanly possible, and we'd want to do it on the best roads.
So if it's all right with you, we'll point you in the direction of Aston Martin itself for the history lesson in the tradition of hand-built cars that has come to an end with the Vanquish. Because we think a trip to Scotland is in order.
Art in Motion
We're sitting outside the now-empty Newport Pagnell factory midway between London and Birmingham. The last 2007 Aston Martin Vanquish S looks as fantastic as it did when it first appeared as the Ian Callum-designed Project Vantage at the Detroit auto show in 1998. There have been no face-lifts since it went into production in 2001 (and subsequently appeared in the U.S. in 2002). With good reason, as it has the perfect musculature of a Michelangelo sculpture.
Pulling away from the wonderful wooden gates that shelter the old brick buildings of Newport Pagnell from the street, it's rather sad to think that this is the last hand-built Aston Martin. A team of men in immaculate overalls carefully crafting and assembling components adds something special to each car, and the team of robots that build the DBS, DB9 and Vantage at the new facility in Gaydon just can't re-create the same thing. A hand-built car already has a little bit of history in it before it's even turned a wheel.
As we head toward the main highway, the first surprise is the automated sequential manual gearbox. It's come in for some criticism over the years, and as we're a three-pedals sort of chap, we were worried that this aspect of the Vanquish would spoil our enjoyment of the drive. But the shift paddles mounted on the steering column are beautifully thin waves of glossy metal, and each gearchange is actuated with a perfect metallic snick.
The Scottish Express
The traffic on the M6 high-speed motorway is mercifully free-moving up to the Lake District, at which point it seems to miraculously and mysteriously dissipate altogether. From here it's but a brief flex of the right foot across the border from England into Scotland. A pace of about 90 mph is relaxed but interesting. The chassis is communicating a surprising number of bumps and blemishes but never in a way that's uncomfortable or unsettling. The Vanquish is just as a GT should be, really.
There's a splendidly swooping part of the A74M that weaves in, out, over and under with the main line of the West Coast railway, and a high-speed Virgin Train suddenly emerges from the scenery to our left. As we thunder along side by side for a few miles, it feels like one of those splendid early jousts where cars took on steam locomotives racing from London to Edinburgh. The Vanquish is, of course, the perfect blend of automotive aristocracy and modern performance for such daydreams.
We reach Glasgow in good time and manage to nip through just before rush hour to be released onto the wide single carriageways of Scotland. These roads run alongside the shores of lochs and dive through glens but unfortunately, this being at least nominally "summer," there are lots of chemical toilets being towed up to the Highlands for camping tourists.
Fortunately, the 520 horsepower of a 5.9-liter V12 is the ideal overtaking antidote. It kicks hard with 425 pound-feet of torque at 4,500 rpm and then sustains unrelenting pressure all the way to the 7,000 rpm rev limiter before a flick of an index finger triggers the next melodious surge forward.
As the wide-open spaces of Rannoch Moor unfold, there's a long, pale, deserted strip of road reaching out in front of us, shimmering slightly through the heat haze escaping from the vents in the Aston's hood. There seems only one thing to do. Third sees 100 mph, 4th 130 mph, we forget to look as we change from 5th to 6th and we're closing on seriously big speeds. This is why we've come to Scotland.
Road Song
The run into the long, barren mountain valley of Glen Coe has to be a strong contender for the most spectacular piece of road in the country. The sun is sinking, spreading a golden carpet across the landscape. The Aston, meanwhile, is providing a suitably epic soundtrack. The road cuts right through the rock in places, providing massive sounding boards for one of the best exhaust notes ever. It seems to cover multiple octaves all in one go, part feral animal, part racecar. It may have been concocted by engineers but they did a bloody good job.
We do several runs up the road, and the first thing to note is that the traction control has quite a relaxed attitude to life. This is fun, but we can imagine it's given a few elderly owners some heart-stopping moments down the years as they summoned up some opposite lock whilst gently puckering the soft leather.
The next thing you notice is how small and wieldy the Vanquish feels. At 4,134 pounds, it gives away 165 pounds to the DB9, yet it feels much lighter than its other V12 stablemate, changing direction with more fluency, more immediacy and generally feeling more modern.
It's raining now, and the 19-inch, 40-series Yokohama tires are displaying a disconcerting lack of grip and feel in the wet, which makes for slightly unnerving progress. Where many supercars would be reduced to a nerve-wracked crawl, the front-engine, rear-wheel-drive platform developed by Aston Martin allows you to push further into its limits than a midengine twitcher would.
Running for Home in the Dark
We stop in the bright lights of Fort William on the way back. McDonald's is closed so it's more fuel and more petrol station confectionary, then back out to Rannoch Moor. As we plunge back between the rock faces, the car howling like a wild beast in the night, the interior feels like a good place to be.
The borrowed switchgear and other bits from Jaguars and Fords always struck a slightly odd note in the Vanquish, like finding a ratty old video player plugged into the wall of a beautiful drawing room in a stately home. But since 2006, all the electronics have been modernized at last. Now slate-colored fittings lend a much more sophisticated ambience, while backlights glow cleanly through each button like light shining through ice.
As we head across the roof of the moor, deer suddenly start appearing out of nowhere. A 12-pointer stands defiant at the side of the road, majestic in the headlights. It checks our pace considerably and not until we're well away from the heather and tarns do we relax the watch for the twin pinpricks of yellow that signal eyes in the darkness ahead.
Civilization Reappears
Finally we reach Perth. It seems strange coming into a big town, an oasis of artificial light in the empty hours just before dawn. The rain has stopped and the journey into St. Andrews is lonely, fast and glorious. Eventually the sun sticks with tradition and emerges above the North Sea, painting the Aston's bodywork in molten light.
We weren't expecting the wide-hipped Vanquish to excel on the small Fife roads but we could stay here and play all day long. At speed it can get a little floaty over the rear axle, just not settling quite as quickly as you expect, and the steering could do with a fraction more precision, but otherwise it's fantastic.
There's a small road leading to Cupar and, like some John Constable painting of rural English life in the late 18th century, there's a boy sitting on the grassy verge. As the black Vanquish S passes him, we hear an audible "Wow." We drop two gears in quick succession and nail it.
Over the Forth Road Bridge round Edinburgh and then it's a brilliant run to the M6, past the wonderfully named Devil's Beef Tub. We could just about have made it to the Alps and back with all the miles we've covered but it makes you question the need to when you've got roads like this.
Returning to Earth
We've been in the 2007 Aston Martin Vanquish S Ultimate Edition for 31 hours and nearly a thousand miles and there's only motorway ahead of us now.
This should be the moment when we'd prefer a plane or train or teleporter to get back. Yet every time we turn the key of the Vanquish, pull back both shift paddles for neutral and press the glowing red starter button, the high whirr and deep eruption from the V12 that follows still makes goosebumps prickle on our forearms.
When Lionel Martin and James Bamford brought Aston Martin to life in 1913, they defined the special character of the cars they would build, a description that still holds true for the Vanquish S: "A quality car of good performance and appearance; a car for the discerning owner-driver with fast touring in mind."
