Driving Impressions

The engine under the hood of the Aston Martin V8 Vantage is a gem: A high-revving 4.3-liter V8 with 305 pound-feet of acceleration-producing torque and the latest technology. This includes racecar style features such as dry-sump lubrication, which allows the engine to be installed much lower in the car for a lower center of gravity, and ensures proper oiling under very high g-loads.

There's a glass button resembling the face of a fine watch at the top of the center stack. In common parlance it's a start button, but it's also a one-touch ticket to a good time. Turn the ignition key and the start button glows red. Press the button for a second and the V8 burbles to life, idling in a low vroooom that sounds as sweet from the driver seat as it does standing outside the car. The low, rumbling sound beckons the driver to kick that gas pedal and send the tach needle up toward the redline.

Kick we did, burning through two 20.2-gallon tanks of gasoline on a trek through eastern England and Wales with no particular destination: On motorways, sometimes traveling twice the speed limit posted on American interstates, and following some amazing two lane roads amongst the sheep in rural Wales, free of traffic, narrower than some suburban driveways and glass smooth. When we were finished with the V8 Vantage, all we did was wish we could afford our own.

This Aston Martin exhilarates. As it is with one of our favorite sports cars, the Porsche 911, the V8 Vantage's engine is impressively tractable. Its 380 horsepower peaks at 7300 rpm, and while torque peaks at 5000 rpm, variable intake valve timing broadens the power curve nicely, so the torque flows freely almost from idle. This even power delivery allows a driver to be lazy with the shifting. Gear selection is almost inconsequential in a casual drive.

In a spirited drive, the Aston Martin V8 likes it best at the high end, where it delivers a more pronounced punch to the small of the back than the 911's horizontally opposed six-cylinder will. It's also smoother bouncing around near 8000 rpm. The V8 Vantage accelerates quickly, to be sure: This car will easily get to 60 mph in less than five seconds. Yet the acceleration is almost secondary to the pleasure of running the V8 to the rev limiter, gear after satisfying gear. And oh, the sound. It's intoxicating and addictive. We often found ourselves accelerating hard just to hear the sound and feel the thrust.

Aston Martin has also taken a page from Porsche with its traction- and skid- control electronics, which is to say that it has programmed them with room to drive. The V8 Vantage electronics have two modes: on or off, with no intermediate stage. But even with the stability control engaged, it allows enough latitude to work the tires and suspension. The electronics allow enthusiast drivers to snap the tail and turn the car a bit with a deliberate shot of power before the engine throttles back, or to slide the front tires a little before the inside wheel gets an application of brake.

The V8 Vantage is supposed to be an Aston Martin that can be driven everyday, from Beverly Hills to New York or anywhere in between. To that end it should be comfortable, easy to drive at less than breakneck pace and neither intimidating nor finicky.

It is, and it isn't. Visibility from the driver's seat is good. The A-pillars are constructed so the driver looks through the narrowest section. The rear glass is expansive, with no obstruction. The blind spots lie over the shoulders through the rear roof pillars, and they're an issue more when turning left or right, as from a parking lot onto the roadway. When changing lanes, large side mirrors compensate well.

In some situations the V8 Vantage was a bit more intimidating than a Nissan 350Z or even a 911, but the intimidation might have been a lack of familiarity, or a function of hustling a left-drive version around right-drive Britain. Yet even with the seat back nearly straight up, none of the Vantage's long hood is visible from the wheel. On narrow Welsh roads it felt very wide, and that's a double edge sword. This Aston Martin never feels less than planted, but at least through a significant learning period, placing the front tires demands some degree of faith.

The V8 Vantage suspension applies a classic racecar design: aluminum double wishbones and coil-over-shocks front and rear. Yet the key to its fine handling is near perfect weight balance, front to rear. That allows engineers to achieve the desired handling characteristics without wickedly hard springs.

As a result, the V8 Vantage shares at least one more 911 trait, in that its ride is hardly stiff. It's firm, but in our estimation, quite comfortable. Its steering is also exceptionally communicative. The V8 Vantage may actually turn into a corner more crisply than a 911, and its steering feels more linear, in that the angle of the front wheels remains more consistent to the amount of steering wheel input lock-to-lock. It is a more neutral car than a 911, which means that it is less inclined to understeer (or to push) turning into a corner and less prone to loose grip in the back when powering out.