Soft-top supercars tested: Aston Martin Vantage vs Ferrari Roma vs McLaren Artura

The Aston Martin Vantage Roadster is a new, £180,500 soft-top from the British sports car company and it arrives meaning business. It has a 4.0-litre V8 developing 656bhp, which makes it unseasonably fast and fantastically woofly.

But it has competitors. One of those is the Ferrari Roma Spider, which remains in production alongside the recently announced Amalfi coupe, to which it is mechanically similar. Before options, the Roma Spider is a £210,883 roadster with a 3.9-litre V8, twin turbocharged like the Aston, but here developing 612bhp. Less powerful, but it’s than the Vantage.

Not as light as our final competitor, the McLaren Artura Spider, a £221,500 car that’s unusual in this test in that it has a carbonfibre tub, retracting hard top, and is mid-engined. Its hybridised V6 makes 690bhp and it’s sufficiently good to drive that we named it Britain’s Best Driver’s Car last autumn.
It still rides and glides and breathes, though, and its comfort as a grand tourer keeps it a rival to the Aston Vantage Roadster and Ferrari Roma Spider.

Only one, though, is the world’s best super sports roadster. Question is, which one? Join James Disdale and Matt Prior as they find out on some of Britain’s most challenging back roads.

For more on these cars, find us at autocar.co.uk

00:00-00:25 Introduction
00:25-02:00 Roma Spider walk around
02:00-04:20 Artura Spider walk around
04:20-07:12 Vantage Roadster walk around
07:12-07:57 Convertible specifications
07:57- 13:09 Ferrari driving impressions
13:09- 19:32 McLaren driving impressions
19:32- 27:05 Aston Martin driving impressions
27:05-27:21 Outro