Aston Martin Vantage V8 - Review and Test Drive

The Car Diaries Episode 8 Aston Martin Vantage Review

A car Craig knows extremely well given he's driven over 5,000 miles in Aston Martin Vantage's in the past 12 months alone! This particular Vantage with its V8 Twin Turbo AMG based power plant being particularly high specced and available for sale via The Auto Lounge in Aberdeen, Scotland.

You can find the link to the car here (Unless it's been sold by the time you read this): http://bit.ly/2Xa9RG3

If you have any questions at all then feel free to ask them in the comments below.

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The Aston Martin Vantage is a two-seater sports car manufactured by British luxury car manufacturer Aston Martin as a successor to the previous outgoing model which had been in production for 12 years. It was unveiled on 21 November 2017.

Deliveries of the new Vantage began in June 2018 with a price tag of £120,900 (US$149,995).

The Vantage is based on new architecture shared with the DB11, and uses the powertrain and infotainment technology from Mercedes-Benz, as does the DB11. The Vantage uses Mercedes-AMG's M177[3] 4.0-litre twin-turbocharged V8 engine that has a power output of 510 PS (375 kW; 503 hp) and 505 lb⋅ft (685 N⋅m) of torque as is equipped with the Mercedes COMAND system. The Vantage is capable of accelerating from 0–100 km/h (0–62 mph) in 3.6 seconds, and attaining a top speed of 314 km/h (195 mph). The Vantage uses a rear-mounted 8-speed automatic gearbox manufactured by ZF Friedrichshafen, and will be the only vehicle that pairs the Mercedes-AMG V8 with a manual transmission when the combination is made available. The engine is positioned as far back with the chassis as possible, and a 50/50 front/rear weight distribution has been achieved with the car. The Vantage is also the first Aston Martin production car to feature an electronically controlled differential with torque vectoring, and is built around the same all-new bonded-aluminium platform as the DB11, although around 70% of its components are said to be unique to the Vantage.

The first addition to the Vantage range is the Vantage AMR, production numbers are limited to 200 units. With a dry weight of 1499kg , it is lighter than the normal Vantage with lightweight options by 31 kg (68 lb). This was done by replacing the rear mounted ZF8HP automatic gearbox with a 7-speed "dog leg" manual supplied by Graziano. Engine torque is reduced by 60 Nm to 625 Nm for the AMR.

The design of the new Vantage is inspired by the track-only Vulcan and the purpose made DB10 that appeared in the James Bond film Spectre. The front grille, specifically inspired by the Vulcan, helps in efficient engine cooling.

The Vantage's interior configuration also differs from the DB11 in various ways apart from seating capacity, such as the center console design. Whereas the DB11's center stack controls are quite intuitive and more spatial in terms of button/switch arrangement, the Vantage's appears more cluttered and lacks an optical disc drive, as well as separate temperature displays for the automatic climate control. For purpose of weight saving, the Vantage also forfeits the passenger glove compartment and maintains a simple center console design (as opposed to the DB11's deluxe power-sliding variant).

The Vantage AMR is the GTE-class racing version of the Vantage made to compete in the FIA world endurance championship. Like the road-going car, the GTE uses the Mercedes-AMG V8 engine, though it is paired with a 6-speed Xtrac sequential gearbox. Additional changes are made to the engine to increase power.

HWA-AG, in partnership with Aston Martin and R-Motorsport announced an all new car for the 2019 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, based on the new Vantage. The Vantage will compete in place of Mercedes-Benz's entry after the manufacturer left the competition to focus on Formula E.