FirstDrive: Aston Martin V8 Vantage RoadsterIt is half way through my day with the €199,000 Aston Martin V8 Vantage Roadster and I am feeling rather silly. Perhaps it is the fact that I have just realised that I have given my substantial Irish forehead sunburn after baking it in the midday English sun? Perhaps it is because there is a crowd standing around the car?
Or perhaps it is because the roof has decided to stop half-way open. And it isn't budging. And there are two German tourists laughing their heads off.
My day in the Aston Martin had started well. I travelled to Aston Martin's headquarters in Gaydon, Warwickshire, to drive the car that is accounting for much of the firm's recent sales successes - the AMV8 Vantage Roadster. The AMV8 gave Aston Martin a greater audience, thanks to its delightful 380bhp 4.3-litre V8 engine, breathtaking styling, light body shell and (slightly) more accessible price tag. But this was not just a Diet-DB9; it was an incredibly agile sports car in its own right.
The experience of open-top - Volante - Astons has not always been good. Seldom as rewarding to drive as their hard-top siblings, they lost most of their rigidity when the roof was removed, and consequently the experience was blighted.
Before starting out, I got a tour of the Aston Martin factory, which really is an experience. It has a mixture of the workshop traditions of the old Newport Pagnell factory, combined with tinges of modern technology. The cars are still hand-built, and throughout craftsmen work with reading glasses perched on their noses. Craftsmen still exist in the car industry it seems . . . But now the odd robotic arm and computer screen play a cameo.
Back to the car, and part of the reason the new AMV8 Vantage doesn't suffer the same fate as other Volante versions is that it was designed from the start with an open version in mind.
Our red test car looked superb. The powered hood has been designed to integrate seamlessly into the bodywork, and at speeds of up to 50km/h you can open or close the roof. And because it is a fabric roof it doesn't take up much space and overall the weight penalty is 80kg, which isn't all that bad.
The cabin is beautifully finished, and you can see where much of the craftsmanship goes. The detailing on the dashboard, the quality of the interior and the finish of the leather were exquisite. A rather worn-looking gearknob, a Volvo key and Satellite Navigation system and the handy-work of a green-eyed vandal who took to the left-hand side of the car with a key were the only blights on the copybook.
When you hit the now sportscar-ubiquitous Start button, the grumble of the V8 is magnificent and goes some way to justifying the €199,000-plus price tag. The AMV8 feels compact and snug around you and instantly you become aware that this is a very user-friendly car. At low speeds you could be in any car, so muted is the experience. But stamp your foot down and dial up 4,000-plus rpm and all hell breaks loose. The V8 unleashed its 380 horses and there is a snarl that would awaken the dead. It is a ferocious noise, but one that is best enjoyed with the roof down. Exposing my tender Irish forehead to a hot English summer's day meant that I could hear this most grizzly soundtrack. Mick Jagger didn't rock the countryside last Saturday to the degree I was lighting up Warwickshire.
So after munching fuel all morning, swiftly followed by a pub lunch, I found myself at the Heritage Motor Centre in Gaydon, right beside Aston Martin's headquarters. After a nostalgic walk around, recounting the best and worst of the British Motor Industry, I sat back into the Aston. I cranked it up and pressed the button to open the roof and, well, it stopped. I started again and poked and prodded and called the PR man and he talked me through a "procedure" that you should do if the roof throws a tantrum. But this didn't work either. There I was at half-mast.
So as I barked various expletives at the car, two German tourists came over to admire it, and enquire about why I was looking so bemused. I don't think I have seen two Germans laugh so heartily. The irony of one of Britain's finest new cars in a state of undress outside the Heritage Centre wasn't lost on them it seems.
ANYWAY, A NICE MAN FROM Aston Martin came down and mentioned that "this was the second one of these to go today" as he wrestled the roof back into place. It worked fine from then on, but this was yards from the factory on a sunny hot day. On the M50 in Dublin in a sudden downpour, the consequences could have been much worse. And I don't expect the owner of a €199,000 rain-soaked Vantage would see the funny side.
Off on my way again, the backroads of Gaydon provided the afternoon's entertainment and the AMV8's handling was impressive. The steering feel isn't perfect, but it is not far off, and the brakes could do with a little more bite. The odd thing about the car was that it just didn't feel that fast. Having parked a crazed Mazda3 MPS at the airport that morning, this car just didn't feel that rapid, despite a soundtrack that would say the contrary.
The sight of an Aston Martin on Irish roads used to be a very rare sight, but that is changing fast. Our more prosperous times have led to official Aston Martin distributor for Ireland, Charles Hurst in Belfast, delivering some 75 cars to owners in the south, and that does not account for the number of privately imported models.
There are several different ways of spending almost €200,000 on a convertible, and these include a Mercedes SL55 AMG, a Porsche 911 C4 Cabriolet and BMW M6 Cabriolet. Or you could spend €149,585 on the Jaguar XKR Convertible, which matches the Aston's performance, if not its prestige. Plus, getting the AMV8 Vantage Roadster is not that straightforward. Most dealerships have a year waiting list at least.
This amount of money starts to seem ludicrous very quickly and for me, as impressive as this car is to drive, parting with almost €200,000 for it would be difficult. But then I don't have it to give. For those who do, you can be sure that this will be high on their shopping list.
Factfile
ENGINE: 4280cc, V8 putting out 380bhp @ 7000rpm and 410Nm of torque @ 5000rpm
TRANSMISSION: Six-speed manual gearbox
ACCELERATION: 0-100km/h: 5.0secs
TOP SPEED: 280km/h
ECONOMY: 15 l/100km (18.8mpg) on the combined cycle
CO2 emissions: 358g/km
PRICE: €199,000
Aston Martin: new owners signal a new era
Aston Martin has had something of a chequered history. Started in 1914 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford in a small west London workshop, they were known initially for racing cars but began to produce grand touring cars, most notably under the ownership of David Brown who bought the company in 1947 and produced some of the classic DB models, including the DB5 (pictured) which starred so famously in the 1964 Bond film Goldfinger. The troubled years of the 1970s and 1980s where the brand struggled to survive on occasion were followed by a rebirth under their ownership by Ford. However, Ford's increasing financial difficulties led to them selling Aston Martin to a British consortium led by David Richards of Prodrive, a deal that netted Ford €690 million in cash and preferred stock.
This latest change of ownership signals a new era for the brand. New investment money can now go on new cars, so projects like the Rapide saloon are a certainty now - something that wasn't so clear-cut under the restraints of the Ford regime.