Autoblog

it's like a mini DBS.

why?

The DBS is supposed be a well-rounded range-topper. This is more of a limited production, hardcore special. Kind of like Aston's version of the Scuderia/Superleggera/GT2.

So its like every other AM but with a totally out of place aftermarket "sports hood" ?

Yeah, the hood really doesn't work with the rest of the car. It's like Daniel Craig in a custom-tailored suit and a sideways baseball cap.

Ooo, I dig those wheels. Agreed on the hood, what were they thinking?

Really? I hate 'em. I think they look gawdy and overly showy (and thus cheap, even though I'm sure they're expensive as hell to make).

That rear roof line (and now exaggerated lip spoiler) is and always has been pure sex

I'm pretty sure the hood is necessary for cooling. Aston know what they're doing when it comes to designing cars, they wouldn't put something that ugly on unless they needed to.

The vanquish had vents with that engine, but not blatant ones like those - they were more sleek. That hood looks like someone shot it with bird shot.

Not the same engine...well not entirely. The Vanquish's was designed for road use from the outset. The V12 Vantage's engine comes straight out of the DBRS9, and is then retuned for use in the road car, or so I was led to believe. Also, you have to keep in mind that the Vanquish and DB9 were designed to use the V12 from the outset, and probably had the necessary cooling for that. The Vantage was never supposed to have more than eight cylinders, let alone the V12 from their LeMans racer.

Besides, hardcore specials have never been pretty things, imo at least. Just look at the Porsche 911. The Carreras and Turbos are truly beautiful cars, but the GT3s and GT2s just look awkward with their coffee table spoilers, and random air inlets/outlets. I'm sure people will disagree with me, but that's just my take. These cars are all designed to be as functional as possible, if you cared that much about the appearance you would've just bought the stock model.

You saying Aston Martin and their customers won't care about appearance? On paper these cars are marginal at best. Their hole persona is based on their beautiful automobiles. Porsche i would say is the opposite in most cases.

As long as the vents have a function, they can look good. I don't know if that makes sense. If you cut big aftermarket holes into a cars bonnet, that serve no purpose, chances are they will look dumb because they are dumb. But if you look at a GT3, all of the vents, spoilers, etc. are completely functional, and that gives them that coolness, that the aftermarket boys are after, but don't have. I think Subaru is the prime example of this, and I know not everyone will agree with me, but the STI spoiler is cool, because it has a fucntion(at least on the rally car).
I agree, the rims are terrible. There's an aftermarket set herein SA that looks just like those, and I see them regularly in 15 inches on Opel Corsa's , so no.

They will, the same way anyone buying a car will care about the appearance. Saying an Aston, particularly the Vantage is marginal, is a HUGE understatement. The car is hugely competent, if just a bit ovepriced next to its rivals. But like I've said, this is once again, a hardcore special. People who wanted a great looking Vantage would probably still go for the V8. It's people more concerned with performance that will go for the V12. Also, I don't think Aston's image is based entirely on how they look. Sure they make gorgeous cars, but they're also about sporting appeal, and lets not forget the successful racing program. I'd say Aston is for Britain, what Ferrar is for Italy, and Porsche for Germany.

looks like a cheese grater

It sounds positively frightening.

http://www.drivers-republic.com/dr_tv/inde...amp;area=videos

that it does

Your point is well taken, but i have to disagree.
1. You put the same vantage engine and drivetrain/suspension/weight/handling exactly into a car like the GTR or corvette or even a mustang and it wont get 1/3 the price it sells for - aka you wont sell any if you keep everything the same except for looks/interior/name.
2. The prospect that a performance minded real guy looking to push the car to the edge being the one to buy the v12 over the V8 is sort of a Utopia us guys who cant afford these cars live in to justify not beating ourselves with a baseball bat when we look at who actually buy these cars. I live in La Jolla, CA. The average price of a home (even in this economy) is over a $1M, Jews literally wern't allowed to own a home here until the 1970's. If you want to come see the type of people that drive these cars, hit me up and you can crash at my house - because i see them about 1-3 times a day. The type of person that is going to buy a V12 Vantage is similar to the type of person that's going to buy a GTR Spec-V. Spec-V is nearly twice as much for some lighter parts and a new tune. While the Vantage has some actual ballz behind it, the person buying it is not looking for the extra thrill at the track or on the mountain roads they'll get out of it - they are looking to have the highest prestige sports car that will one-up even all the other Aston driver's; and the vented hood helps drive this point home from a distance. Actually, the majority of these cars i see a woman driving - i doubt 80% of the V12 Vantages will see in excess of 5500 rpms in more than two cases of its life.

I swear we have more M3's here than honda accords.

1) Isn't that true of a Ferrari, Porsche, or a Lambo? I'd say so. I think each performance car manufacturer has their own identity and image, and with that comes the potential to charge a certain amount for a car.

2) Have you seen my location on my profile? I live in Dubai bud...you wanna see a dozen Vantages, you can walk out into my university's parking lot. I'm not even joking when I say I've seen more exotics today than you've probably seen all last week. La Jolla has nothing on this. However, as someone on the forums once so wisely pointed out to me, what you see is hardly ever an accurate measure of what's actually going in terms of sales. So I'm not going to use observations I've made to make conclusions. I really do think the V12 Vantage will appeal to the hardcore Aston fan. It's not going to appeal to those that want the "highest prestige sports car that will one-up even all the other Aston driver's" (as you put it), mainly because this isn't the top-of-the-line Aston. This is smallest model in the range tuned to faster, sharper, harder, and with teh added help of the brand's racing engine. Those that wanted the "highest prestige" Aston would undoubtedly go for the DBS (since it's Astons range topper), or hell, the upcoming One-77.

P.S. I swear we have more Quattroportes than Honda Accords.

Not that I disagree that most people who buy Aston Martins (or any luxury sports car) never take the cars near their limit, but how does that whole Jewish thing tie in again? Please don't think that I'm accusing you of saying anything offensive; I'm just confused by the link between anti-Semitism and not pushing a performance car to the limits.

Most people who own these super expensive track special supercars never take their cars further away than the nearest yuppy restaurant or bar. Most of the cars you see being raced on tracks are beat up old cars like the miatas and mustangs and RX-7s that have been turned into hardcore racers. The only big exception to this rule is the corvette, 911 and the Elise/ Exige but neither of these are really that exclusive or expensive.

I apologize if that came off a bit weird. I'm alluding to that fact that i live in a Yuppie-Anglo enclave society that is all about one upping the next heiress. My example was just to show you the level of disgust these areas will go to in order to maintain their social superiority - and that's the kind of environment most of these cars will live in. Which is my point.


Good point, i didn't look at your location.
I still think if someone made a car that was a light/handled as well and had the same drivetrain as a porsche TT or F430 it would sell without the name for a lot of money. Not so much with the Aston in my opinion.

By your logic housewifes shouldn't by driving SL55's, M3's or RS4's since they are the top of the line in their class made purely for performance but not the most expensive model the company makes. If someone wants to go blistering fast they buy a ZR1, if they want refined looks with people seeing they have taste while exuding a certain image, they'll buy the Vanatage.

I find it hard to arque with this point. You really think the first 10 buyers of the V12 Vantage are going to go through the set of tires in less than 2 months like they should with tires having a treadwear of 60?

I have to agree with Mustang here, in that (from what I see here in SA(3rd biggest Aston market in the world)) the type of people who buy these cars are the type of people who will hardly push the car, unless the V8 Vantage is next to the m at a robot, and then they can prove that 'their's is better'. It's a sad fact to petrolheads like us, but unfortunately cars like this and the DBS, and the Ferrari Scuderia are bought(again my opinion) more so for the status they carry rather than the fact that they are truly performance monsters.

Not relating to Astons per se, but on a similar note: One of my colleagues attended a Ferrari track day at Kyalami a while ago in a Citi Golf (the Mk1 golf that is still produced locally) .
My colleague and his friend are both classic race car drivers. Between them, they managed to put in a better laptime than any one of the Ferraris on the day. The best Ferrari time was a 2.24, they did a 2.22. That is pretty solid evidence to me, that the owners of these cars aren't huge driving fanatics, but rather just image conscious show offs.

Go to a Porsche track day, that's when you will see guys really hammer their cars around a track.

Them being at a track at all is a rarity.
And i'm not steadfast in my point, its not perfect or back empirically - and i realize its a pessimistic view, but i would say also a realist one. It just seems that someone living in Dubai would agree that the only way the vast majority of the owners of these cars even know its more powerful is the brochure.

Eh it's silly to get into these stereotypes about exotic car owners. I was just at the track and there was a guy there with a chipped 996 Turbo that he had for sale because he was picking up a Gallardo. He was kind of a douche, but he was there at the track. There are entire track days geared toward exotic car owners here in California.

The % of exotics owners who see the track is probably not too different from the % of enthusiasts in general who see the track, if I were to guess.

The average enthusiast doesn't drop down $180k for what is essentially a piece of art geared specifically for performance and the track. If i bought a bought an expensive violin you'd expect that i could play it, and not just carry it around and dust it off. If you're buying a car with 15.5" brakes, i wish i could expect that 13" wouldn't have got the job done - unfortunately that's hardly ever the case. That's no stereotype. Saying Asians make/mod ricers is a stereotype. Saying rich people buy expensive cars isn't.

Yet somehow my argument that most rich people don't track the cars or at least see spirited roads and grind down the tires, is not being taken well.

I think, roughly speaking, there's two groups of exotic owners...more working class owners who actually buy the cars to live with them and drive them regularly, thus meaning they bought these cars FOR their capabilities, then there are those who are falling more into this stereotype of the image-driven collector. They're both out there, and that's something that needs to be understood.

For sure, there's no doubt there coming from me. Just, especially in this economy and stratification of wealth, that split is like 85/15 - 90/10

Unless your definition of exotics includes cars in the $50k-60k bracket, i cant seem to imagine any guy falling in the middle class who can afford $1500+ monthly payments on one of these 6 figure cars.

I'm with Mustang on this one. When you see someone in a Mustang GT or Subaru STI, there's a pretty good chance (say, 50%) that they've taken it to the dragstrip or autocross course at least once, or at minimum that they've really pushed it really hard on some backroads. When you start talking about AMG cars, that's more like 1% or maybe 5%.

+1. I still think the Sl55/M3/RS4 are good (still greatly less expensive) examples of top of their line performance cars that aren't the companies most expensive model. There's a 2008 white M3 that parks next to me on the 2nd level underground parking structure at college every single wednesday. I see the guy every time, no more than 22 years old. I've talked with this guy briefly, but im pretty sure if BMW had a more expensive/exclusive coup 3 series that had a lawn mower engine he would have had his parents buy that instead. He can barely drive the manual still.

50% of Mustang GT owners have seen a dragstrip, autocross course, or race track? Not even close. I'd be shocked if it was 10%. 50% is also very optimistic for STi owners.

And duke: Living in an upper-middle class area, working professionals can very commonly be seen in $100k+ cars. AMG SLs are common as dirt here, for instance, as are higher end 911s (Turbos are a favorite of silicon valley-ers), etc. etc.

...and I'll bet 1-5% is optimistic for Aston Martin owners. The point was not the absolute numbers, but the relative numbers.



I think your version of upper middle class may be a bit more "upper" than Duke's and mine. Where I live, upper middle class = Acura TL, and the cars you're describing are for the emperors of real estate.

I sorta draw the line between upper-middle and upper as "works 40 hours a week" and "doesn't work 40 hours a week" moreso than "has $xxx,xxx in their bank account".

The upper middle class that clarkma is talking about is like the "upper middle class" for plano or highland park area of DFW where a 3000 sq ft house can cost anywhere from $400k to $1M ... they all work 40-50 hrs a week as salaried employees but when you consider their position from across DFW area or even Texas they are all rich as fuck.