2014 Aston Martin Vanquish: Supercar Looks with GT Moves! - Ignition Episode 53 - video Dailymotion

MotorTrend

On this episode of Ignition

Transcript

00:00 (soft piano music)

00:02 The Aston Martin Vanquish falls into that rarefied group

00:08 of cars you might own simply to have in the house on display.

00:12 You'd frame it with worn tires and bottles of wine.

00:14 There'd be a plaque bearing its name.

00:17 That'd be unfortunate, though, to cage such a thing,

00:19 because the Vanquish was built with lessons learned

00:22 from the Aston Martin 177, which costs over a million dollars

00:26 and only 77 are in existence.

00:28 The Vanquish's body is made of carbon fiber.

00:31 The chassis uses both aluminum and carbon fiber,

00:33 and the 565-horse V12 sits mostly behind the front axle,

00:38 nestled up and close and cozy to the firewall.

00:41 As the replacement for the DBS,

00:43 the Vanquish is Aston Martin's new flagship,

00:46 but does it have the performance to back up that title?

00:49 (soft piano music)

00:51 (soft music)

00:56 (soft music)

00:59 The new Vanquish has launch control,

01:05 and it's very effective.

01:06 The first thing you want to do, though,

01:07 not because it makes you faster,

01:08 but because it makes the car sound so much nicer,

01:10 is hit this little S button right here.

01:13 It opens up the valves in the exhaust

01:14 and sounds very nice indeed.

01:16 Launch control is very simple.

01:18 You hit the launch control button.

01:19 It prompts you to press the brake as hard as you can,

01:21 and once you do that, you just map the gas.

01:25 And away we go.

01:26 Little bit of wheel spin.

01:30 You might need to steer a little bit.

01:32 You'll get 60 miles an hour in four seconds,

01:36 and probably the nicest V12 engine note there is.

01:39 It's very smooth above 100 miles an hour.

01:45 Quarter mile, 12.3 seconds at just over 116 miles an hour.

01:51 (engine revving)

01:54 And for our 60 to zero braking test,

02:02 we have very sticky Pirelli P Zero tires

02:05 and big carbon ceramic discs at all four corners.

02:08 Our best stop from 60,

02:10 just 104 feet.

02:20 Now we begin the figure eight test

02:22 of the Aston Martin Vanquish.

02:24 This is a big car,

02:29 and you notice that quickly around the figure eight.

02:32 It's partly because your view is obstructed by the engine.

02:36 There's a lot of understeer mid-corner,

02:41 more than I would expect for a sports car

02:46 or even a Grand Touring car like this,

02:48 and the reward is exiting out of a corner

02:50 and just listening to that V12 sing.

02:53 It is glorious.

02:55 (engine revving)

02:58 (upbeat music)

03:15 (engine revving)

03:18 To be honest, I was not completely in love

03:23 with the Vanquish after our day at the test track.

03:26 I thought it was too heavy, too big,

03:29 too much understeer in the chassis,

03:31 and I didn't think the transmission was quite up to snuff.

03:34 The difference is though,

03:35 the track is all about limit handling.

03:37 Once you take it on the road,

03:39 it becomes a very different car.

03:45 This Vanquish is bigger than an SLS.

03:48 It's bigger than a Viper versus the Ferrari F12 Berlinetta.

03:51 That car is actually a little bit wider,

03:53 but this car is longer and taller,

03:55 and because of that,

03:56 because there's so much car around here,

03:58 it weighs 3,900 pounds,

04:01 despite being made primarily out of aluminum

04:03 and carbon fiber.

04:04 Despite all this, despite the size, the weight,

04:07 the small outward visibility,

04:09 this is a very good driving car.

04:13 Now I attribute that to a couple different things.

04:15 The first is the steering, which is very nice.

04:18 It's a hydraulically assisted rack,

04:20 and it gives great feel of the road through the wheel itself.

04:23 When it comes off center though,

04:25 it just gives you such good reaction from the front tires

04:28 that you barely have to do any work on the steering itself.

04:32 Very pleasant.

04:33 The ride is also helping as well.

04:37 It's firm, it's taunt,

04:39 but it gives you such good control,

04:41 especially when you go over bumps.

04:42 Yeah, you'll feel a little vibration in the steering itself,

04:46 but it's kind of invigorating

04:47 when you're cruising up this road.

04:50 Most importantly though, is this.

04:52 (engine revving)

04:55 The sound this thing makes is simply triumphant.

05:00 (engine revving)

05:03 And that brings us to the engine.

05:06 This is a 5.9 liter V12, not a six liter V12,

05:09 as Aston will tell you, and as it's badged,

05:11 because it displaces 5,935 CCs.

05:15 That engine though, sits lower in this chassis than before.

05:18 It sits close to the firewall,

05:21 and you get the sense that it's just sitting right here,

05:24 right here in front of the dash.

05:25 It's not a sports car.

05:28 You may look outside, you may see the orange paint,

05:30 the carbon fiber, and the racy wheels,

05:32 and tires, and whatnot, the way it sounds.

05:34 You may think, yeah, super car, sports car.

05:37 It's not though.

05:38 This thing is not gonna embarrass a 911.

05:42 In fact, this thing will be slightly slower,

05:46 I'd argue, than a DB9.

05:48 Now, if you're okay with that,

05:49 you can enjoy it at a slower pace, great.

05:52 This is the kind of car you'd figure somebody would drive,

05:54 they'd get out and they'd go, hmm, quiet.

05:56 You know, on their way to get some tea or something.

05:59 And I'm not that kind of person, but I really enjoy this.

06:05 Really enjoy that, yeah.

06:07 (engine revving)

06:09 Now, part of the new interior is this center stack,

06:12 which has been redesigned.

06:14 We have these buttons, they aren't really buttons,

06:18 they're just sort of flat glass

06:19 that you poke with your finger.

06:21 They vibrate when you get it right,

06:22 and turn on like the seat heaters, for example,

06:24 or the HVAC system.

06:26 They work okay.

06:27 Typically, you have to jab the button a few times

06:29 before it will respond.

06:30 I kind of wish we just had buttons.

06:34 (engine revving)

06:36 Did you know that cow farts

06:42 are really bad for the atmosphere?

06:43 In fact, some argue that cows are worse than cars.

06:47 I bring that up because of the Vanquish's interior,

06:50 which is just covered in leather.

06:52 See, on the roof even.

06:54 And when you look at this interior,

06:55 and you see the leather on all the surfaces,

06:56 on the doors, on the roof, on the center armrest here,

06:59 you have to think about how many cows died

07:02 to make this interior.

07:03 This car is a cow-killing machine,

07:06 making it really environmentally friendly,

07:09 when you think about it.

07:10 The most rewarding moments with the Vanquish

07:13 aren't the ones when you're throwing it through an apex

07:15 with the tires spinning, and with sweat on your brow,

07:19 but when you're driving smoothly,

07:20 reveling in the sound it makes,

07:22 and the sensation of guiding it through a road.

07:25 And when, after you've parked it,

07:26 you admire it from a distance.

07:28 Take the Vanquish for what it intends to be,

07:31 not what the carbon fiber neck beard and name hints at,

07:34 and you have an unmistakably special car.

07:36 (upbeat music)

07:38 (upbeat music)

07:41 (upbeat music)

07:44 (upbeat music)

07:46 (upbeat music)

07:50 (upbeat music)

07:52 (upbeat music)

07:55 (upbeat music)

2014 Aston Martin Vanquish: Supercar Looks with GT Moves! - Ignition Episode 53

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