2015 Aston Martin V12 Vantage S: The Biggest V-12 In The Smallest Aston! - Ignition Ep. 95 - video Dailymotion

MotorTrend

On this episode of Ignition

Transcript

00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:05 You have to love the idea of a car like this Vantage.

00:09 It's when an automaker shoehorns the biggest engine it has,

00:11 in this case a 5.9 liter V12, into the smallest

00:15 chassis in the lineup.

00:16 The result here is the V12 Vantage S,

00:19 a beautiful sports car that's somewhere

00:20 between the size of a BRZ and a Mustang,

00:23 but with 566 horsepower, carbon ceramic brakes,

00:27 and three stage adjustable dampers.

00:30 [ENGINE REVVING]

00:35 Aston Martin says it's second only to the 750 horsepower

00:38 177 in 0 to 60 acceleration and top speed,

00:43 at claimed 205 miles an hour.

00:45 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:48 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:52 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:55 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:59 [MUSIC PLAYING]

01:02 [TIRES SCREECHING]

01:04 Aston claims 0 to 60 should take 3.7 seconds,

01:08 but the Vantage fell short in our testing.

01:11 Its single clutch automated manual

01:13 wouldn't engage aggressively enough,

01:15 no matter what combination of settings we tried.

01:18 The result was always slow engagement,

01:20 followed by tire spin.

01:22 At 4.1 seconds to 60 and 12.3 seconds to the quarter mile,

01:26 it essentially ties the last vanquish we tested.

01:29 [MUSIC PLAYING]

01:31 While acceleration fell short of expectations,

01:34 the Vantage put down a respectable 23.9 second figure

01:37 eight lap time and generated an average 1.01 G,

01:41 tying it with the 911 Carrera 4S and the SLS AMG.

01:44 [MUSIC PLAYING]

01:48 [MUSIC PLAYING]

01:51 [MUSIC PLAYING]

01:55 [ENGINE REVVING]

01:58 [ENGINE REVVING]

02:02 [ENGINE REVVING]

02:05 [ENGINE REVVING]

02:09 I'll start by saying this is an absolutely terrific car,

02:13 but that's kind of what you expect

02:15 when you shoehorn a V12 of this size into a car of this size.

02:19 This is a surprisingly small car with a whole hell

02:23 of a lot of engine.

02:24 It's absolutely wonderful because of it.

02:27 [ENGINE REVVING]

02:29 [ENGINE REVVING]

02:33 We have more power than the outgoing V12 Vantage.

02:36 We're up to, what, 575, 560 around there,

02:39 and a whole lot of torque, too.

02:41 [ENGINE REVVING]

02:45 And the nice thing is that power comes in high in the RPM range.

02:48 You really feel this engine pull harder as you rev it higher.

02:51 It has a really linear power band.

02:54 It also sounds absolutely terrific.

02:56 [ENGINE REVVING]

03:00 [ENGINE REVVING]

03:02 When you really get in the meat of the power band,

03:04 the sound gets lighter and sweeter,

03:06 and it's pretty much the V12 noise you want to hear.

03:09 [ENGINE REVVING]

03:12 The downside is, of course, it's connected to a single-clutch

03:15 automated manual.

03:17 And it's basically a manual with an automated clutch.

03:21 And it manages to combine all the downsides of a manual

03:24 with none of the upsides that we can find.

03:27 When you're driving through city streets,

03:29 when you're commuting, driving around town,

03:32 the upshifts are pretty bad.

03:35 There's an interruption of torque

03:36 that's quite frustrating.

03:39 And all the head shake is pretty annoying.

03:42 Once you get into the higher gears, though,

03:43 once you get on a mountain road, once you start going fast,

03:46 it becomes less of an issue.

03:47 Once you learn how to drive one of these transmissions,

03:50 when you learn to lift off the throttle slightly

03:53 before you shift like you would a manual transmission,

03:58 it starts working better.

04:01 And when you're driving fast, when you're driving flat out,

04:04 I begin to like it a little bit.

04:06 I like the simplicity of it.

04:08 I like how when you grab an upshift,

04:11 there's this massive shake in the car.

04:14 And you're in the next gear cleanly, smoothly.

04:17 [ENGINE REVVING]

04:20 OK, maybe not smoothly.

04:21 But you know you're in the next gear when you arrive into it.

04:25 The transmission is the downside of this car.

04:27 But the rest is absolutely fantastic.

04:30 OK, and being an Aston Martin, it

04:32 has a very beautifully tailored interior.

04:35 We have contrast stitching that matches the exterior paint.

04:39 Everything's in a nice microfiber suede-like material.

04:42 There's carbon fiber this and that.

04:43 Touching the roof is always a nice thing to do.

04:45 [ENGINE REVVING]

04:47 And of course, being an Aston Martin,

04:49 the infotainment stuff is always a little disappointing.

04:51 But hey, that's par for the course for this company.

04:57 One more downside we have to mention, there is no red line.

05:00 For the life of me, why is there no red line in this car?

05:03 You know when you need to shift because you're

05:05 banging off the limiter.

05:08 Oh, yeah, that's fun.

05:09 But why isn't there any sort of indicator

05:11 on the tach that tells you when you're going to do that?

05:14 The gear indicator changes to red.

05:17 But by the time you see that, it's too late.

05:19 And if you're driving really fast,

05:21 you don't have the time to look down and keep your eyes on it.

05:26 This really taps into all the senses aside from smell.

05:30 Well, smelling is one of the tires.

05:32 But all the senses feel this car move around.

05:35 I love the way this car loads up into corners and out of corners,

05:38 the way it feels when you're getting on the power.

05:42 It feels like it might oversteer, but it doesn't.

05:45 It doesn't.

05:45 It stays loaded.

05:47 And it gives you a slight bit of rotation, which feels right

05:51 when you're driving out of a corner.

05:54 This car makes you laugh.

05:55 This car just makes you feel real good.

05:58 [ENGINE REVVING]

06:01 [ENGINE REVVING]

06:04 [MUSIC PLAYING]

06:16 Despite its serious shortcomings,

06:27 the V12 Vantage S remains an exhilarating car on the road.

06:32 And that illustrates its strength.

06:34 Perhaps it's the exterior styling,

06:36 or the interior appointments, or the theater

06:38 of the entire experience, or a combination

06:40 of all these things.

06:41 But somehow, you manage to ignore the clumsy transmission

06:47 and disappoint in the test track performance

06:49 when you're behind the wheel, savoring the power band

06:52 and the sound that accompanies it.

06:53 [MUSIC PLAYING]

06:57 [MUSIC PLAYING]

07:01 [MUSIC PLAYING]

07:05 [MUSIC PLAYING]

07:08 [MUSIC PLAYING]

07:22 [MUSIC PLAYING]

07:26 [MUSIC PLAYING]

07:30 [MUSIC PLAYING]

07:34 (upbeat music)

2015 Aston Martin V12 Vantage S: The Biggest V-12 In The Smallest Aston! - Ignition Ep. 95

Category

Transcript

Recommended