The Aston Martin Vanquish Volante Is A 214mph V12 Hairdryer

The number of front-engined, V12-powered convertible mega GTs on the market has just gone up by 100 per cent. This dramatic increase from one to two comes because the Ferrari 12Cilindri Spider now has a sparring partner: meet the new Aston Martin Vanquish Volante.

Mechanically speaking, it’s all very familiar from the Vanquish coupe. You get Aston’s thoroughly reworked 5.2-litre twin-turbo V12, feeding 824bhp and 738lb ft to the rear wheels by way of an eight-speed automatic and a rear e-differential. Despite weighing 95kg more than the coupe and presumably being less aero-friendly, the Volante’s top speed is exactly the same as its hardtop sibling: 214mph. It doesn’t lose out much in the 0-62mph stakes either, the figure dropping from 3.3 seconds for the coupe to 3.4 for the Volante.

It gets all the same chassis trickery as the coupe, too. The incredible adaptive Bilstein dampers that underpin all of Aston’s current sports cars are back, and get a Volante-specific setup to account for the extra weight. There are standard carbon ceramic brakes, and a new Pirelli P Zero compound developed just for the Vanquish. The bonded aluminium chassis means the Vanquish Volante is a mighty 75 per cent stiffer than the old DBS Volante that it replaces.

Happily, Aston hasn’t fiddled with the spectacular looks of the coupe, either. It gets the same enormous front grille, with 13 per cent more surface area than the DBS for extra cooling, and that kamm-tail rear end. Aston’s vastly improved new interior architecture is un-messed-about-with too.

In fact, really, the big difference is that you can throw back the roof on this one. Unlike on the Ferrari, and in keeping with every other convertible Aston, it’s a fabric soft-top, with the same ‘K-fold’ stowing process seen on the new Vantage Roadster. It can be dropped in 14 seconds when the weather turns nice and raised in 16 seconds when it gets nasty again, both at up to 31mph, and neatly stashes under a tonneau when it’s retracted so the Vanquish’s lovely lines aren’t spoiled by unsightly bulges.

All this, says Aston, means occupants will be even more exposed to all the good V12 noises made by the Vanquish, which get even better with the optional titanium exhaust system that also shaves 10.5kg off the overall weight.

Aston’s new CEO, Adrian Hallmark, said: “For 60 years, Aston Martin Volantes have defined the art of elegant, sporting open-top motoring. With its stunning looks and outstanding V12 engine producing more power than any other front-engined production car on sale, Vanquish Volante has taken this philosophy to an entirely new level.”

If you’re reading all this thinking it sounds lovely, well… yeah, so are we. It ain’t gonna come cheap, though. Aston hasn’t divulged pricing, but the Vanquish coupe starts at somewhere around £330,000 before you start to get eager with the options, and you can be damn sure the privilege of being able to drop the roof will add a few more tens of thousands of pounds to that figure. Orders are open now, and the first deliveries will arrive just in time to catch the last days of summer in Q3 this year.