2024 Aston Martin Vantage review: a driver’s best friend

If ever there were a car that failed to make good on its potential, it was the previous Aston Martin Vantage. Shown in 2017 and on sale a year later, as a formula it would seem hard to mess up: a front-engine, rear-drive two-seater powered by a twin turbo 4-litre V8 motor – on paper it seemed exactly what any Aston Martin fan might hope for.

But it came from an era when Aston could only get base spec, off-the-peg motors from its AMG partner which limited its output to a decidedly lazy 503bhp, while a daft idea to style it without a grille leant it a certain piscine appearance. I actually quite liked it when launched, but it was only when the F1 Edition appeared in 2021 that people like me started writing things like “it’s the car it should have been from the start”.

Actually we were all wrong. This is that car. It still has the same basic layout and powertrain as seven years ago, but that old 4-litre lump now produces a rather more meaningful 656bhp, the greatest rise in power from one generation to the next of any Aston Martin. But that’s the start: restyled from front to back, the car is now not only attractive, but oozing with presence. You might even call it menacing. Its suspension has been completely revised, its track expanded, even its shell substantially stiffened. Inside the facia first seen on the DB12 replaces the woeful old infotainment system that wasn’t that great in a C-Class Mercedes a dozen years ago.

Really, it’s hard to believe that, at its core, this is merely a massively facelifted version of the old Vantage. But it’s a far greater transformation than that wrought upon, say, the Porsche 911 between its 991 and 992 iterations.

So I did what all right-thinking hacks should do when presented with such a property: I set an alarm for inconveniently early on a Sunday morning, went up into the hills and drove the wheels off the thing.

I usually like to keep the reader guessing for a little, or at least write in such a way that suggests the story may be about to be turned on its head, but there’s little point here: the new Vantage is a superb Aston Martin. Quite brilliant in fact. And there’s a very salient point here: up at this level you’re looking for more, a lot more, than simply a car that goes very fast because such are the limitations of the public road there are hatchbacks costing a third of the price that could keep up with it.

I require a car like this to know what it should be, and then to be that thing. In the case of a two-seat Aston Martin, that doesn’t include being the fastest car in a straight line or around a corner. It is about indulging your senses, in the way it looks, sounds and feels. Of these, and though it might not seem so at first, it is the last consideration that matters most. And Aston Martin should have some heft, which is not to say it ought to be needlessly heavy. But it should be a car you drive with your arms, not just your wrists. It should be utterly predictable too, always acting in precisely the way expected. Some cars I want to put up a bit of a fight, so I when I get to the end of the road I feel I had some role in the successful conclusion of matters. A Ferrari that really challenges its driver can be a very fine thing. But not an Aston Martin.

An Aston Martin needs to be your mate – not your willing supplicant, but your partner in crime. It’s why you dragged yourself out of bed so early this morning, to make sure no one was around to see what you’re up to. It should talk to you, not just through the sound of its engine but the feel of its chassis, encouraging you to make the absolute most of the occasion you have provided for yourself.

Which is exactly what it does. It is both encouraging and reassuring, the powertrain seemingly capable of hurling you through entire postal districts at one bound, while the chassis lets you know it can cope with every lump, bump, crest, dip, surface and camber change that may strew your path.

There’s really not much at all in the negative column: the new infotainment system is not quite as wonderful to operate as it is to behold, but still not bad. The ride is firm, but well damped and entirely in keeping with the character of the car. There’s no manual option of course, and only a standard auto transmission, but it’s absolutely the next best thing to the double clutch arrangement the car would ideally have, and of course it all comes with the most ferocious thirst for fuel, even if you’re not driving it like it begs to be driven.

But it’s still the best two-seat Aston production I’ve driven since at least the original V12 Vantage of 15 years back. After the impressive DB12 and updated DBS707, Aston has today its finest model line up in over 60 years, and with the Vanquish still to come. Let’s hope that, for once, this momentum can be maintained.

Aston Martin Vantage

• Price £165,000
• Engine 4 litres, eight cylinders, petrol, turbocharged
• Power 656bhp at 6000rpm
• Torque 590lb ft at 2750rpm
• Weight 1720kg (DIN, estimated)
• Power to weight 375bhp per tonne
• Transmission Eight-speed automatic, rear-wheel drive
• 0-62mph 3.5sec
•  Top speed 202mph
• Economy 23.3mpg
• CO2 274g/km
• Verdict Congratulations, Mr Stroll.