The new Vantage Roadster makes 656 horsepower for open-air driving.
Aston Martin‘s Vantage just got a little more fun. After the marque unveiled its new Vantage road car last year, it got its share of accolades: The coupe quickly became one of F1’s safety cars, and first drives applauded its combination of grunt, agility, and good looks. But one thing was missing: an open-top version. Now, Aston Martin has remedied that by unveiling the Vantage Roadster.
The new editon has similar specs to the coupe version: There’s the twin-turbo V-8 making 656 hp, and a suspension upgrade featuring Bilstein adaptive dampers and electronic rear differential. For the coupe, that meant a “sharper, more focused car than the outgoing Vantage, yet at the same time it feels more refined, with a better ride at low speeds,” according to our reviewer. Which is to say: better.
For the roadster version, Aston has kept all of that while making some tweaks, “modified to account for rearward shift in weight distribution,” though Aston calls the design lightweight, with an emphasis on performance.
More practically speaking, Aston says that the Vantage Roadster has the “fastest electric folding convertible roof on sale today,” or a roof capable of opening and closing in 6.8 seconds and at speeds of up to 31 mph, for those times when drivers are out on a cruise and the rain hits and stopping won’t do. Perhaps more impressively, Aston says that, when the roof is closed, noise inside the cabin is comparable to that of the Vantage’s coupe sibling. So, the fun shouldn’t come at the expense of your tranquility.
Aston places the new Vantage Roadster within its own tradition of British roadsters, dating back 75 years to the DB2. Back then power topped out at unbelievable 125 hp. Nowadays, Aston Martin says the new Vantage Roadster is the most powerful open-air, front-engine, rear-wheel drive sports car on the market.
“Vantage Roadster was no different feat in that it is a fully reinvented experience, with all the benefits of the Coupe and no compromise to refinement or performance through meticulous work by our engineering and dynamics teams,” Aston Martin’s still-new CEO Adrian Hallmark said in a statement. “Vantage Roadster delivers a world-class roof-down driving experience like no other.”
Deliveries will begin sometime between April and June, Aston says. Pricing will start at around €197,000.
