Aston Martin V12 Vantage S: Aston sharpens the shoehorn

One-77 apart, the latest version of Aston’s already mightily quick V12 Vantage is billed as “the fastest road-going Aston Martin yet offered”. It packs a new 6.0-litre ‘AM28’ V12 and – for the first time in a regular-series V12 Aston – a seven-speed automated manual transmission.

This is going to be one very quick, very special car. The outgoing model was fast in anyone’s book – a mad creation made by shoehorning the DBS’s V12 into the smaller package that is the V8 Vantage.Having driven many miles at the wheel of various V12 Vantages, I can vouch for their outright pace and somewhat over-the-top behaviour in anything less than perfect driving conditions. Spinning the wheels at 100mph in fourth gear still lives in the memory.With the new car, which will be the sole V12 Vantage in its range, Aston has not only added 50 or so bhp, but by marrying the latest engine to a semi-automated gearbox it has solved a major problem with all manual Gaydon Astons: that of the gear lever being too far back for comfortable changes.

Also, manual gearshifts, in extremis, were never that quick. So, now the big metal knob is no more, let’s say a welcome “hello” to two carbonfibre paddles mounted behind the steering wheel. The new set-up, with seven gears now (first seen on the V8 Vantage S, but radically revised for the V12 S), is also 25kg lighter than the outgoing six-speed manual.Other new features on the 205mph coupé include faster steering, a new exhaust system derived from that seen on the One-77, and three-stage adaptive damping.

Carbonfibre abounds, with the black material replacing aluminium for the bars of the grille – a feature seen on the recent CC100 concept. Bystanders will recognise a V12 Vantage S by its new 10-spoke wheels, various external graphics and a black-painted roof panel.And if you say this all looks a bit ‘shouty’, we say, “Why not?” With this car, the fastest road-going regular Aston Martin by some margin, the Gaydon company has much to raise its voice about. Not the least of which is the price, a reasonable-considering-the-performance £138,000 in the UK.

Related Links Aston Martins from all eras can be found in the Classic Driver Marketplace

Text: Classic Driver
Photos: Aston Martin

au quotidien ...........

KTM LC8 – Spirit of the seventies

Kevin from Spirit of the Seventies has owned quite a few KTM’s in his time including a 950 SMR, 990 SM and a 990 SDR so he knows a thing or to about KTM’s. I was chatting to him a few times over the last few weeks about a design he was working on for a client and he sent me a few Renders to share. I thought the round headlight looked a little too static so he tried one with a flat front mask which I think looks brilliant. Anyway, check em out below.

from DERESTRICTED

Max Biaggi on the Ducati Desmosedici - first photos from Mugello

from Twowheelsblog

As we highly expected, Max Biaggi’s test at the Mugello riding Ben Spies’ Pramac Ducati GP13 has sent his Italian fans and not only them, into fibrillation.

Even our Italian cousins at Motoblog.it are so involved that they sent Francesco, one of their bloggers to the circuit to take these first shots and they are also giving a live blow-by-blow account of what’s happening on track and are posting Biaggi’s completely unofficial lap times.

Biaggi’s first taste of the Desmosedici saw him out on the bike around 11:30am and his first laps were in the 1.50s, while his second run saw him lower the time to 1′49.7 - as a reference point, Andrea Iannone’s best lap during QP1 in last weekend’s Mugello GP was in 1′49.265.

After the lunch break the riders returned to track but around 3pm it started to rain on the Tuscan track which stopped all activity.

Andrea Iannone was able to briefly test the Ducati laboratory bike and improve his Italian GP lap times while Andrea Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden were supposed to carry out a comparison test between the GP13 and the lab bike.