On this episode of Ignition
Category
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MotorTranscript
00:00 (soft piano music)
00:02 The Aston Martin Vanquish falls into that rarefied group
00:08 of cars you might own simply to have in the house on display.
00:12 You'd frame it with worn tires and bottles of wine.
00:14 There'd be a plaque bearing its name.
00:17 That'd be unfortunate, though, to cage such a thing,
00:19 because the Vanquish was built with lessons learned
00:22 from the Aston Martin 177, which costs over a million dollars
00:26 and only 77 are in existence.
00:28 The Vanquish's body is made of carbon fiber.
00:31 The chassis uses both aluminum and carbon fiber,
00:33 and the 565-horse V12 sits mostly behind the front axle,
00:38 nestled up and close and cozy to the firewall.
00:41 As the replacement for the DBS,
00:43 the Vanquish is Aston Martin's new flagship,
00:46 but does it have the performance to back up that title?
00:49 (soft piano music)
00:51 (soft music)
00:56 (soft music)
00:59 The new Vanquish has launch control,
01:05 and it's very effective.
01:06 The first thing you want to do, though,
01:07 not because it makes you faster,
01:08 but because it makes the car sound so much nicer,
01:10 is hit this little S button right here.
01:13 It opens up the valves in the exhaust
01:14 and sounds very nice indeed.
01:16 Launch control is very simple.
01:18 You hit the launch control button.
01:19 It prompts you to press the brake as hard as you can,
01:21 and once you do that, you just map the gas.
01:25 And away we go.
01:26 Little bit of wheel spin.
01:30 You might need to steer a little bit.
01:32 You'll get 60 miles an hour in four seconds,
01:36 and probably the nicest V12 engine note there is.
01:39 It's very smooth above 100 miles an hour.
01:45 Quarter mile, 12.3 seconds at just over 116 miles an hour.
01:51 (engine revving)
01:54 And for our 60 to zero braking test,
02:02 we have very sticky Pirelli P Zero tires
02:05 and big carbon ceramic discs at all four corners.
02:08 Our best stop from 60,
02:10 just 104 feet.
02:20 Now we begin the figure eight test
02:22 of the Aston Martin Vanquish.
02:24 This is a big car,
02:29 and you notice that quickly around the figure eight.
02:32 It's partly because your view is obstructed by the engine.
02:36 There's a lot of understeer mid-corner,
02:41 more than I would expect for a sports car
02:46 or even a Grand Touring car like this,
02:48 and the reward is exiting out of a corner
02:50 and just listening to that V12 sing.
02:53 It is glorious.
02:55 (engine revving)
02:58 (upbeat music)
03:15 (engine revving)
03:18 To be honest, I was not completely in love
03:23 with the Vanquish after our day at the test track.
03:26 I thought it was too heavy, too big,
03:29 too much understeer in the chassis,
03:31 and I didn't think the transmission was quite up to snuff.
03:34 The difference is though,
03:35 the track is all about limit handling.
03:37 Once you take it on the road,
03:39 it becomes a very different car.
03:45 This Vanquish is bigger than an SLS.
03:48 It's bigger than a Viper versus the Ferrari F12 Berlinetta.
03:51 That car is actually a little bit wider,
03:53 but this car is longer and taller,
03:55 and because of that,
03:56 because there's so much car around here,
03:58 it weighs 3,900 pounds,
04:01 despite being made primarily out of aluminum
04:03 and carbon fiber.
04:04 Despite all this, despite the size, the weight,
04:07 the small outward visibility,
04:09 this is a very good driving car.
04:13 Now I attribute that to a couple different things.
04:15 The first is the steering, which is very nice.
04:18 It's a hydraulically assisted rack,
04:20 and it gives great feel of the road through the wheel itself.
04:23 When it comes off center though,
04:25 it just gives you such good reaction from the front tires
04:28 that you barely have to do any work on the steering itself.
04:32 Very pleasant.
04:33 The ride is also helping as well.
04:37 It's firm, it's taunt,
04:39 but it gives you such good control,
04:41 especially when you go over bumps.
04:42 Yeah, you'll feel a little vibration in the steering itself,
04:46 but it's kind of invigorating
04:47 when you're cruising up this road.
04:50 Most importantly though, is this.
04:52 (engine revving)
04:55 The sound this thing makes is simply triumphant.
05:00 (engine revving)
05:03 And that brings us to the engine.
05:06 This is a 5.9 liter V12, not a six liter V12,
05:09 as Aston will tell you, and as it's badged,
05:11 because it displaces 5,935 CCs.
05:15 That engine though, sits lower in this chassis than before.
05:18 It sits close to the firewall,
05:21 and you get the sense that it's just sitting right here,
05:24 right here in front of the dash.
05:25 It's not a sports car.
05:28 You may look outside, you may see the orange paint,
05:30 the carbon fiber, and the racy wheels,
05:32 and tires, and whatnot, the way it sounds.
05:34 You may think, yeah, super car, sports car.
05:37 It's not though.
05:38 This thing is not gonna embarrass a 911.
05:42 In fact, this thing will be slightly slower,
05:46 I'd argue, than a DB9.
05:48 Now, if you're okay with that,
05:49 you can enjoy it at a slower pace, great.
05:52 This is the kind of car you'd figure somebody would drive,
05:54 they'd get out and they'd go, hmm, quiet.
05:56 You know, on their way to get some tea or something.
05:59 And I'm not that kind of person, but I really enjoy this.
06:05 Really enjoy that, yeah.
06:07 (engine revving)
06:09 Now, part of the new interior is this center stack,
06:12 which has been redesigned.
06:14 We have these buttons, they aren't really buttons,
06:18 they're just sort of flat glass
06:19 that you poke with your finger.
06:21 They vibrate when you get it right,
06:22 and turn on like the seat heaters, for example,
06:24 or the HVAC system.
06:26 They work okay.
06:27 Typically, you have to jab the button a few times
06:29 before it will respond.
06:30 I kind of wish we just had buttons.
06:34 (engine revving)
06:36 Did you know that cow farts
06:42 are really bad for the atmosphere?
06:43 In fact, some argue that cows are worse than cars.
06:47 I bring that up because of the Vanquish's interior,
06:50 which is just covered in leather.
06:52 See, on the roof even.
06:54 And when you look at this interior,
06:55 and you see the leather on all the surfaces,
06:56 on the doors, on the roof, on the center armrest here,
06:59 you have to think about how many cows died
07:02 to make this interior.
07:03 This car is a cow-killing machine,
07:06 making it really environmentally friendly,
07:09 when you think about it.
07:10 The most rewarding moments with the Vanquish
07:13 aren't the ones when you're throwing it through an apex
07:15 with the tires spinning, and with sweat on your brow,
07:19 but when you're driving smoothly,
07:20 reveling in the sound it makes,
07:22 and the sensation of guiding it through a road.
07:25 And when, after you've parked it,
07:26 you admire it from a distance.
07:28 Take the Vanquish for what it intends to be,
07:31 not what the carbon fiber neck beard and name hints at,
07:34 and you have an unmistakably special car.
07:36 (upbeat music)
07:38 (upbeat music)
07:41 (upbeat music)
07:44 (upbeat music)
07:46 (upbeat music)
07:50 (upbeat music)
07:52 (upbeat music)
07:55 (upbeat music)