If there's one thing I shall always remember about the Vantage Roadster it will be the noise. As the revs climbed through 5000 and beyond, the cabin was filled with a banshee wail that eclipsed all other sensations.
In the end, I had to tell her to shut up as I wanted to listen to the exhaust note. But that's the thing about the Vantage - it's so exhilarating that even the most undemonstrative passenger is likely to let slip a little whoop of pleasure. Even our local vicar hummed a little ditty: "Te-dum, te-dum, te-dum....." Or was it Te Deum - O Lord, in Thee I trust?
There's no need to go that far, vicar. Despite its prodigious performance, and the F1 howl, you'll struggle to find a safer set of wheels. And that's what most people forget: the engineering excellence that underpins the power and the glory, and which makes the Vantage at speed safer than many family cars at a quarter of the pace.
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the heart of the Aston's endemic safety is its rigid body shell |
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Take the brakes, for instance. The front and rear discs are larger than some entire car wheels and generate the stopping power of an aircraft-carrier arrester-wire, or so it seems. Of course the discs are ventilated, but instead of being drilled they are grooved, as the latter works better than drilling, and unlike holes, grooves don't fill with brake dust.
But the heart of the Aston's endemic safety is its rigid body shell, reinforced in the case of the Roadster with stout torsion bars that compensate for the absence of a roof. And an ultra-stiff body does more than provide a rigid platform that optimises suspension performance: it also serves as a tactile interface between the driver and the road. In consequence, the Vantage is blessed with that elusive 'feel' that is so essential to safe, high-speed driving. To experience every nuance of the road surface is the Holy Grail of performance driving: without it, the future always is uncertain; with it, the car can be finessed at speed through the most tortuous bends.
Balance is also crucial. Consider the phrase used by Aston Martin in its description of the vehicle dynamics: 'low polar moment of inertia'. In plain English it means 'keeping the weight evenly distributed, between the axles, and as low as possible'. With a low polar moment of inertia, the car remains stable under high cornering forces, and in the case of the Vantage Roadster this state of grace is a product of careful powertrain design.
For example, the engine has a so-called 'dry sump', which reduces the height of the engine and enables it to be positioned lower in the chassis. (As a collateral benefit, dry-sump lubrication prevents oil-starvation during fast cornering or rapid acceleration.) As well as sitting low, the Aston's V8 engine is also positioned as close to the bulkhead as possible - well behind the front axle. To improve forward-aft balance, the gearbox is behind the driver, connected to the engine via an aluminium torque tube.
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