Throughout Aston Martin’s history, the British luxury brand has offered V12 power with a roofless engine. The vehicles you see here, however, represent something new. It’s a Vantage Roadster, but for the first time, you can get it with a boosted V12 engine. Having said that, say hello (big breath) 2023 Aston Martin V12 Vantage Roadster.
It’s a big name, but there’s great power to back it up. It uses the same 12-pot 5.2-liter twin-turbocharged engine from the hardtop V12 Vantage, and we’re happy to say that nothing was lost in the transition to a convertible. It still pumps out 690 horsepower (515 kW), handled by an eight-speed automatic transmission mounted at the rear of the car. It still sprints to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds, and as long as your hair is windproof, it will still hit a top speed of 200 mph.
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What did Aston Martin do differently to the V12 Vantage Roadster, apart from installing a convertible roof? The company didn’t come up with any details, except for a bespoke tone on the Roadster’s adaptive dampers. As the picture clearly shows, the drop-top also lacks the large rear wing that is used on solid roof models. However, if Roadster buyers so desire, wings are available as an option.
The rest comes as a standard-edition V12 Vantage, although there really isn’t a standard about such a vehicle. The front body panels are made of carbon fiber, as are the side sills. At the rear, the deck lid and rear fascia are made of a lightweight composite material. It shares the widebody position of the hard top, which is 1.6 inches wider than the V8-powered Vantage. The Roadster stops thanks to aggressive ceramic brakes with six-piston calipers up front, four-piston grippers at the rear. They sit behind 21-inch wheels wearing sticky Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires.
“We’ve worked very hard to ensure the V12 Vantage Roadster has the same potential and dynamism that characterizes the V12 Vantage Coupe while surpassing it in terms of the raw sensory excitement you only achieve by driving on the roof,” said Aston Martin Chief Technical Officer Orberto Fedeli. “With more power and torque than the previous Vantage Roadster, a wide-track chassis with precisely tuned suspension calibration, and up to ten times the downforce of the series-produced Vantage Roadster, this is an amazing machine built for our most enthusiastic customers.”
Unfortunately for the masses, there will only be 249 such subscribers. That’s all the Aston Martin Roadsters will build, but even if you have the funds to get one, you’re too late because each one has already been sold. For those selected buyers, production begins in the third quarter of 2022 with deliveries starting at the end of the year.
Interested in a higher horsepower debut? Look Chatting About Cars podcast that showcases the great power of Dodge, Porsche, and more.
