Aston Martin Unveils A V12 Vantage Roadster
It looks like the British marque wasn’t done with the V12 Vantage after all.
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Aston Martin showed off an open-top variant of the powerful speed machine at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance last week. The convertible’s debut comes just five months after the brand unveiled the V12 Vantage Coupe—which was supposed to be the final iteration of the vehicle.
It’s easy to see why Aston Martin wasn’t finished saying goodbye, though. The V12 Vantage Roadster is a beauty. The two versions of the vehicle are basically identical, except you can take down the top of the new model when you feel like letting the wind run through your hair. The only other change is the rear wing, which no longer comes standard but is available as an option. Everything else—from the front fascia to the carbon-fibre body panels to the deck lid—is the same.
Another aspect that hasn’t changed is the powerplant. As the name makes clear, the V12 Vantage Roadster is powered by the automaker’s brawny V-12. It’s mated to an eight-speed automatic gearbox that sends power to the rear axle, just like on the coupe. Despite the cosmetic differences between the two V12 Vantages, the mill still pumps out the same 514kW and 752Nm of twist, easily making the car the most powerful Vantage Roadster of all time. The hardtop version is a hair faster to 97km/h (3.4 seconds to 3.5 seconds), but both cars top out at 320km/h.
The V12 Vantage Roadster is the second of two vehicles that Aston Martin said it would unveil at Monterey Car Week. It’s not “ultra-exclusive” like the Le Mans-inspired DBR22, but it won’t exactly be easy to come by either. The convertible will be limited 249 examples, making it even more exclusive than the coupe, which had a production run of 333. No price was announced, and unfortunately, every single Roadster is already spoken for. Luckily, Aston Martins have been known to go up for auction from time to time.
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