2025 Aston Martin Vanquish First Drive Review: V12 Super Tourer Extraordinaire

The 2025 Aston Martin Vanquish does many, if not all, things brilliantly. But what you guys probably care about most is what’s under the hood. Check out what year it is, because Aston has fitted its new flagship GT with a thoroughly reworked 5.2-litre twin-turbo V12 – no hybrid engines, no all-wheel drive, no rear seats, 824bhp.

The existence of this hand-assembled car as a 2025 model year car is an achievement in itself, and Aston even says the V12 will stick around “until at least the end of the decade.” Remember when we all thought electric cars would be mainstream by 2030 because the governments all said they would? It’s incredible what you can achieve when you’re a boutique car manufacturer that really only answers to one billionaire Netflix villain with a seemingly unlimited budget and a desire to be fast. Really fast.

The basics

In fact, the Vanquish is a larger DB12, both figuratively and literally: it’s 80mm longer between the front axle and the A-pillars to accommodate those extra cylinders. Style-wise, it’s a stunner.

A larger grille, One-77 style headlights, F1-inspired hood louvers, 21-inch forged bronze wheels that excite my inner BBS fanboy, and tasteful use of carbon fiber make the Vanquish one of the best looking cars. being made today. By the way, that carbon panel at the rear of the Cyclops can be finished in body color for a more traditional look, while small protruding bars form the taillights, a bit like you had on the Vulcan.

The outside of the doors and the sides of the body are made of carbon fiber to reduce weight, but my favorite part of carbon may be the side planks behind the front wheels that read ‘Aston Martin V12’ with ‘V12’ in red to let you know it means business. Those are just cool, there’s no other way to say it.

Inside it may look a lot like the DB12’s cabin, and the main controls are indeed shared, but Vanquish feels a step more special thanks to additional carbon frames beneath the touchscreen and either side of the instruments. Knurled alloys, brown leather, designer cheese grater speaker grilles and understated use of chrome look, feel and smell expensive. Just like any other current Aston, the Vanquish is also a car that is easy to drive. A well-developed in-house infotainment system has wireless Apple CarPlay and is accompanied by many hard buttons and scroll wheels spread over both the center console and the steering wheel. Fifteen speakers from Bowers & Wilkins sound and look great, just in case you ever get tired of listening to what lurks under the carbon hood.

The seats are supportively soft, the driving position feels correct and the steering wheel feels satisfyingly meaty to hold. The standard full glass roof is always transparent, but has a 6% tint and an anti-UV coating to prevent the cabin from becoming an oven.

As a whole, all the parts of the Vanquish together form a car that feels quite luxurious and special. But as befits Aston Martin, that splendor and quality does not feel like overkill or gauche, avoiding the pitfall of overdesign. Quite a few $430,000 supercars are designed to be obnoxious and the Vanquish isn’t one of them.

Driving experience

Until maybe you light it. A fire-breathing 5.2-litre twin-turbo V12 may have also powered the outgoing DBS Superleggera, but Aston says it’s practically ‘all new’ in this Vanquish as the bore, stroke and V-angle are apparently the only carryovers. elements.

A stronger cylinder block ensures that the engine breathes better than before. The connecting rods are also new and fitted with re-profiled camshafts. A new intake and exhaust ports join a revised water jacket in the cylinder head. The spark plugs have been relocated and higher flow fuel injectors have been fitted. Smaller, low-inertia turbos spin faster for better performance and throttle response, while a new exhaust manifold improves catalytic converter heating. A new Boost Reserve feature accumulates boost pressure in the background at part throttle and is only released when the accelerator pedal hits the floor.

And unlike the Lamborghini Revuelto, there’s no hybrid system to speak of, not even a 48-volt mild unit. For the same reason it’s not as pure as the naturally aspirated Ferrari 12Cilindri, but I challenge you to drive the Vanquish angrily and get away with complaining about the forced induction.

Released onto a long, empty stretch of Sardinian highway, the Vanquish is, and there are few other words for it, lightning fast. Zero to 100 km/h in 3.2 may not sound so special in 2024; the Nissan GT-R did the same thing in 2007 and I don’t recommend putting any serious electric cars between the lights. But acceleration off the ground isn’t where this thing excels. It’s all about acceleration in gear.

It’s about how fast it goes from, for example, 50 to 130 km/h. It’s what happens after 100 miles per hour. After 120. And, dare I admit it, how quickly 150 came, and how much more it undoubtedly had to offer. Unfortunately, given enough space and courage, the Vanquish will reach speeds of 210 miles per hour, making it the fastest and most powerful “series production” Aston Martin road car ever.

Step on the accelerator while you’re already moving and the Vanquish is manic. Twelve cylinders, two turbos and more than 800 horses fill your ears with lead, making them blast with heart rate-altering, driver’s license-destroying forward thrust. It is a haunting, remarkable, outrageous, miraculous speed. Somehow it doesn’t feel right dangerous although. Aston has tuned the V12 to distribute its torque in a way that will excite the billionaires who buy it, but won’t stop them from killing them. It needs them and they are alive enough to finally buy the next V12 Aston Martin.

Standard carbon-ceramic brakes are nearly 60 pounds lighter than cast iron and provide stopping distances comparable to the Vantage. A new Corner Braking 2.0 system predictively maintains stability during trail braking by using more rear brakes, allowing for later braking. Track speed braking distances and on-track braking behavior require, you know, a track to really evaluate, but for this first test we didn’t have access to one. But what I can tell you from driving the Vanquish on the road is that the brakes do indeed work, and work quite well.

A rear-mounted ZF eight-speed automatic transmission also does well when in automatic mode: Sport mode is ideal for keeping the engine on the boil during spirited road trips, but doesn’t shift gears ultra-quickly when you use the paddle shifters . An electronic limited-slip rear differential introduces itself here for the first time in a V12 Aston Martin and helps the Vanquish drive around corners like a much smaller sports car, which amazingly it does.

It’s agile and almost frisky on the hairpin bends and feels wonderfully stable when taking fast, tight turns. The steering feels perfect in weight, ratio and feedback for a car that serves as both a comfortable tourer and a canyon carver, while the chassis feels light yet unwaveringly robust. Custom Pirellis have a firm grip while providing a fair amount of sidewall rock for a better ride.

Speaking of which, calm down the Vanquish and it’s a pretty good cruiser too. Bilstein DTX dampers, also seen on the Vantage and DB12 (Aston certainly got a bulk discount on these), are tuned here for comfort and are indeed quite comfortable. It’s not as opulent as, say, a W12 Bentley (RIP), but that car can’t drive as fast as this either.

The Early Judgment

Perhaps this is a foregone conclusion given its price and placement in the Aston Martin hierarchy, but of Gaydon’s three current front-engine sports cars, the Vanquish is definitely my favorite. In my opinion, this is the only one that really delivers on the company’s promise of a ‘super tourer’.

Extremely well-rounded and well balanced between comfort and sport, it’s somehow smoother and more usable to me than the DB12, while still evoking the spirit of the Vantage in being thrillingly and entertainingly agile on a back road. As an item it also feels, looks and sounds a lot more desirable and special than its stablemates.

As a Normal, however, the Aston Martin Vanquish is also a car that makes me a little sad. Because it doesn’t just start at $429,000, Aston only makes a maximum of 1,000 units per year, two-thirds of the number of DBS Superleggeras made. So for the vast majority of people, the Vanquish is one of those cars that lives purely as an idea.

But if that idea happens to be a two-seat, non-electrified V12 Aston Martin that looks, drives and thrills this well, we’ll use all the ideas we can get.

Do you have a tip or question for the author about the Vanquish? You can reach him here: chris.tsui@thedrive.com