Sports car manufacturer Aston Martin has unveiled the entirely predicable, but fabulous form of the all-new 2018 Aston Martin Vanquish S Volante – the convertible variant of the revamped Vanquish coupe that debuted in November at the 2016 Los Angeles auto show.
Beneath the bonnet is possibly the last application of the familiar, but massive front-mounted 48-valve 6.0-litre V12 – the same configuration we have seen on the DB9, the DBS and so on – that has been uprated to produce 444 kW (595 bhp/ 603 PS) at 7000 rpm for Europe while the rest of the world will get the 433 kW (580 bhp/ 588 PS) version of it. With so many horses going to the rear wheels, the Aston Martin Vanquish S Volante is claimed to sprint to a 100 km/h in a to-be-confirmed) brisk 3.5 seconds with a little help from the more refined 8-speed transmission; and hit a top speed of 201 mph (323 km/h). As for fuel economy, the new ragtop will deliver a respectable 21.6 mpg / 13.1 l/100 km while CO2 emissions are a high 302 g/km, especially for this day and age.
The beautiful shell of the Vanquish S Volante is made of a mix of extruded bonded aluminium and Carbon-fibre VH bodystructure and cast-magnesium door structures keeping weight low at 1739 kg, with a 50:50 weight distribution. The open-top supercar will ride on 10-spoke gloss 20-inch black alloy wheels as standard with 255 mm wide and 305 mm wide Pirelli P-Zero tyres wrapping them in the front and rear. Aston Martin is offering customers a choice 4 other wheel designs.
Suspension duties are handled by double wishbone set up upfront and back combined with a retuned Adaptive Damping System (ADS); while the act of braking is propagated by dark anodised brake calipers with ventilated Carbon Ceramic brake discs of a 398 mm diameter with 6-piston calipers upfront and 4-piston calipers clamping on 360 mm diameter rotors at the rear.
The Aston Martin Vanquish S Volante like the coupe will adorn a carbon-fibre splitter and rear diffuser; while more carbon-fibre can be added to the body in the form of the rear wing, mirrors, side strakes and exterior door release.
On the inside, luxury will be stated by quilted leather on the seats, satin finish and carbon-fibre dash accents, and “Vanquish S” embroidery on the headrests. Aston Martin will also offer the more exquisite Bridge of Weir Caithness leather. Entertainment, besides the symphony of the V12 will be proposed by the 1000-Watt Bang & Olufsen BeoSound13-speaker audio system controlled through the AMi III Infotainment system with all new satellite navigation.
The Aston Martin Vanquish S Volante is expected to reach GCC shores, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qatar by mid-2017.
