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With very few exceptions, I had not driven a right-hand drive car on the left side of the road before getting behind the wheel of the Vanquish S Volante. This is Aston Martin’s newest offering — a naturally aspirated, 600 horsepower V12 sits in front and drives the rear wheels. It sounds like absolute madness, for which the only prescription is more of the same. The car’s tires are roughly the width of a queen-size bed. The car itself is far wider than I am tall, and its hood is longer and sexier than Jessica Rabbit’s legs. All in, its price is well north of $300,000. Reacquainting myself with opposite-side driving in this particular car: honestly, not a great idea.
But admitting as much in the moment — that is, standing under a gloomy sky outside a rivetingly charming 18th-century mansion-cum-hotel set deep inside the Cotswolds in England — would have been silly. My gracious Aston Martin hosts would probably have calmly smiled and immediately popped me back on a plane had I explained quite how dubious I was feeling. So I said nothing. But after literally inching through a parking lot roughly the size of a necktie and then creeping down a centuries-old country lane, my teeth grinding and the engine popping and licking its lips…my god, did I get used to the feeling of it all, and quickly.
2018 Aston Martin Vanquish S Volante
Engine: 6.0-liter V12
Horsepower: 595
Torque: 465 lb-ft
Transmission: rear-mounted eight-speed automatic
0-60: 3.5 seconds
MSRP: $312,950
The Vanquish S Volante is the last in a long line of what I’ll call “Old World” Astons, which is to say cars under development before recent, drastic internal changes went underway — changes born under new leadership that have resulted left and right in forward-looking shapes and all-new models. This car comes from an era of Aston Martin in which new models were introduced about once every 12 years; now, the new guard will be introduced at the rate of one per year. If I were to rely on a cliche metaphor — and indeed I will — I’d say this last model is Pierce Brosnan to the newer generation’s Daniel Craig (only in this instance, picture Pierce Brosnan as a feral, jacked-up, graying mutant à la Logan). Or perhaps a better cinematic analog might be the new Kingsman spy franchise: this is a face-meltingly violent, old-guard dark knight with a stately sense of humor.
