Luxary Autos
	• Bugatti Veyron 16.4 • Bentley Continental GT • Aston Martin V8 Vantage

Ever since design wonderboy Ian Callum took pencil to paper and created the lovely DB7 in 1994, Aston Martin – that tiny builder of handmade automotive confections in Warwicksire, England – has built what may consider among the most handsome cars on the road. With the launch of the 2006 V8 Vantage, there’s no longer any debate. No deliberation. No foolin’ around, here: the Aston Martin V8 Vantage is simply the most beautiful production automobile you can buy. Period.

 

Easy there, Porschephile. Relax, Ferrari fanboy. Don’t get your Jockeys in a jumble, Jaguaristas. And don’t argue, unless you’ve seen the Vantage in real life.

 

This car will bring you to your knees.

 

There’s an old adage in design circles: anything that isn’t nature is designed. In other words, somebody made a conscious decision to make your toaster look like that. That computer you’re sitting in front of looks the way it does because someone thought it should. We’re not talking about personal preference, here. We’re talking about design that’s universal in its ability to elicit appeal or aversion. There is good design and bad, and the distinction is fairly easy to make. You know it when you see it.

 

See the V8 Vantage, and you’ll know it.

 

The DB7 and its replacement, the DB9, were the cars that solidified the Aston Martin design language. It’s a language of slow curves, gradual contours that blend and conclude like a woman’s reclining form, yet punctuated with equally evolved details. But the DB9’s long forms and fluid surfaces lack the musculature of its competitors from Ferrari, Porsche and Lamborghini. It’s too graceful, almost, to be a serious driver’s car.

 

The V8 Vantage not only is a serious driver’s car, it looks the part. Take a DB9, push the wheels out from the centerline, pull the front and rear corners tight, and put a little more muscle in the shoulders and hips, and you have the Vantage. Without losing any of the obsessively developed bodylines of the DB9, you now have a car with the low, ultra-wide, sinister stance and intelligent aggression of a serious sports car. Think of a Weatherby .308 Magnum, designed by Ralph Lauren. Think of a fist coming at you, belonging to Audrey Hepburn.

 

Some details are worth noting. Perhaps the most exquisitely formed headlamp covers in the world shield dual projector-beams, flanked by a line of sculpted LED marker lights that take the form of eyelashes, coy yet high-tech. A front fender vent, bisected by a sliver of chrome that launches the side character line, evokes the DB series of classic Astons, including the silver 1964 DB5 of a certain British super-agent. There’s the classic Aston Martin grille – finned horizontally with metal instead of the typical plastic of most such structures – while the grille opening’s upper line is defined by the hood that reaches all the way to the front of the car, obviating the need for a nose cap. Little touches like this are the jewelry that Aston Martin’s designers use to distinguish this beauty, and they serve to add a sense of rarity and occasion to the experience.

 

Inside is another simple yet elegantly turned-out design treatise, again with flowing architecture highlighted by elegant accents. The instrument pack is finished in brushed metal under a hood covered with hand-stitched leather, which also flanks the gentle curves of the waterfall center console. Everywhere are surfaces and structures you want to touch, from the sculpted door panels to the brushed aluminum climate controls.

 

Okay, enough eye candy. Let’s give the ears a treat. See that round button there, the one made of etched crystal? Push it, and pay attention. That’s 4.3 liters of British V8 up front, and that snarky growl is 380 horses kicking at the paddock. This is a high-revver of a V8, with tuned 4-valve heads that allow a 7000 rpm red line. But it’s not a stump-puller, with only 302 foot-pounds of twist arriving at around 5000 rpm. It moves out smartly, hitting 60 mph in about 4.8 seconds, but it can’t quite match the pace of its primary competitor, the Porsche 911 Carrera S. Despite the extensive use of aluminum and higher ultimate horsepower, the AM V8 is 300-odd pounds heavier than the Carrera S, hence the acceleration difference. Fast, seriously fast, but at least for now, not supercar territory.

 

We don’t care. Despite a slightly sticky 6-speed manual, the baby A-M is a blitz to drive. That wide, voluptuous rump squats and launches you with authority, and when you do run the tach up to the torque peak at 5000, the car takes a huge gulp of air and surges forward, begging you for the next gear. It’s a quick reacting motor, with delightful throttle response that’s matched move for move by athletic suspension bits, and serious stopping power via Brembo calipers.

 

And as far as we’re concerned, this car is a steal. Porsches, nice as they are, can be seen everywhere – a pleasant distraction, but nothing really crowd-stopping. Ferraris are crowd stoppers, but maybe not for all the right reasons. One is always at least a little suspicious of the Ferrari owner…behind all that loud, red Italian sparkle, what’s this guy compensating for? Does it really need to be that flashy? Not so the Aston Martin. It’ll freeze pedestrians in their tracks just as readily as the Italian car, but elicits nothing other than the purest admiration. It’s not loud, it’s sublime. It’s not flashy, it’s simply beautiful. And with an annual output of 3000 cars, they’re just as rare and distinctive an occurrence as a 40-carat ruby.

 

The actual price starts at about $100,000. This easily undercuts a Ferrari F430, and even a Porsche Carrera S can be optioned above a hundred grand. For that money, there is simply nothing else on the road so perfectly shaped and proportioned. For this kind of sheer beauty, exclusivity and performance, that’s a bargain.

 

…if you want to turn your garage into a museum. Better install a sleeper sofa, too.

 

…if you need ultimate sportscar performance. But a faster AM V8 is rumored…