Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Aston Martin V12 Vantage RS



The Aston Martin V12 Vantage RS is the real deal. Though officially referred to as a "Performance Concept Car" during its debut at the opening of Aston Martin's new design center yesterday, it's fully functional like all of Aston's concepts and Ulrich Bez, the automaker's CEO, said if the interest is there, they'll build it. We don't know about you, but we're pretty interested in a 3,527-lbs. car with a race-derived V12 motor producing 600bhp. Performance for the car has been conservatively quoted as 4.0 seconds to 62 mph and 8.5 seconds to 100 mph.

Today we can better analyze the design of the V12 Vantage RS thanks to a bevy of high-res images released by Aston Martin this morning. What would you call that color, Cornflower or Baby Blue? Either way, we're not big fans of it for softening the demeanor of this British-born supercar. Despite that, the rest of the Vantage's already gorgeous exterior gets down to business with new carbon fiber pieces for the hood and trunk lid, as well as enough louvers on the bonnet to cool a nuclear reactor. A carbon fiber chin spoiler keeps things steady at high speed and out back the V12 Vantage RS has also been fitted with a retractable spoiler. The interior has also been wrapped entirely in grippy suede, including the heavily-bolstered though comfortable-looking seats.

What I love about the V12 Vantage RS is that it's not just a hat-tip to the recently defunct V12 Vanquish. It is its own car, and a fierce one at that. Though development of the car likely began before Aston Martin had been sold by Ford, we're glad the new owners didn't kill this concept to save some money.

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