Aston Martin’s hyper-GT V12 returns to relight the fire of the original.

I was very, very taken by the original Aston Martin Vanquish. Just the name grabbed me in my callow youth, but the styling and spec absolutely finished me off. Ian Callum’s pen produced an extraordinary, timeless design that steered Aston’s look in the right direction for many years to come.

Almost twenty-five years later, the third-generation has arrived. Aston is a very different company now, free of the shackles of terrible Ford ownership and with the powerful marketing vehicle of a Formula One team, sadly with just one good driver.

This new Vanquish is still – hearteningly – a V12, albeit with two turbos. It’s built on Aston’s lengthy experience with weight-saving aluminium and for a car of its type is light.

It’s also not cheap, has a very fighty little brother in the form of the Vantage and has a lot to live up to.

Words: Peter Anderson
Images: Blake Currall
Co-pilots: Blake Currall, Mark Dewar

How much is an Aston Martin Vanquish and what do I get?

2025 Aston Martin Vanquish: $737,000 (+ORC)
As-tested: $940,250 (+ORC)

The Vanquish kicks off with a pretty big headline number of $727,000 before on-roads. I’m pretty sure nobody who buys this cars is especially fussed by that, but it’s worth knowing what over seven hundred large gets you.

It gets you a long, low, aluminum-chassied brute of a V12 coupe, that’s what. It looks superb, even in black where the light does fall into it a bit (I’d probably go for a more interesting colour) but you absolutely cannot fault the presence.

To further boost that presence, the fine folks at Aston in Australia added these options:

• Brake Calipers (CCB) – Bronze
• Extended Exterior Pack – 2×2 Twill Gloss
• Titanium Exhaust System
• Paint – Q – Special  (Oberon Black)
• Gloss Black Grill
• Heavy Pile Floor Mats
• Livery – Lower Pinstripe
• Dark Chrome Jewellery Pack
• Contrast Welt (and Stitch)
• Heated Steering Wheel
• Black Pack – Upper
• Interior – Inspire – Duotone (Onyx Black – Semi Aniline/Oxford Tan – Semi Aniline)
• Interior carbon – Carbon & Metal Fibres
• Multi Spoke Wheel – Satin Black

And that took the price to $940,250 before on-roads. There’s a lot of extra black parts as you can see, and they look terrific. The floor mats are luscious, the heated steering wheel…well, really, that should be in the base car…but much of this you could genuinely do without.

This is mostly personalisation and with a very subtle JPS vibe about the black and bronze/gold, I think it works particularly well.

You can go even crazier. Particularly with the Q bits.

Look and feel

I mean, just look at it. Long, low, lithe. Muscular and athletic. There’s still plenty of Callum/Vanquish DNA in here but with a more contemporary look. That gold striping you see around the car is painted not stickered. The haunches look like they’re containing the Kraken itself and given the available power and torque, they’re not far wrong.

Even that massive grille manages to look okay. I think sports coupes like this look even better now by default because of the obesity of the current zeitgeist car, the ute or SUV. It’s head-turningly spectacular and in a good way.

The cabin is just flat-out gorgeous. Those seats – not the semi-dangerous carbon units in the Vantage I had – look incredible, especially in the mixed black and tan. The new steering wheel is lovely (although I did like the Vantage F1’s for its mild bonkersness).

The centre console switches and dials are absolutely lovely. The roller dials for the volume and air-con controls feel heavily weighted and a tactile delight. The new screen is snappy and useable and not the mess of the old one. The dash looks great and it smells amazing in here.

There’s even a decent-sized boot but it’s more of an overnight bag proposition. You can sling a bag behind each of the front seats, too, and I don’t mind telling you that entry and egress was fine for my two-metre tall friend. And the gaggle of old ladies at church who gasped when they saw it. Young or old, this car was super popular.

Drivetrain

5.2-litre twin-turbo V12
Power: 614kW at 7000rpm
Torque: 1001Nm at 2500-5000rpm
0-100km/h: 3.3 sec
Top speed: 345km/h

Unlike the Vantage’s AMG-derived twin-turbo V8, this is Aston’s own V12. First seen in the DB11 in 2016, it’s smaller than its predecessor, the naturally-aspirated 5.9-litre AE28.

Displacing 5.2-litres and force-fed by two twin-scroll turbos, the Vanquish’s AE31 produces a whopping 614kW (824hp), sending it all to the rear wheel via an eight-speed ZF automatic.

The AE31 V12 is made in Aston’s own factory in Cologne and in 2024 got a stronger block, bigger turbos that spin 15 percent faster and a higher compression ratio.

All of that also meant new cams, new intake and exhaust manifolds, new conrods, new cylinder heads and higher capacity injectors. Even the spark plugs have moved.

Torque is a staggering 1000Nm and illuminates the need for new conrods as well as an unburstable diff.

Aston says it will top out at 345km/h and crack the ton in 3.3 seconds.

Chassis

Aston has a long history with aluminium and the Vanquish continues on with an extruded bonded aluminium chassis. The body is all carbon fibre which must make insurance underwriters panic, but obviously both these things together keep weight down and under 1900kg.

That might seem like a lot, but a twin-turbo V12 tourer is never going to be light.

Barkes are carbon ceramic all round with 410mm rotors at the front and 360mm at the rear. Front callipers are six-piston monoblock units while the rear have four pistons. They’re massive and look incredible, with a sort of cracked mirror finish.

It’s all kept off the ground by double wishbones up front and a multi-link setup at the rear, with adaptive damping all round courtesy of Bilstein’s DTX system.

The 21-inch forged alloys are fitted with Pirelli P Zero PZ4 tyres (with AML stamps) measuring 275/35 at the front and massive 325/30 at the rear and yes, they’re Z-rated. Pirelli’s noise abatement foam inners are fitted as well to help keep down the noise.

Clearly related to the Vantage, the Vanquish/DB12 pair have a longer 2885mm wheelbase to ensure the V12 fits behind the front axle line ensuring mid-engine status and 51/49 weight distribution. It rides just 120mm above the ground but with a relatively short front overhang of 955mm, there were no nasty scraping incidents.

For this third-generation car, Aston widened the front track by 15mm and the rear’s by 25mm. The chunky strut brace is said by Aston to increase lateral stiffness by 75 percent, or at least is a major contributor.

Driving

Where the Vantage is vicious and visceral, the Vanquish is vastly capable. I knew this thing would be fast in a straight line but expected a bit less fun in the corners. If anything, the Vanquish is just as much fun as both the Vantages I’ve driven, which is saying something.

There’s something about a ride that doesn’t throw you out of your seat, though. Not that the Vantage did that, but the Vanquish’s longer wheelbase and slightly less edgy adaptive damping deliver more comfort no matter what’s happening underneath.

As you might expect, the 5.2-litre V12 is spectacular. While not revving to the heights of rival Ferraris or, if you squint, Lamborghinis, it doesn’t feel like it needs to. The massive maximum torque figure of 1000Nm is available between 2500 and 5000rpm, meaning you’re riding the wave for a long time in every gear.

This thing absolutely hurls you down the road, sometimes indelicately when you’re loosened the reins. But in a good way, because it’s hilariously fast off the line, with a deep, thundering bass line pouring out of the exhausts. Aston has tuned the engine to hold the revs so the turbos are spinning, meaning you’re rarely caught off boost. The difference between off and on though, blimey.

For such a long car – 4850mm, the longest Vanquish yet – it never feels the length of a seven-seat SUV. It doesn’t even look that long despite its far lower stature. It doesn’t look Mini small, obviously but then again, a Mini isn’t much smaller these days.

I very much liked the steering though. In Sport Plus the weight is lovely. It feels good too, for an electrically-assisted rack, and that’s partially to do with solid steering mounts (new for this Vanquish). This means less play in the rack so more chatter from the tarmac. I like it.

The steering is also ably assisted by the electronically-controlled limited-slip diff. It can go from open to hooligan in milliseconds, but crucially it’s setup to turn the car in crisply but also behave a little rudely in the sportier modes. It’s so much fun to drive, there were moments when I forgot I was in charge of a million bucks of car.

Stringing together corners is pure joy. The brakes have a great feel and I had to check they were carbons. This kind of braking setup has come a long, long way in recent years, they feel so good.

The Vanquish finds the apex of the corner without hesitation, with so little steering needed from its just over two-and-a-half turns to get the nose where you want it. Forward vision is surprisingly good, too, even when sitting so low and so far back in the chassis.

But nothing prepares you for the way it hurls itself out of corners, the rear wriggling under the torture of a metric ton of twist. It feels much lighter than its 1800kg-plus kerb weight suggests and that in itself is a testament to the engineering depth poured into this car.

Even when it’s wagging its tail (traction on, as always, I remain a compliant coward)(and I don’t have the talent required), it always feels entirely manageable, the GT Sport+ mode still flattering me.

There are downsides to this not being a DB. It’s noisier, but I could cheerfully live with that. And, um, that’s about it. Had I the means and inclination, I’d have to have the Vanquish.

The only disappointment for me is that I suspect if I ever get behind the wheel of an original Vanquish, it will probably feel like a bus by comparison.

Redline Recommendation

What a terrific thing is this Vanquish. Calm and capable one minute, a raving lunatic (with sensible boundaries) the next. Aston had to pull something out of the bag to counter Ferrari’s 12 Cilindri and Lamborghini’s hilarious Revuelto. And out of the bag came this fully-formed gem.

No more excuses, no corners cut, just an improbably fast grand tourer that blurs the lines the way its rivals do. Anyone can drive it and anyone can drive it fast. That might sound trite, but it’s a towering achievement.