Coming straight out of a two-hour stint in the Ferrari 458 Italia and jumping into just about anything else, you expect to be...underwhelmed. Not so with the Aston Martin V12 Vantage. Though it takes a very different route, the big-engined baby Aston is, in its own way, even better.
Take Aston Martin's "entry level" car, stuff a 6.0-liter, 510-horsepower V-12 engine under the hood, and you've got the V12 Vantage. The big V is enough to bump the Vantage from its position at the bottom of the hierarchy almost to the top, at least in terms of performance, second in the range only to the One-77 supercar.
If you love engine sounds, you have to love Aston. Even back-to-back with a Ferrari V-8, the big V-12 sings. We're not sure if it's the slightly bassier rumble at idle, the more muted-yet-ferocious wail at redline, or the rolling wall of frequency in between, but the V12 Vantage simply sounds like the fastest thing on the road from the driver's seat. It also delivers the goods in terms of actual speed.
Capable of 4.2-second 0-60 mph runs, 190 mph top speed, and roasting the tires at will in the lower gears, flattening the accelerator in the V12 Vantage leaves no doubt you're in a supercar. Squirming the rear on full throttle acceleration even with the electronic nannies fully engaged, and with steering that's both heavier and less detailed than the Ferrari's, the Aston feels more raw and unrestrained.
That's not to say the V12 Vantage won't hustle a corner--in fact, it does so beautifully. The nearest comparison in my range of experience, oddly enough, is the last Dodge Viper SRT10: brutally efficient, immensely fast, but with more of the feel of a racing car detuned for the street than a confidence-inspiring street car worthy of a race track, a la Italia. The big gear shift and chunky 'box also contribute to the comparison, with positive engagement requiring a fair amount of effort. That effort was rewarded with not a single missed shift during some hard driving up Laureles Canyon Road, however, no matter how we accelerated, heel-toed, or skip-shifted the badboy Brit.
