2014 Aston Martin Vanquish Volante unveiled
If you have saved up to the tune of $300,000 to spend on a top-of-the line Aston Martin, but believe that a roof ruins the experience of driving such a car, congratulations, today is your lucky day! Aston Martin has unveiled the 2014 Vanquish Volante, and unsurprisingly, it is an absolute beauty. It’s the first carbon fibre-bodied convertible in Aston’s history, and like it’s coupe sister, is the ultimate expression of the famous British automaker’s finest technology.
Like the coupe, the Vanquish Volante wears a coat of aggresion albeit with typical Aston Martin elegance and grace. The switch to the carbon fibre body provides an incredible strength-to-weight ratio and allows the shaping of the Volante’s unique rear airfoil, pronounced rear haunches and the dramatic strake towards the lower end of each door. Under the hood, you’ll find the same 6.0-litre V12 engine from the Vanquish, which translates to 565 horsepower, 457 lb-ft of torque and one of the most amazing soundtracks in the automotive world today, made even better by the lack of a roof. The soft top can go down at speeds up to 30 MPH and folds in just 14 seconds.
This is not simply a great-looking car. This is a great car engineered and crafted for the connoisseur by people dedicated to delivering exceptional sports cars with clearly defined characters.
– Ulrich Bez, CEO, Aston Martin
Convertibles always need stiffening up as compared to their coupe counterparts, due to the reduction of rigidity brought about by the removal of the roof. This usually changes the vehicle dynamics and ends up adding a decent amount of weight, both factors being nemeses to a supercar. But thanks to underskin reinforcements to the aluminum VH4 chassis, The Vanquish Volante is 13% stiffer than the droptop DBS it replaces and the stiffest Volante in the marque’s history. It also retains the coupe’s near ideal 51:49 front-to-rear weight distribution. Like the coupe, the Volante features Aston’s ADS Adaptive Damping System that allows the car to offer touring comfort and a fully optimized Track mode. Carbon ceramic brakes with multi-piston calipers ensure that the Volante stops as well as it accelerates.
Pricing starts at US$ 297,995 and the Aston Martin Vanquish Volante is expected to hit the markets early next year.
