Manual Gearboxes Are Back! Aston Martin Valour vs Porsche 911 S/T

what a lovely surprise the year 2024 and it turns out that great big V12 engines are not yet dead and neither even more amazingly are manual [Applause] gearboxes oh and we'll get back to that stick shift Porsche in a moment but first Welcome to The Valor Aston Martin's got [Applause] analog but to understand why you need to rewind past the Valor and reacquaint yourself with this the Aston Martin Victor back in 2021 Aston Martin revealed the side hustle it had been busy with during lockdown a retro rebody of the stunning 177 super car reimagined as an outrageous modern take on the old late '70s Vantage it looked stunning thanks to an upgraded Cosworth V12 tuned from 750 to 836 brake horsepower it also went like lightning and sounded better than thunder but the Belgian owner of this oneoff who paid around4 million for the honor of owning a unique super Aston Tastefully decided to bin the 177s laggy paddle shift transmission and have their dream Aston equipped with a clutch pedal and a manual gearbox good call he might have been on to something you know now the Victor could have been the moment that Aston Martin sent V12 engines and manual gearboxes off into the sunset on an alltime high but quite a lot of people obviously saw that car and understandably thought yes I would like one of those please what do you tell the other credit card waving collectors who are banging on the factory door aston's solution has been to take the bones of a V12 Vantage and drape a Victor inspired carbon fiber body over the top there's no special 177 engine this time though rather the vantages twin turbo 5.2 L V12 that we've also seen in the old db11 and the DB s here making 705 brake horsepower still it's the only time this motor has ever been connected to a manual gearbox and would you just look at it seriously just look at it it's a thing of beauty in its own right it's a sculpture it's a shrine to Shifting The Valor is a limited edition that you can't just walk into a dealership and buy all 110 examples have long since sold out and you have to hope that the people who are spending just over a million quid to get one will do this get out into the hills and drive it not just stand around and admire it but I will admit the details are gorgeous so here's a quick tour around the car from when we picked it up from just outside the Formula 1 team's headquarters at Silverstone now how refreshing is it to not be next to a numbers car we don't care about downforce here we don't give a monkeys about lap times people are going to drop million quid on a 100 off limited edition they're like details things you can point out to your mates like bits of your car you can put your whole hand through look at this channel they've kind of incorporated into this monster Bonnet which is hinting it's got this huge V12 under the great big extractor event on the top and the spec on this one it's like something that David aten would warn you about in the rainforest isn't it watch out for I'm not going to do the voice watch out for the green ridgeback red Li maner just looks absolutely lethal Wheels inspired by the valkyrie not like by anyone who has ever had to clean an allly wheel but yeah Spider-Man spec rims love those you've got this huge extractor vent here trying to get heat out of the engine base it's all functional beautiful carbon fiber work here and normally I don't really like a limited edition badge on the side of a car it's like wearing you know branded gear saying what you're driving but if your company's 110 years old and only had seven bankruptcies and if you've done 110 units then you probably want to celebrate it so I think we like the Union Jack there it's got this nice blend isn't it the Valor of sort of the ason Martin cious of old but then like the square sided muscles of new so this is where you see the V12 Vantage silhouette in the top but then all this new carbon fiber Bodywork down here the brutal s skirts you got to be really careful when you jump out that you don't trip over those and then this massive rear horch got so much attitude but if you want I don't know even more extroverted design than the front you got to come and take a look at the back clearly you'll have noticed up here there is no back window you might have thought you know if you weren't that clued up on where Aston Martin are putting their engine in this thing that the V12 is under the back cuz it kind of looks like it's vented but it's not these are just fins there's no Claim about how much downforce that's generating it's just somewhere to put the rear view camera which works quite well actually just projects onto a screen where the normal mirror would be inside that's quite practical and so he says getting the key out is the luggage space look at this what other million quid hyper car has got enough space for weekend away extra luggage Shelf at the back there and how very British somewhere to keep your Aston Martin designer umbrella and I love don't if you can see in here but they've even matched the carbon fiber weave on the inside of the bootl and also some classic British understatement no fake exhaust pipes no tank artillery pieces with all rifling in them just three very sharp looking lightweight exhaust the exhaust on this is 7 kilos lighter than a V12 Vantage but they haven't decided to make them trump it out of the top like this they've just tucked them away because it's very Aston Martin isn't it a bit of understatement bit of class it's a stunning looking bit of Kit now this is fun when you unlatch this Mighty carbon fiber Bonnet watch how the car goes from frowning to actually looking kind of startled and surprised the eyes look that much wider why would it be shocked because it's being pushed Along by this 705 brake horsepower tune of the twin turbo 5.2 L V12 with 511b feet of torque obviously I'm going to show you inside but there's two things to be aware of when you get into your Valor number one oh got to be very very careful not to land your unmentionables on the old carbon fiber seat Boler because it could get very painful and speaking of carbon the do made out of it entirely and that means you'll be very lucky to get it shut first time cuz it's just so lightweight and it's on one of these struts as well it gives you that lovely Swan motion when it opens up that's got it look at this for a centerpiece lovely metal M top to the Gear knob this unpolished Beachwood gear lever and then you can see the fully exposed linkage it's just lovely excuse me I'm just going to just going to have a moment I just want to point out we're not on Silverstone anymore and we're not on a private closed Road no this is Wales it's public road it's June so yeah as usual and there's other motorists there's cyclists there's cheap and ason Martin chucked us the keys to a million quid special and said yeah fill your boots respect we like that and that cues up nicely the part of the film where I Turn to You and I say but they needn't have worried because oh it's a cat so friendly The Valor but don't mind telling you little bit intimidated actually I think part of it comes from the fact that just with no back window it's darker in here and these solid carbon door Toops they're high and you feel hemmed into the car feels like you're I don't know a child in a grown-up's world I'm kind of peering over the top of it and it feels big and wide on the road you'll hear the tires over there occasionally slapping the cat SI so um yeah it's um it's got theti factor or the super cut Aston wanted this to feel a bit more gritty and granular than a V12 Vantage on which it's obviously based so they've retuned the steering map it's got different damper settings front and rear it's got stiffening panels front and rear and they've changed the Caster the camber all the geometry is different it's all very geeky Twigs but they didn't have to do that they could have just dropped this exotic body onto a normal Vantage and left it alone said There You Go collectors you'll never know the difference because you're never going to drive it well they did they went to the effort I respect that as well and here's the thing actually even when you don't want to get all nerdy and geeky about the Rune suspension and steering a manual gearbox is something you can enjoy at any speed and so is this engine it's not an operatic V12 like uh Ferrari 12 cylinder doich cindry but it's got this Rich expensive Barrel chested note to it and I'm only doing 3,400 RPM right now and it's still sounds fabulous only pity I suppose is well look at the cars it's appearing in the Gordon Murray t50 The Pagani Utopia and now the ason Martin Valor what a shame that to get your ultimate manual kicks you kind of got to pay a million quid for it oh Contra M FR because this is the new Porsche 911 St and it costs from around 230,000 and depending on which way you look at it it's either a GT3 RS with the wing removed and a six-speed manual gearbox added or a GT3 touring with the aggression turned up to 11 either way it's pretty much analog Perfection Andreas poining uh the boss of Porsche's GT Department the man responsible for all those incredible Porsche GT cars over the last what 23 years says that this is his favorite it's his perfect combination of components the The Perfect Blend of technology and raw driver appeal and you know what I think he might be on to something okay so I have a 9,000 RPM 58 brake horsepower 4 L Flat 6 engine if I TI my shifts to Perfection this will do NAU to 62 in 3.7 seconds but the beauty of this car is in the details it weighs 1,300 80 kg which is about 40 kg less than a GT3 touring the clutch in this thing weighs exactly half that of the one you get in the GT3 touring it's got a lighter flywheel too so you get a revier character to the engine and this gearbox this six-speed manual gearbox it's got a shorter throw it's also got an 8% shorter final drive ratio which yeah makes it feel livelier in the gears but it also means you've got to work this gearbox to get the most out of it and honestly that's not a problem at all when the shift oh is as sweet as this one now I know I've just spent a while describing to you all the numbers and facts and figures about this car but the best way to describe the experience of it is I couldn't give a fig about the numbers right now yes there are supercars out there with a lot more horsepower than there there are family saloons out there with a lot more horsepower than this thing but it doesn't matter feels like just the right amount and I'm consumed by nailing my gear shifts and enjoying the steering feel and it's this kind of stuff the Porsche does Head and Shoulders better than anyone else it sweats the details it knows that the stuff that matters is what you're feeling through your bum and through your hands and through your feet the gear shift the steering the pedals the quality of these seats and of course B the noise that that engine makes you close in on that 9,000 RPM [Music] Crescendo oh it's astonishing this ge shift oh the Precision you could do it all in your wrist Bam Bam fifth to Fourth oh look there's Ollie in his Fancy pantas with several hundred horsepower more let's see if we can keep up shall we go on then give me some of that sweet V12 music I've only got six cylinders to work with here okay hang on get a load of this after many miles and several thousand gear shifts the weather finally brightened up so we pulled over for a [Music] chat significantly more fun in the dry aren't they yeah I'm glad the sun came out I feel like I've now felt all 705 horsepower which I wasn't when we were talking to the camera earlier yeah and my cup twos are finally switched on as they say in the racing Community oh dear you've become one of those Porsche guys haven't you a little bit Yeah so um I feel like there's an elephant in the room we need to talk about this car underneath it is an admittedly lightly modified V12 Vantage no pretty much yeah with a manual gearbox yeah with a manual gear box of course so they cost how much for a V12 Vantage 200 and something yeah and this costs1 million plus they say so for this kind of paint probably one and a half help me help me understand help us all understand this I mean you can't rationalize cars like this can you it's it's Moder day coach building like Ferrari like Bentley everyone's taking their standard super cars and dropping gorgeous retro bodies onto them and going here you go here's something special that no one else has got it is gorgeous I'll give you that I spent most of the day staring at the back end of it and I'm a little bit in love with it it's about exclusivity isn't it it's like you're buying a 1 million pound ticket to this club of a 100 or so owners so you can you know wave it around under people's noses yeah so you haven't got one of these and I have yeah although didn't I read that there's an even more exclusive version of this exclusive coachbuilt thing special edition yes there's a special edition of the special edition of The Valor called the Valiant which is kind of like the GT3 RS version it's lighter it's got more Wing um it was speced by Fernando Alonzo apparently sounds better yeah so it's it's the one to have you don't want this no and how much is that one the Valiant oh the Valiant yeah they're going to run out of names beginning with v aren't they oh I don't know what should we say two two million yeah two million quid it's absolutely bonkers the world has gone mad as you say we cannot rationalize it but look they're two incredibly special cars I just think it's great that there's manufacturers out there that are getting it now that we don't need just big dollops of unusable extra power we need interactivity we need um old school analog yeah um just retro flavor yeah oldfashioned light your Tweed seats mate oh yeah now they've really grown on me today actually so I've decided I'm going to become a bit of a Tweed guy so I popped into town while it was raining and I want to get your uh your opinion on this now the lady in the shop did say it wouldn't entirely match the um Aston Martin interior but I think this is a pretty good look and I knew you'd be jealous because you don't match your car now so here you go now you can be a Porche GT3 now I can be as sad as you are mate it's a lovely jacket um it's too much with the Tweed seats but this isn't going to work for me why Sor you that it's a horrible hat but that's not the point the point is I'm gagging for a go in that car I'm going to give you this back you got to give me your jacket oh you want match if you want to do the Tweed thing give me a jacket right you have that I'm going to take this and I'm going to go and enjoy 9,000 RPM watch out for the turbo lag right tally ho

Channel: Top Gear

Views: 630,248

Keywords: Top Gear, aston martin valour, aston martin, aston martin valour review, aston martin valour sound, aston martin valour manual v12, aston martin valour drive, aston martin valour 2024, aston martin valour interior, aston martin valour test drive, aston martin valour v12, porsche, porsche 911, porsche 911 S/T, porsche 911 s/t review, porsche 911 s/t 2024, porsche 911 s/t sound, porsche 911 s/t acceleration, porsche 911 s/t manual, porsche 911 s/t top gear

Id: cEO6mVqo8K8

Length: 17min 48sec (1068 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 02 2024