NEW Aston Martin Vantage Roadster: A Supercar For All Seasons | 4K

[Music] nah the golden state land of sunshine california is where i should be right now but because of the coronavirus here we are in california norfolk yup master martin had to cancel the launch of the v8 vantage roadster and hold it here in the uk first world problems i know but this could have been the exact car i would have been driving around rodeo driving it's left-hand drive it's bright yellow like the sun it's even got these stupid little nipple things americans put on the back of their cars for safety yeah right car wrong location [Music] cali or no cali we've got a bright yellow 125 000 pound roadster with an aston martin badge on the front so we're going to make the best of a bad situation hey when life gives you lemon colored cars you can't help but make lemonade can you so what is it well it's the new version of the baby aston about a year ago they released the new version of the vantage coupe and this is the roadster edition and its party piece is this thing just above me i'll show you how it works you pull a switch on the door and within seven seconds flat the roof opens and suddenly you're in the drop top in california how you doing you're right and then when you drop the roof you can enjoy this car's other party trick which is it's amazing exhaust note so it uses a four liter twin turbocharged v8 this california weather is atrocious always watch this right i'll knock it into neutral oh it just sounds glorious constantly sounds like grenades and gunfire going off although i do smell a slight rat because i'm not sure if this car is supposed to sound this good give me a second the reason is that us cars like this one aren't fitted with a petrol particulate filter and aren't subject to the same 75 decibel noise limits as cars sold in the uk and europe so is this one too good to be true right i always come prepared for eventualities like this i've got my old sound meter so let's have a listen that is clearly in breach of eu regulation echo uniform two zero one four four five four zero which clearly states that all cars released in the eu must sound terrible outrageous sports cars sounding fantastic is nothing new of course but one thing they aren't always good at is being hospitable comfortable and usable every day but the roadster is all of those things the driving position is almost spot on unlike some aston martins of old the seats are supportive and the user interface is all borrowed from mercedes which is a good thing but it's not all sunshine and lollipops so there's a couple of things in this car that i'm not really a massive fan of the dashboard is full of strange almost alien looking shapes the center console is littered with buttons i counted well over 30 buttons on this thing and then the steering wheel that's not a wheel it's like a square or a squirkle and there's other strange quirks about this car like for example even though it's got a decent amount of storage for your bits and bobs there's no glovebox instead you get this weird little storage compartment just behind you which is very difficult to access unless you're completely parked up and then the other big thing for me is that when you've got the roof down even though you're fairly well protected from the elements okay i am getting a bit wet right now it does let quite a lot of wind in i'm not sure that this wind deflector is actually doing very much my neck is cold right now if i was in a mercedes i'd have some kind of neck warming device in an aston you kind of left to fend for yourself credit where it's due though the vantage does have some amazing suspension it's so well judged it rides bumps super well this is the kind of car that you can drive around in use it as a daily no sweat whatsoever and the stereo system is not impeccable now if you're the kind of person that likes to drive around with your roof down and your system up you're gonna love this car because the woofers live directly behind the seats and the base is out of this world so between the stereo and that exhaust people will hear you coming but the new vantage roadster doesn't need to make sound for it to be noticed because it is unquestionably one of the most stunning cars on the road right now sometimes a car can lose its appeal when going from coupe to drop top but in this aston martin have arguably made it even better looking it really is a stunning car to look at isn't it the general proportions are perfect there's no other word for it it looks good almost no matter what angle you take a glance at it from from the back from the side from the front speaking of the front there's a couple of different grille options the first is this hunter grill which first made an appearance on the vantage coupe apparently some people weren't that fond of it because of these sticky out carbon fiber bits making it look a bit like a catfish i can kind of see that but aston martin have given you the option of a vane grill so that gives you some horizontal slats for a slightly more subtle look i also love these skinny little headlights these bonnet vents these vents at the side here aren't traditional aston martin but they look fantastic almost like the gills of a shark enormous carbon fiber side skirts these muscular rear haunches and then at the back which i think is probably this car's best angle you got these lovely curved led lights this huge carbon fiber section that includes the rear diffuser that pops out at you almost in 3d these little nipple things don't worry about those they're only for american cars for their crash regulations it's the perfect car for cruising around somewhere glamorous like los angeles but if you think aston martin have forgotten their roots don't worry because in the boot you get a a decent amount of storage space but b an aston martin branded umbrella which is perfect for when you end up in a rainy place like uh the wrong california oh she's lively all right forget all of the posing and the brand image and the impressing other people what's really important is that the vantage roadster impresses the driver and spoiler alert yeah it's properly impressive the star of the show is the engine that not only makes a hell of a noise it also makes a hell of a lot of power 510 horsepower and 685 newton meters of torque now that's good for north to 60 in 3.7 seconds and a top speed of 190 miles an hour the eagle light amongst you will probably have noticed that it's the same engine you find in a lot of amg cars yep mercedes supply astons with their engines and you might have also noticed that in amg cars the engines make around 50 horsepower more now you could end up feeling a bit short changed by that but the honest truth is it really is lively you don't need the extra power believe me there's no point when driving this car that you feel as if you don't have enough grunt there is so much torque almost anywhere in the rev range it's brilliant the engine is connected to an eight-speed zf automatic transmission the bad news is it's not quite as snappy as the transmission you get in say a porsche 911 but the good news is that the gearbox is nice and smooth it shuffles up and down the gearbox almost imperceptibly and around town it's so smooth it just gets on with the job no sweat whatsoever but if you want to take the ball by the horns and get really involved with the shifting then you can do that you've got a couple of shifters behind the steering wheel they're nice and big and tactile and they're also quite responsive the other thing you've got to love about this gearbox is the noise that it gets out of the engine and that exhaust is absolutely tremendous it just slaps it really does it's such a shame that uk and european cars aren't going to make quite the same noise traction in the vantage roadster is unbelievable in the dry it's almost untouchable you can put your foot down in first gear second gear and nail it in a straight line and part of that is because of the weight distribution the roadster now has 51 of the weight at the back and 49 at the front and having that extra weight on the back end just helps the car squat down and get its power down and catapult it off the line so dramatically in the wet slightly different story because it does struggle to put its power down especially when you've knocked back the traction control in sport plus or in track or you know gone full hooligan and turned it off completely the vantage roadster shouldn't handle quite as well as the coupe one reason being that when you remove the roof of a car it loses structural integrity but the good news is that this drop top doesn't feel massively compromised it doesn't shake rattle or flex in a way that's noticeable or annoying it feels solid it's 60 kilograms heavier than the coupe but it's difficult to get a sense of that weight negatively affecting the car's handling during normal road driving a quick word on the brakes aston martin don't provide a carbon ceramic option for this car but i don't think it needs it because let's face it the vantage roadster is not the kind of car you're going to end up taking to a racetrack at least not on a regular basis and the brakes that it does come with are actually really good they're super strong but also tremendously easy to modulate the first inch or so of brake travel almost does nothing all it does is scrub a tiny bit of speed off and set the car up for proper braking and the advantage of having it set up in that way is that around town the brakes aren't snatchy in the slightest the way this cabin is designed is brilliant it's it's only letting some of the water from the road onto my face the rest is is is out there mostly it's great does the vantage roadster stack up as a car you should aspire to own well at 125 000 pounds it's expensive and dynamically it's perhaps not quite as sharp as say a porsche 911 cabriolet but it's arguably better in several other respects it looks beautiful the engine is fabulous it sounds great at least with an american exhaust and having a folding roof that you can operate so rapidly and while you're traveling at speed make it a compelling proposition that ultimately can make anywhere feel like california even california [Music] you

Channel: AutoTrader

Views: 185,118

Rating: 4.9432278 out of 5

Keywords: Aston Martin vantage roadster, Aston Martin Vantage Roadster review, vantage roadster review, new vantage, new vantage roadster, new vantage review, new vantage roadster review, aston vantage convertible, new Aston Martin vantage convertible, Aston Martin vantage convertible review, 2020 vantage, 2020 Aston Martin vantage, 2020 Aston Martin vantage roadster, 2020 vantage roadster, vantage exhaust, Rory reid, autotrader, aston martin, 2021 aston martin vantage roadster, vantage

Id: AkxJFIbGi0Q

Length: 11min 38sec (698 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 08 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/CollinWoodard]

I know a lot of people talk about the front end, but I think I'd be more interested in a less busy rear end.