Calgary Herald from Calgary, Alberta, Canada • 83

Breaking news at calgaryherald.com DRIVING. Friday. October 19, 2012 FU ca REVIEW: 2013 ASTON MARTIN VANQUISH Comfort sublime on bumpy roads r-A tfmM fridfc 2013 Aston Martin Vanquish combines performance and elegance in a Venerable chassis serves as basis for complete modernization DAVID BOOTH POSTMEDIA NEWS Our guidebook said "beware of bumpy road," an eyebrow-raising warning considering the roads we had just conquered were best described as paved divots. Said tarmac lived up to its billing, quite the bumpiest stretch of pavement I have ever bounced over in 28 years of two- and four-wheel testing. Imagine riding one of those maniacal broncing bucks that makes CBC highlight reels every time the Stampede invades Calgary.

Now imagine you have a steering wheel in your hand. And 565 horsepower underfoot. Oh, and for good measure, make sure there's traffic coming the other way. It's a measure of the confidence Aston has in the latest, fourth-generation version of its VH (Vertical-Horizontal platform) that it included such a rollick on its test route. Supercar ride-and-drives are typically held on well-groomed race tracks or glass-smooth mountain roads, the grip and even pavement best showing off their vroom and minimizing the boom(ing) in the cabin as you crash over bumps.

But Aston's PR staff just cackled at the prospect (OK, maybe that was just me). Whatever the case, we pressed on, the big Vanquish jumping, heaving and tossing over the undulations like a frog-legged dune buggy pre-running the Baja 1000, its 1,563 kilograms (55 less than the last DBS) of leather, carbon fibre and 12 big pistons completely out of its element. But never once did it complain! Indeed, the most amazing thing about my two days spent in the brand new 2013 Vanquish (replacing the immensely popular DBS, by the way) was not its booming, 6.0-litre V12 or the incredible grip afforded by the monstrous 20-inch (23545 frnt and 30530 rear) performance radials. Nor was it even the new leather interior Now imagine you have a steering wheel in your hand. And 565 horsepower underfoot.

that somehow improves on hide-work that already made you feel like getting naked and practicing some in-car frottage. Nope, the most impressive thing about the new Vanquish is that Gaydon's engineers have taken a chassis almost a decade old and somehow made it thoroughly modern. Oh, a completely clean sheet design might have eked out a few kilograms of weight saving, though it's hard to imagine how considering the Vanquish's frame is made of aluminum and carbon fibre. But ignore what you will read elsewhere that Aston Martin's underlying technology is dated: Said chassis thanks to details such as a huge, extruded front cross brace and rear subframe made entirely of carbon fibre that results in torsional rigidity improved by 25 per cent is as stiff and robust as anything from Maranello or Stuttgart. Throw in some variable damping, minimal roll during cornering and you have the very best of the grand tourismo genre: a comfort Aston Martin handsome if cosy package.

black wood and haptic switchgear covered in real glass, not plastic And, unlike previous Astons, function of said switchgear does not follow form. The Vanquish's computer interface, for instance, is simple and well laid out, unlike the previous version that would confound even a NASA computer nerd. A now de rigeueur Bang Olufsen audio system boasts 1,000 watts, surely enough decibel power to blow out eardrums in such a small cabin. There's also quantifiably more leg- and elbow room in the Vanquish, though the cabin is still better described as intimate. A few quirks remain a parking brake that is needlessly fiddly and digital readouts so dim they are washed out even in rainy Old Blighty's version of sunshine but the new Vanquish now offers Old World charm and at least some New World modernity.

As enticing as all this leather-bound hedonism is, one doesn't buy a $296,000 Aston Martin for leather and stitching, a point made apparent as soon as one fires up the newly revitalized V12. Still displacing six litres, this umpteenth revision of a motor that started as two Ford Contour V6s welded back to back now sports 565 horsepower. There's an entirely new block, 3 itf Motorcraft BRAKE PADS I 4 new cylinder heads and much work to the fuel injection system. The result, says Aston Martin, is (also thanks to a new Launch Control system), a 4J-second acceleration time to 100 kmh and a top speed of more than 290 kmh. Numbers, however, don't capture the drama of winding the big Aston to its jn.

redline. Flip on the sport button, which heightens throttle response while also increasing its bark, mat the throttle and listen to one of the most glorious engines in the biz. i Throttling it up big time and let-; ting the twin exhaust reverberate through an ancient English stone tunnel is to know why Enzo Fer- rari insisted that "real Ferraris had 12 cylinders. Credit the company's devotion to the exhaust note, the high-tech, muffler liberated from that afore- mentioned expensive One-77 or even the passenger compartment design that best lets the power pulses reverberate through the cabin. For the person of means, for whom decorum is as important as presence, the Aston V12 may be the sweetest engine of the lot, its Maserati and Ferrari competition, often sounding as overtly oppor- nl tunistic as a teenager's slammed Civic with a tomato can-sized muffler.

Said engine, however, still re- mains Aston's biggest challenge to the future. As soniferous and powerful as it may be, it is not a modern engine, its basic super- structure also more than a decade old and not in keeping with the modern emphasis on fuel econ- omy and performance. And as much as Menards dis- misses advancements such as direct fuel injection as "currently, unnecessary," future regulations will require dramatic change, perhaps in the form of smaller dis- placement andor turbocharging. The question is whether Aston Martin can develop such an en- gine from scratch with its mini- malist resources or whether it will have to farm out or buy such technology. One thing is for sure at least according to the people who build the car (though one suspects that CEO UlrichBez has the final say) Aston must stick with its now traditional V12.

Drive the new Vanquish and you'll see why. OR SHOES 'A i -1 able ride that also just happens to be extraordinarily good at strafing twisty roads. It's impressive technical advancement from a company that so long traded on quaint English quirks and a heritage that most had assumed had seen its best days. But Aston didn't stop there. The Vanquish's entire body is now made of very modern carbon fibre, a first for Aston Martin and still rare even in the supercar world.

But the primary goal wasn't weight savings, says Ian Menards, Aston's director of product development, since previous models were already built out of lighter-than-steel aluminum. Indeed, Menards thinks the greatest advantage is that a resin-impregnable cloth allows so much more design freedom than aluminum. That design freedom means the Vanquish is the most beautiful two-door Aston this side of a DB5. Its muscular flanks, the extremely aggressive hood line and especially the slick rear spoiler would have all been impossible in any form of metal, says Menards. All Astons since the company's 2004 reinvention have been sleek and sexy, but the Vanquish is certainly the most seductive of the DBs.

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