Aston Martin is readying a revised, more powerful V8 Vantage for summer 2008, CAR has learned. Its smallest car was launched in 2005 and is in line for a mid-life spruce-up, with a body polish here and some engineering tweaks there.
They promise to iron out the small glitches that prevent this mouth-watering coupe and soft-top from entering the ranks of the greats. Our man with the long lens up in Sweden has seen a brace of Vantages on winter test – and, tellingly, they are registered with a bigger 4733cc V8.
We hear the company is launching a new, more powerful model to slot above the regular 4.3-litre Vantages and give the V8 the performance it needs to take on the sportier 911s. CAR recently tested the new V8 Vantage N400 and came away captivated – but ruing the details that let down an exquisite package. Happily, the newly independent Aston is about to fix many of the glitches – such as the Nineties-era Ford flat-barrelled key that hardly sits comfortably with an £83,000 Aston Martin.