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15.10.13, Palm Springs Aston's range-topping GT loses its roof but does that add any more appeal?
TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND pounds, less a fiver. That's how much Aston Martin asks for its new rangetopper, the Vanquish Volante. This open-top version of the Vanquish coupé certainly has the looks to back up tiie asking price. And it's a price that shows the confidence that Aston Martin has in its decade-old and stillevolving VH architecture philosophy and 5.9-litre V12 engine.
The trouble is that, in conversion from coupé to convertible, big sporting GTs such as the Vanquish typically suffer somewhere along the way. They tend to lack the lack basic ingredients, never mind the final polish, to really warrant such a price.
They lose stiffness to the detriment of ride and handling, gain performance-blunting weight and lose practicality, as that retractable roofhas to be stored somewhere. These issues - particularly chassis flex - plagued the Vanqifish Volante's immediate predecessor, the DBS Volante. Given all of these gremlins, it's fair to say that the DBS Volante wasn't our favourite Aston Martin, despite its billing as the firm's rangetopper until the Vanquish coupé arrived late last year.
Don't expect such compromises with the Vanquish Voíante, says Aston. Its latest fourth-generation VH architecture makes the new convertible the stiffest open-top car that Aston has ever produced and, with some fine-tuning to the suspension, it is said to offer the same handling characteristics as the Vanquish coupé. Indeed, Aston's most recent convertible, the 2012 D B9 Volante, was greatly improved in the stifiness stakes, which bodes well for the Vanquish.
The addition of a lightweight multilayer fabric roof adds just 9kg at the kerb, a figure that's said to cause no performance penalty to the Volante compared with the Vanquish coupé. The two share the same 0-60mph time of 4.1sec and l83mph top speed.
The clever construction and storage of the roof mean that boot space is reduced by just 89 litres from the Vanquish coupé, and its 279-litre boot volume is the same with the roof up or down. That figure is also 50 per cent greater than the DBS Volante's.
So once you've stopped admiring the looks (and the big boot), climb in to push that still-gorgeous glass...