Vanquish back as 824bhp V12-engined GT flagship

Aston Martin sticks with 'defining' 5.2-litre twin-turbo unit for £300k special

- WILL RIMELL

Aston Martin has revived the Vanquish name for a new flagship sports GT that boasts 824bhp from a twin-turbocharged V12, making it the British firm's most powerful pure-combustion-engined car yet.

Originally planned to use a plug-in hybrid powertrain based around a smaller V8, the £300,000 two-seater, due on the road in October, instead keeps the engine layout that has long-powered Aston Martin flagships. This started with the 1998 Project Vantagethe prototype of the first-generation Vanquish, which was launched in 2001.

The move to a V12 was requested by Lawrence Stroll, the Vanquish being the first all-new Aston to be developed entirely during his time as company chairman.

The 5.2-litre engine "defines the car", according to chief engineer Simon Newton, with its lofty power reserves augmented by an "experience dominating" 738lb ft of torque to give a 3.2sec 0-62mph time and a top speed of 214mph faster than any road-going Aston bar the 250mph Valkyrie hypercar and broadly in line with the capabilities of the 6.2-litre engine in the nose of its closest rival, the recently revealed Ferrari 12Cilindri.

The Vanquish's V12 engine is an evolution of the unit that powered its DBS predecessor, although Newton said every element of its architecture "has been revisited".

He added: "This is the perfect interpretation of a V12 sports car, celebrating that engine."

Headline mechanical changes amount to a new, stronger block to cope with the extra output, larger turbochargers that spin 15% faster and at up to 15% higher compression, new camshafts, new cylinder heads and new intake runners.

"Bar the cranks, pretty much everything is new," Newton said.

He also confirmed that the torque management system had been "taken to the next level" compared with the outgoing DBS 770 Ultimate, promising that the revised set-up offered better everyday usability.