More power, sharper responses and an extra letter on the boot. The Aston Martin Vantage S has officially made its Singapore debut.
Picture an Aston Martin, and you will likely envision a long bonnet, a sumptuous cabin, and an engine making noises sufficiently antisocial to upset the neighbours. Plus, thanks to more than six decades of cinema, perhaps a machine gun or two hidden somewhere behind the headlights.
Unfortunately, Aston Martin Singapore would probably like its demonstrator returned intact, so the latter was off the table when the new Vantage S officially made its local debut.
Beneath the familiar silhouette is the most performance-focused version of the current Vantage yet, a car Aston Martin has spent considerable effort making faster, sharper and more engaging than the already rather potent machine upon which it is based.
The Vantage S sits above the regular Vantage as the sharper member of Aston Martin’s front-engined sports car family. Aston Martin’s use of the ‘S’ designation can be traced back to the DB3S of 1953, and it has subsequently appeared on some of the marque’s more focused machinery.
At its heart remains the familiar hand-built 4.0-litre twin-turbocharged V8, but output has climbed to 680PS while torque stands at 800Nm. Power heads exclusively to the rear wheels through a rear-mounted ZF eight-speed automatic transmission and electronic differential. Deploy everything correctly and 100km/h arrives from rest in 3.4 seconds.
Keep your foot buried (preferably somewhere that isn’t Singapore), and Aston Martin says the Vantage S will eventually reach 325km/h. Certainly enough performance for chasing down international villains.
Adding another 15 or 20 horses to an already enormously powerful sports car is easy enough. Making the entire car feel better is considerably harder, which is why the most interesting changes to the Vantage S aren’t necessarily found underneath its bonnet.
The throttle pedal has been specifically recalibrated, with revised weighting and software mapping designed to deliver greater precision. The Bilstein DTX adaptive dampers have also received bespoke tuning, while changes to the suspension hardware and powertrain mounting are intended to improve agility and feedback.
At the rear, Aston Martin has mounted the subframe directly to the body rather than using the rubber bushes found on the regular Vantage. These are details designed primarily to excite engineers at dinner parties, but their purpose is straightforward.
Removing that layer of isolation creates a more direct connection between the rear axle and the structure of the car, allowing the driver to better understand what those enormous rear tyres are doing. Useful information when they are responsible for deploying 680PS. Aston Martin has also worked on the Vantage S’s suspension calibration to retain enough compliance for real roads rather than simply making everything stiffer in pursuit of impressive-sounding numbers.
Contrary to popular belief, a harder sports car isn’t automatically a better sports car. Even Bond has to drive home eventually.
Naturally, Aston Martin has made sure you can tell the S apart from an ordinary Vantage.
You’ll find a pair of centrally mounted bonnet blades up front, available in gloss black or carbon fibre. These help extract hot air from the engine bay while giving the Vantage S a little more visual aggression.
A new full-width decklid spoiler stretches across the rear, adding another dose of visual theatre while contributing genuine aerodynamic performance. There are also discreet ‘S’ badges dotted around the car.
The same approach continues inside. Those familiar with the latest Vantage will recognise the cabin immediately, but there are S-specific touches to remind you that you’ve selected the more serious version.
A combination of Alcantara and leather forms part of the unique interior treatment, while embroidered ‘S’ detailing appears on the seats. Buyers can also specify red or silver anodised finishes for the rotary drive-mode controller.
The latest Vantage S also incorporates Apple’s CarPlay Ultra technology, which extends the familiar CarPlay experience beyond the central infotainment screen and more deeply into the vehicle’s displays and functions. Aston Martin was the first car manufacturer to introduce the system.
Perhaps not quite an ejector seat button. But Q would probably approve.
With the Aston Martin Vantage S now officially launched in Singapore, local buyers have another choice at the sharper end of the sports-car spectrum.
It isn’t a wholesale reinvention of the Vantage, nor should it be. After all, you only live twice. The Vantage S only needs to make you feel alive once.
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