I apologize if this is old news, but I just read a first drive review in a UK car magazine (CAR, July 2009) while in London for my work.

AM is putting the DBS V12 engine in the Vantage, available in July 2009 in the UK. The reviews are VERY positive and basically say this is faster and considerably cheaper than the DBS ($45K cheaper).

Markup over the V8 in the UK is approx. $80K. Expect US pricing (assuming it gets released Stateside) around $200K.

 

I heard no plans to release this car in the States,
Must be an emissons issue as I would expect that car to be a great seller here

 

Get up a lttle late today?

 

Could also be a US DOT crash test costs vs. sales issue ... US sales are way down. Change in the V8 to V12 would cause structure changes so US wants actual crash data, which sucks ... simulations could give the correct data.

 

same engine and transmission as the DBS though right? i always heard the worst aspect of the car was it's dissapointing power output, wonder why they're not bringing it over

 

0-60 is supposed to be .1 faster than the DBS.

 

wonder how a ESX supercharged vantage compares to the V12 in terms of performance (discounting the reliability risk). Wouldn't a ESX supercharged be way lighter than the V12?

 

the engine should be substantially lighter, but i'm wondering how light the rest of the V12V is to the V8V. the V12V uses a bit more carbon instead of aluminum. i doubt it's enough to make up the difference in engine weight, though. but i'd definitely love to see that race!

 

Michael I read in the UK motoring press that it was due to US crash test regulations. I think there might be some differences in standards. Although the V12 is used in the DB9/DBS it is much, much closer to the bonnet than the Vantage. Presumably a smaller crumple zone and more damage to a pedestrian if they were struck by the car.

 

the engine alone is only 50kg more but overall the car is lighter

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uMhB7Wziqs

 

I just read in 'The Winding Road', an online car mag, that Aston has plans to bring 1,000 Vantage V12 cars per year to the US and that they are working out the issues regarding the frontal crash tests.

Expected price: $193,500.

 

Actually, they're only making 1000 cars total for worldwide sale over the next three years. Of those, only a percentage would come to the US IF they decided to certify it for sale here. If would be a very low-volume car, but if it sells well I'm sure they'll make more.

Personally, I prefer the V8, but just with added power. I'd like to see a 500hp V8 model come out, and then have them push the power of the V12 up to the 550-600 hp range, which we know they could easily do.

 

Why does AM not get the HP out or their handbuilt engines that Ferrari does? Example 4.3 V8 AM gets 380 HP and Ferrari gets close to 500 out of their 4.3 V8. Kind of sucks

 

Choice? Ferrari is more of a Supercar builder. AM is more of an exotic builder. I'm sure AM could do the R&D for a 600 HP 4.3l as there race cars with the V12s produce healthy figures. But they do not build supercars but more exotic comfortable cars. I tried.