For many people, saying the cars are "handmade" would actually make them think the cars are less reliable.

 

Yes, it's easy to argue that 420hp is too much, and I've made that argument. Nonetheless, it's "less" too much than 500/600/700+, even though the roads I enjoy the most typically have speed limits of 45 - 60 rather than 25 - 40. I can still use a greater portion of the V8V's "too much" than I could an F12's. Also, and this is a BIG thing to me, I find that the V8V is very "alive" and involving at semi-reasonable speeds. It doesn't need to be traveling at massive speed to be fun or to provide the "Aston" experience. Cars like the F12, IMO, don't come alive until the speeds are extremely high. It's why I personally have no real desire to own an F12 -- I simply wouldn't have the opportunity to utilize, or therefore to really enjoy, what it offers.

Regarding your "original proposal," I don't disagree that 500hp-ish is what the next Vantage needs, and 600-ish for the Vanquish -- for marketing purposes only. Of course, marketing purposes matter, even if IMO these numbers have gotten rather ridiculous.

BTW, you cheated my V8V out of 5 mph -- its top end is 180. These things really matter

 

Yup. Change the wording to "Hand Crafted" and it changes everything.

 

Can you expand on what you mean by an Aston experience?

Regarding the usable power in the F12, I agree that 740hp is way over the top but that's what Ferrari is. Engine first and then everything else. My Scud has way more power than I can handle at 510hp. However, the enjoyment I get out of it is how controllable the car is and of course the sound. I can be coming out of a turn at 40 or 80mph and the backend will just come around with great control. It makes for a very exciting ride and one you have to be laser focused on. The primary reason I own exotics are because it's my escape from work. When I'm driving I focus on nothing else and these cars play perfectly to that. Aston does a good job of this as well but my current appetite is for something a little more raw and visceral

 

The Aston Experience. I'll try...

For me, it's that the car can be enjoyed on so many different levels. It is a great sports car and a great GT car. My car, a 2009 V8V Coupe with the Sports Pack and a manual ('box), is IMO a truly excellent driver's car. It's fast, it sounds glorious, and its handling is beautifully balanced and exploitable in the way that the best front-engined rear-drive cars are. That's not the fastest layout for a racetrack, but it's a great layout for the road. No, it's not as sharp as your Scud (awesome car, BTW), of course, or a "regular" F430, but it's a great drive. It is wonderful to drive fast, and it's wonderful to drive not fast.

For me, a car like a 458 or MP4-12C is really about going very, very fast. Yes, they can do slow without being temperamental like old exotics were (the 12C is amazingly docile), but they're not about that. They are packed full of technology that enables them to be enormously fast on track (or, in a perfect world, on the road). Moreover, much of that technology doesn't even come into play until the speeds are hugely high, such as electronically controlled diffs and torque-vectoring. When, on the road, will one be able to experience those systems working? If I had both the time and the money to routinely go to a track, I'd be much more likely to own this type of car. I hope that happens.

BTW, the 991, IMO, isn't only about going fast, but it has become so refined and easy to drive that I found it uninvolving (largely due to the lifeless steering -- a real crime) and unexciting until I was pushing it extremely hard. Not the experience I want.

An Aston Martin is about the total experience of motoring. It's about going fast, but not only about going fast. The car is involving at low speed also. Much of this is, I think, due to the really excellent steering feel (long live hydraulic assist), so it communicates with the driver quite well even when one is not driving hard. (For me, the manual 'box contributes to this significantly as well.) Astons sound great at low and mid revs, not only at high revs. IMO, a Ferrari V8 sounds like a four (it runs like two inline-4s with its flat-plane crank) at low and medium rpm. It really doesn't sound good until it's screaming -- then it sounds great.

In an Aston, one can get some of the Aston experience just sitting in it, looking at and touching the beautiful craftsmanship and materials, taking in the attention to detail and the art of the thing. It's about the understated elegance and class, with the performance waiting just below the surface, ready to be used when the opportunity arises.

An Aston is special, it feels special, it's an event every time, whether it's a fast drive, a slow drive, or both.

 

Well said. Couldn't agree more.

 

How about "hand crafted and backed by an industry-best warranty" ?

 

I agree with almost all of this - except the part where it is involving at low speeds...

I guess this is different from person to person. I usually find cars that are involving at slow speed are usually lightweight and grossly underpowered - like the Miata, Boxster, Elise, old 'Vettes, etc...

 

Sounds like marketing double-speak to me. Ads these days say everything is "handcrafted," to the point where it is meaningless. Hand made (or made by hand, etc.) is the only way to make it clear that they are actually made by hand, which is only true to a degree these days.

 

As for the "Aston experience," I think a lot of it has nothing to do with the way the car drives. A big component of the Aston experience is the way the car looks, the feeling of sitting behind the wheel surrounded by all the luxurious appointments and high-quality materials, the smell of the leather, etc. It's the theater of it that makes driving the car feel like an occasion.

 

Yup on all counts. When I drive mine, I have no desire to 'race' anybody or prove anything. I'm perfectly happy to cruise down the hiways and byways.

In my Impreza, OTOH, I've always got my foot in it. I drive that car faster than my Aston.

 

Absolutely -- see the penultimate paragraph of my post

 

+1.
+1. I drive my GT-R faster than I ever felt like driving an Aston (but the Aston I drove wasn't entirely mine... lol! - didn't stop me from having a little fun).

 

Exactly the way I find myself behaving behind the wheel.

 

Interesting. I'm with jasper on this one: I am happy tooling around in my Exige (wouldn't call it underpowered, though) on the public roads, as the feedback and level of sensory stimulation are on another level from the typical modern car. The V12V, I'm afraid, makes me risk my license more frequently, as I just don't find it comes alive unless it is being driven hard.