So I made my usual trip up to the Monterey car with week in California.
I drove my 2007 Vantage up last year a week after I bought it.
I had heard about an event last year at the Aston Martin estate in Carmel Valley unfortunately I was unable to attend. This year even though I didn't bring my Aston Martin I made a point of going yesterday. It is a wonderful estate in the Carmel Valley that Aston Martin takes over for one week every year during the Monterey car week.
There's the full model lineup, plus some future cars show cars and cars you can drive. They had one of the DB 10's used in the new James Bond film, from what I can tell looking underneath the car it has the underpinnings of a Vantage. The windows were opaque and they would not show us the interior of the car until the movie opens this November.
They also had a mockup of the Aston Martin Vulcan, what a car very interesting looking. You're allowed to drive one car from the full lineup, so the one car I chose to drive was the only one there with a manual transmission which is the new Vantage GT. My Vantage is also a stick, The big different lies in, I have a 4.3 V-8 ( with the power pack) the car I drove was the 4.7.
The two cars feel very similar, however the GT has much more power lower down in the rev range sharper suspension and steering and is just a tighter feeling car altogether. The new NAV screen and NAV system and center Stack design are also very nice along with the alcantara seating surfaces and steering wheel. If I were in the market for a new Vantage and had $105,000 to spend this would definitely be the way to go, it just makes the car that much more enjoyable.
Ron