Aston Martin Vanquish 2014 Video Review

The best road for the Vanquish Volante twists through a steep-sided valley. Dial up "sport" mode, set the driver-select suspension to "track" and proceed at pace - the exhaust bypass sends the V12’s unfettered music bouncing off the hills and back into the open cabin.

The note of this 5.9-litre engine is never raw. Intimidating, yes. But even when it barks and rasps, there’s a smoothness behind the kick. Like a single malt. The best bit is that all this theatre now comes alfresco.

This is Australia’s first Aston Martin Vanquish Volante, the most powerful convertible Aston makes, and its first road test. The Volante gets clothed in the same exotic materials - carbon-fibre, kevlar, magnesium alloy and aluminium - as the Vanquish coupe and shares the signature bulbous haunches over wider-than-wide rear tyres.

A multi-layer cloth roof trims some weight but the body and platform reinforcement aimed at replicating the chassis rigidity of the coupe adds 105kg. So the Vanquish Volante is as quick as its coupe sibling, has a 1 per cent weight bias to the front (the coupe’s is 50-50) and adds about $36,000.

Value

Read the full Aston Martin Vanquish Volante 2014 review.