What's the difference?
Aston Martin says the 2024 Vantage is designed to put the brand back where it belongs. And by that, it means thrust into the same conversation as Ferrari and Lamborghini when it comes to the ultimate in driver-focused supercars.
Which is why everything – and I mean everything – about this new model has been tightened, tuned or turned way the hell up in pursuit of performance.
Really, it has been a no-stone-left-unturned approach here. And the result, the brand reckons, is a car that delivers not just more power and more torque, but a near-telepathic connection between car and driver, too.
Well, that’s the promise anyway.
So how does the Vantage stack up in the battle for supercar supremacy? I was quite looking forward to figuring that out, to be honest.
Once upon a time, people would dream about owning a Mercedes-Benz 450SLC – the C107 sports/luxury coupe flagship of the 1970s.
Sexy, stylish, secure and incredibly solid, it embodied the brand’s ‘Engineered Like No Other Car' mantra of the era.
Today’s all-new, second-generation, C192 AMG GT Coupe is something of an indirect descendant of this sort of thinking, changing tack from its supercar-esque 2014 C190 predecessor, with more space, more seats, more sensibility and, conversely, even more steak and sizzle from its glorious V8.
A modern-day SLC? The Porsche 911, Aston Martin DB12, Maserati GranTurismo and Bentley Continental GT’s worst nightmare? Or something else entirely?
These questions and more are answered below.
It’s either a comfortable race car or a bonkers grand tourer, but it’s that best-of-both worlds positioning that makes this new Vantage so appealing. Think of it as like a supercar for proper grown-ups, and one you don’t need to grunt and groan to extract yourself from.
Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.
The GT63 4Matic+ is a breathtaking example of everything that Mercedes-Benz and AMG are.
Ferociously fast, incredibly agile and superbly sophisticated, it should be on anybody’s shortlist, if that also includes a Porsche, Aston Martin, Maserati or even a Lamborghini. And it’s definitely much more than yesterday’s SLC ever was – for similar money in today’s terms, as it turns out.
But, around Tasmania’s glorious roads at least, the Mercedes-AMG lacks the ride comfort and road noise isolation to be a fully-rounded-out GT, and that’s a disappointment for a brand with such formidable history in making such cars.