Aston Martin’s Vantage S is a masterclass in balance, offering a poised but playful driving experience that’s perfect for both twisty roads and daily driving. While the engine’s plentiful power and fierce soundtrack are intoxicating, the engineers in Gaydon directed most of their attention to the chassis, implementing subtle upgrades to elevate the already enthralling Vantage to a new level of driver engagement.
The revised setup features new camber, toe, and caster settings, and the Bilstein adaptive dampers are retuned as well. Aston Martin also mounted the rear subframe directly to the body, replacing two rubber bushings found in the standard Vantage, for a stiffer overall structure. Still, Aston wanted balance, so it softened the transmission mounts by 10 percent to better manage powertrain movement by lessening the abruptness of vertical motions and reduced the rear spring rate for better low-speed ride quality.
The changes don’t drastically alter the Vantage’s personality, but they help this car feel incredibly responsive and agile. The steering is dialed in, with weight building progressively, clearly communicating how well the front end is gripping the pavement. The suspension glides over most bumps while minimizing body roll. As you throttle out of a corner, the rear end squats and loads up before rocketing forward, like a well-tuned machine.
The Vantage S flows through twisty sections with ease, but instead of dissecting the corners with clinical precision, it plays in them, romping around with boisterous delight. The Vantage seems to revel when you drive it hard, inviting you to carry more speed through the corner and get more aggressive with the accelerator as you exit. And while the Vantage is capable of heart-racing speeds, the carbon-ceramic brakes slow it down with authority and immediacy.
The cabin hasn’t changed much from the standard car, but that’s no bad thing, with the Vantage filled with lush Alcantara and supple leather, adorned with more S logos and accented by carbon-fiber inlays. While a 10.3-inch digital instrument cluster is paired with a 12.5-inch touchscreen, there are still plenty of buttons for drive settings, audio controls, and the climate system. The gauge cluster still looks appropriately Aston Martin, and we see the appeal of having all functions operate within CarPlay, but we’ll admit to not having explored the new software that deeply.
We were too busy driving. The Vantage S is already on sale and starts at $199,500, just $5000 more than the standard car. While the S model isn’t a dramatic rethinking of the Vantage, the series of small tweaks work in harmony to provide a poised but playful partner that has a wider bandwidth thanks to its balanced setup. The Vantage S can slice through curvy roads and cruise around town while broadcasting eight-cylinder theater, a true sports-car MVP.
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