Aston Martin never seems to be stable, with every bit of good news followed by bad. Fernando Alonso has signed a long-term deal with its Formula 1 team… but the on-track results aren’t a patch on 12 months ago. After the facelift Vantage we drive here, a revised version of the DBX SUV follows… but in this transition phase to new models, Aston’s Q1 2024 sales dropped by a quarter. And on and on it goes.

If the new Vantage is to break that cycle, it needs to be a sure-fire hit, with no ‘ifs’ and no ‘buts’. To do that, Aston has moved it out of Porsche 911 GTS territory, upping the old car’s twin-turbo V8 from 503bhp to 656bhp. It’s now more powerful than a 911 Turbo S – and with only two driven wheels, quite a starting point for an ‘entry level’ Aston Martin sports car…

The looks are lairier too, and banished is the creaky Mercedes-sourced infotainment system, replaced by Aston’s own tech. But it’ll count for nowt if the overhauled chassis can’t handle all that power.

To find out whether it can, Top Gear’s Jethro Bovingdon spent 48 hours with the new Vantage, on road and, of course, on track…
Subscribe to Top Gear for more videos: http://bit.ly/SubscribeToTopGear
WATCH MORE TOP GEAR:
First Looks: https://bit.ly/TGFirstLooks 
First Drives: https://bit.ly/TGFirstDrives
American Tuned ft. Rob Dahm: https://bit.ly/TGAmericanTuned
LISTEN to the Top Gear Magazine Podcast: https://topgear.podlink.to/Podcast
Sign up for our newsletter: https://www.topgear.com/newsletter-signup
Chapters:
MORE ABOUT TOP GEAR:
Welcome to the official home of Top Gear on YouTube. Here you'll find all the best clips from your favourite episodes, whether that’s Ken Block drifting London in the Hoonicorn, Chris Harris in the latest Porsche 911 GT3 or classic Top Gear clips from Clarkson, Hammond and May. You'll also find the latest performance car reviews from the TopGear.com crew, our brand new series American Tuned with Rob Dahm and the fastest power laps from our in house performance benchmark: The Stig.
This is a commercial channel from BBC Studios.
Service & Feedback https://www.bbcstudios.com/contact/contact-us/