Aston Martin V12 Vantage

Aston Martin V12 Vantage

There’s an irony in the fact that when the Aston Martin V12 Vantage was launched last year, it was barred from sale in the USA. The irony being that with this car, Aston was following a time-honored American concept. Take your most compact bodyshell, and ram under the hood your most beef-fed, honkin’ engine. It’s called the musclecar.

Of course, Aston’s interpretation of the musclecar theme is rather more suave, sophisticated and aristocratic than, say, a ‘70 Chevy Chevelle SS454, but the thinking behind it ain’t so very far removed.

So why didn’t it come here? Because as originally engineered for the rest of the world, the front end of the car was so densely packed with engine that there wasn’t the space for the structures needed to meet US crash regulations. At the required barrier impact speed, the dummy’s chest recorded a borderline deceleration figure.

But customers worldwide were meanwhile chomping to get at the car, so the engineers got to thinking. Analysis of the computer models and turned up a location where some extra aluminum longitudinal members could be installed to change the load path and soften the deceleration. It tested well, and this car is the result. The extra weight is insignificant. And the performance, handling and styling are unaffected by the crash mods.