- Aston Martin has resurrected the Vanquish after a six-year hiatus.
- The 2025 Aston Martin Vanquish gets a twin-turbo V-12 making an astounding 820 horsepower, paired to a mostly carbon fiber body.
- The new Vanquish will start at an eye-watering $420,000.
For some people, only a V-12 will do. It doesn’t matter that the twin-turbo 4.0-liter V-8 in the DB12 makes 671 horsepower and sounds excellent—it simply has too few cylinders. That’s why Aston Martin is reviving one of the greatest names in all the car world with a V-12: Vanquish.
After a six-year absence and a cancelled attempt to make a mid-engine supercar, the Aston Martin Vanquish is back and returning to its roots. This is an unabashedly big, powerful, luxurious GT car, complete with a 5.2-liter twin-turbo V-12 making 824 horsepower and a 214-mph top speed. Aston Martin plans to build no more than 1,000 a year, and the base price is $420,000.
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The engine shares its basic dimensions with the previous Aston V-12, but it’s heavily revised compared to its predecessor. To both increase power and torque—a monster 738 pound-feet—while meeting ever tighter emissions regulations, the V-12 gets a new block, heads, ports, camshafts, connecting rods, turbochargers, fuel injectors, and relocated spark plugs. So basically everything. Aston says the engine is “unrecognizable” from the old one.
As with the old DBS Superleggera, the engine is paired with a rear-mounted eight-speed automatic gearbox, though like the new Vantage and DB12, it gets an electronically controlled limited-slip differential. The engine also has a new feature called Boost Reserve, which can increase boost pressure beyond what’s needed under partial throttle, so that when the driver asks for more power, there’s boost ready to go. It’s done by carefully coordinating the throttle and the electronically controlled wastegate. Aston says the final-drive ratio was chosen to enable that high top speed, but acceleration is still strong—0-60 mph takes 3.2 seconds.
Like all modern Astons, the Vanquish has a bonded and extruded aluminum monocoque chassis, but unlike the DB12 and Vantage, it gets mostly carbon-fiber bodywork. Aston quotes a dry weight of 3,911 pounds in its lightest form, but with all the fluids necessary for driving, the Vanquish will blow past the 4,000-pound mark. Tires are a bespoke set of Pirelli P-Zeroes measuring 275/35 front and 325/30 out back. Standard, you get forged wheels and carbon-ceramic brakes too, which help keep unsprung weight in check.
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There’s all sorts of fancy chassis technology, too. The Vanquish uses Bilstein DTX dampers like the new Vantage and DB12, and it also gets a six-axis inertial measurement unit that helps ensure more precise control of the dampers, e-diff, and traction/stability control systems. There’s also a new system called Corner Braking, which helps ensure rear-end stability when trail braking into a corner.
Inside, the Vanquish looks a lot like other current Aston Martin models, complete with a new center console filled with physical controls, and a bespoke infotainment system. One of the big critiques with older Astons was their lackluster interiors, and the Vanquish’s cabin seems to be anything but.
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Aston Martin
Compared with the DB12, the Vanquish is longer, wider, and lower. Its wheelbase is just over 3.0 inches longer, the overall length is 6.5 inches longer, and it’s 2.4 inches wider. But a reduction in height makes it two-tenths of an inch shorter. It definitely looks like an Aston, though with a more sculptural hood up front, and bigger haunches at the rear. The abrupt Kamm tail is unique among other new Astons, and it’s inspired by a series of cars the company raced at Le Mans in the 1960s, the DP212, DP214, and DP215. There’s also something of the limited-edition Valour to the profile and rear too, which itself references Aston’s burly GTs of the 1970s.
This is only the third time Aston Martin has used the Vanquish nameplate. Its predecessors are much beloved models, flagship V-12 GT cars, so this new one has a lot to live up to. On first impression, we think it should have no trouble.
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