There are few better ways to

travel through the summer

months than in an opentopped

Aston Martin, and

precisely none superior to

doing so in one that's powered

by the company's spine-tingling V12 engine.

Like the rest of Aston's model range,

the Vantage Roadster is starting to feel

elderly when compared directly to some

of its more modern rivals. It can't match

the performance of its younger challengers

and its cabin conspicuously lacks the sort

of high-tech gadgetry (much of it pointless)

that many buyers in this segment expect to

nd ladled on. Even when Aston has tried

to get with the times, it hasn't always been

successful - the satellite navigation display

is so blocky that you suspect it might be

running an ancient edition of MS-DOS

somewhere in the background.

Yet not even the greatest cynic could

deny that the Vantage Roadster has aged

extremely well, looking as good today as

when it was introduced a decade ago. This

is a car that's passed from 'box fresh' to

'classic' without ever passing 'old'. And the

range-topping V12 engine we're sampling

here is perhaps Aston's nest ever engine,

without the raw oomph of more modern

turbocharged rivals, but with impeccable

manners that combine creamy low-speed

responses with truly startling top-end

performance - the latter accompanied by

a soundtrack that could

play at the Teatro alla

Scala in Milan.

The driving experience

is similar. The Vantage

S isn't the sharpest or

the fastest drive, but it

is still one of the most

characterful. There's no

better place than the track to sample the

old-fashioned challenge of driving a car that

directs so much power

through its rear wheels,

making you adopt the

traditional technique

of approaching corners

slowly and then leaving

them extremely rapidly.

Best bits: Classic

style, seamless driving

experience, V12 soundtrack.

Worst bits: Gearbox lacks precision.

ASTON MARTIN VANTAGE V12 S ROADSTER

Aston's gorgeous Vantage Roadster may be getting long in

the tooth, but it still o ers a scintillating driving experience

This is a car that has passed from 'box

fresh' to 'classic' without ever passing 'old'

ASTON MARTIN

VANTAGE V12 S

ROADSTER

Price: £147,000

Engine: 6.0-litre V12

Power: 565bhp

0-60mph: 3.9 seconds

Top speed: 201mph

Economy: 19.2mpg

124 | squaremeal.co.uk

In the hierarchy of hot hatches, Ford's RS-badged models

have always sat close to the top. And there's no reason to

suppose that the third-generation model, which we'll be

seeing this summer, will be any di� erent.

Featuring a turbocharged engine with

around 340bhp and a very clever

four-wheel drive system, it looks

set to become the king of the

castle in terms of performance, and

is likely to undercut posh rivals like

the Audi RS3 and Mercedes A45

AMG by a decent margin too.

COMING SOON:

Ford Focus RS