2009 Aston Martin V12 Vantage RS Revealed

Since the dawn of the V8 Vantage driving experience back in the fall of 2005, we’ve been wondering whether or not Aston would ever get to make the baby Gaydonite go a little faster, jump a little higher, steer a little snappier, and evoke more driver’s passion in our guts. Basically, make it go as well as or better than the Porsche 911 family (whether Aston bosses fess up to this dream or not).

At the December 11th opening of the new Aston Martin Design Studio, boss Ulrich Bez oversaw the unveiling of the surprising V12 Vantage RS. In most basic terms, the V12 Vantage RS is a V8 Vantage after having its 380-horsepower 4.3-liter V-8 dislodged and the company’s 6.0-liter V-12 shoehorned into the vacant engine bay.

(Click through to read more about Aston’s V12 Vantage RS.)

Why is this so surprising to us? Well, honestly, we’ve been hoping only that they would do something more sensational with the sensational 4.3-liter V8 engine in order to get it up to maybe 490 horses (or more) and 400 pound-feet or so of torque. This seems more exciting for us (and frankly more in keeping with the dimensions and intensions of the Vantage image) than just dumping the V12 fatty into the front end to grab some quickie headlines at minimal R&D costs. But anyway…

Of course there are some exciting things to talk about with such a setup. The V12 Vantage RS has reportedly achieved a readout on the dynamometer of 630 horsepower, even though reported horsepower for a production version stands at 600-hp peaking at 6250 rpm. This is wonderfully nutty, as is the estimated curb weight of 3420 pounds, which is roughly 155 pounds less than the stock V8 Vantage hardtop, and this even though the modified and improved 6.0-liter V-12 engine weighs 155 pounds more than the 4.3-liter V-8. This all means that Aston found ways to strip 310 pounds of ballast from the V12 Vantage RS equation.

First, the passenger cabin, though still elegant, is stripped to the bone and carbon fiber facings abound. The competition bucket seats are reskinned versions of the lightweight units in the recently tested DBS, and any usefulness for the area behind the seats has been chucked to make fast space for more fuel while still losing weight. This also creates room in back – at this concept stage – for an electro-pneumatic pump for raising and lowering the new rear wing. The alloy body panels all stay, apart from the showpiece carbon-fiber heavily louvered engine hood, which weighs just a bit more than a feather by our hands-on estimation. Carbon fiber dresses the lower chin splitter and rear diffuser, demonstrating the car’s racing intentions via promised masses of downforce. Brake discs are the big ceramic units as used on the DBS as well, saving many pounds thereby.

Asking Aston’s engineering spokesman David King about the possibilities here, he tells us that the V-12 Vantage RS has “a high likelihood” of reaching production. There are two schools of thought for what to do with the car and they include a limited run each year of one hundred units prepared to a higher level and with a much higher price tag, or a run of one thousand tuned to a slightly less costly level. Company leaders are leaning toward the first big-margin approach. The price would arrive thus somewhere not far from $200,000.

Engineer King encouraged us to see more goodness in the V12 Vantage RS when he mentioned that the weight distribution actually remains fairly close to that of the V8 Vantage (which reads 49/51 percent fore/aft) with a respectable fore/aft percentile of 52/48. We still anticipate understeer tendencies from this car, but the throttle and steering rack should compensate nicely for any that does creep up. The front suspension is utterly adjustable via blue knobs at the strut towers, the car rides lower than the V8 Vantage, and standard tires are sticky 19-inch Pirelli P Zero Nero, so again any pushing through turns should be minimal thanks to these technical measures.

The V12 Vantage RS was planned and engineered by Aston’s internal Special Vehicle Operations unit working closely with design director Marek Reichman and his team.

How fast’ll she do? Conservative company estimates put acceleration to 62 mph (100 km/h) at 4.0 seconds, and it can continue through to 100 mph in just 8.5 seconds. These are the speeds and timings we’ve been looking for from this sexiest of sexy machines, but it would’ve been finer to be getting these results with the V8 engine and about $50,000 fewer dollars per.

We’ll let you know how it feels as soon as a drive is possible. We’re already grateful for Aston’s choice to use only the manual shifter, so we are ready to love the V12 Vantage RS if Aston lets us.