Aston drops Vanquish's top

Precisely a year after the launch of the new Vanquish coupe upon which it’s based, Aston Martin has revealed its all-new flagship, the Vanquish Volante.

Emerging faithful to the spy shots we published a month ago, the drop-top Vanquish is Aston’s first full carbon-fibre bodied convertible and its stiffest ever open-top model ever.

The British sports car brand, which celebrates its 00th anniversary this year, bills the Vanquish Volante -- first Australian deliveries of which are expected to take place by the end of this year -- as “the ultimate convertible super GT”.

Based on the same fourth-generation bonded aluminium VH platform, the new convertible also shares the Vanquish coupe’s 2+2-seat cabin layout and latest-generation front-mounted AM11 naturally aspirated 5.9-litre alloy V12.

Driving its rear wheels via a Touchtronic 2 six-speed automatic transmission and alloy torque tube with carbon-fibre prop shaft, it produces 420kW of power and 620Nm of torque.

Despite a hefty kerb weight of 1844kg (just 9kg more than the Vanquish coupe, split 51/49 front/rear), that’s enough to offer estimated 0-100km/h acceleration of just 4.1 seconds and a 295km/h top speed, making it as quick and fast as the hard-top Vanquish.

Key differences to its fixed-roof donor car are a triple-skin fabric roof that opens in 14 seconds and reduces boot space to 279 litres with the roof up or down – 50 per cent bigger than the DBS Volante it replaces.

Apart from better packaging and the lightweighting, thanks to the use of aluminium, magnesium and carbon-fibre composite for all body panels and semi-structural components, Aston says the body of its newest roadster is 14 per cent more torsionally rigid than the DBS Volante, making it more resistant to flex and more predictable to handle.

Specifically tuned suspension spring and damper rates are said to result in the same ride and handling characteristics as the coupe and the chassis comes with the same adaptive dampers with Normal, Sport and Track modes, the same quick-ratio (15:1, with just 2.6 turns lock-to-lock) steering, the same 20-inch alloys with Pirelli P Zero tyres and the same Brembo carbon ceramic brake rotors – 398mm up front and 360mm rear.

“This car is what luxury super GT driving is all about -- great performance, fantastic style and exhilarating Volante motoring in one superb package,” said Aston Martin CEO Dr Ulrich Bez.

“Aston Martin is celebrating 100 years of excellence in 2013, and the arrival of this new sports car – our ultimate Volante – underlines that our mission to make the next 100 years even more successful is starting perfectly.”

Pricing has been announced for Europe, North America and Middle East, but there’s no word yet on the Australian price premium over the Vanquish coupe ($472,840 plus on-road costs).

Standard features are as per the coupe, including twin front, side and curtain airbags, full-grain Luxmil leather trim, Alcantara headlining, powered front seats with heating and memory, tyre pressure monitoring, 1000-Watt Bang & Olufsen BeoSound 15-speaker audio system, Garmin satellite-navigation, 6.5-inch LCD screen, digital radio, Bluetooth audio and phone streaming, front/rear parking sensors, cruise control, trip computer, a heated glass rear screen and glass key.

Among the many options are a multitude of 20-inch alloy wheel designs, a black vaned grille, black textured tailpipe, carbon-fibre side strakes and door-handles, carbon-fibre centre stack, carbon-fibre gearshift paddles, head restraints embroidered with AM wings, personalised sill plaques and – surprisingly at this price -- a six-CD stacker and reversing camera.