Aston Vantage goes topless

These are first images of the keenly anticipated Roadster version of Aston Martin's exquisitely proportioned V8 Vantage.

The ragtop was shown to a select few at a swanky cocktail event in New York, but its first genuine public appearance is scheduled to take place at the Los Angeles Auto Show later this month.

It's due on sale in Europe in time for the northern summer, and we can expect it to arrive Down Under towards the end of next year, wearing a sticker price in the vicinity of $260,000.

Euro sources suggest there's a lengthy waiting list for the car, so it's guaranteed a fair degree of exclusivity.

As per its coupe sibling, the Vantage Roadster is powered by a sonorous 283kW/410Nm 4.3-litre quad-cam V8, which is mated to a six-speed manual gearbox, or a new Sportshift automated manual.

The sequential gearbox is claimed to swap cogs in a scant 200 milliseconds and can be operated manually via steering wheel-mounted paddles.

The chassis strengthening required to compensate for the loss of the roof means the Roadster weighs about 80kg more than the V8 Vantage coupe, but Aston Martin says performance is undiminished.

The company claims it'll bolt to 100km/h in 5.0 seconds and hit a v-max of 280km/h.

It's fairly rapid in other ways, too, as electric motors can lower or deploy the triple-layered soft-top in 18 seconds, and this can be achieved on the go -- provided you're travelling at less than 50km/h.

When lowered, the hood hides behind a flush tonneau cover, with a pair of leather 'speed humps' nestling behind each of the headrests. Practicality does suffer though, as luggage space is reduced from the coupe's 300 litres to a meagre 144 litres.

Aston Martin believes the new Roadster could account for up to half of all Vantage sales globally -- much the same as the split between the DB9 and its Volante derivative.