2021 Aston Martin Vantage F1 Edition
Aston Martin Lagonda released a teaser image Monday of an all-new Aston Martin Vantage sports car ahead of its reveal on Feb. 12. The revised Vantage will be introduced together with a new Formula 1 AMR24 race car and the new Vantage GT3 race car.
The British automaker describes the new Vantage as, “a sports car engineered for real drivers; for those who crave driving purity and revel at the limit. Class leading — but this isn’t just a numbers game. This is an authentic, unadulterated celebration of pure performance.”
Other details will be forthcoming.
BORN TO DRIVE
The first Aston Martin: the 1914 Coal Scuttle
But talk of racing and sports cars is nothing new to Aston Martin, a brand born to race. The company dates to 1914, a time when Britain was still an empire and Singer Motor Car dealers Robert Bamford and Lionel Martin decided to build their own car for racing. But Martin and Bamford were more successful at racing than finances, and it wasn’t until 1923 that the first Aston Martin was offered for sale.
Since then, the company has managed to survive multiple bankruptcies on the purity of its sports car/race car vision.
BIRTH OF THE VANTAGE
The Vantage nameplate was the high-performance variant of the Aston Martin DB2, DB4, DB5 and DB6, becoming a standalone model in 1972. It was basically the 4.0-liter 6-cylinder version of the DBS, a car introduced in 1967 to replace the DB6, but sporting new coachwork. It flopped, and was dropped after two tears. It reappeared in 1977 as the V8 Vantage, with a 390-hp 5.3-liter V8 under its bonnet. It remained the company’s flagship car through 1989. The Vantage name was revived as the high-performance version of the 1993-2000 Virage, the company’s flagship car. It also could be found on the 1999-2003 DB7, sporting a 5.9-liter Aston Martin V12 engine producing 420 horsepower and 400 pound-feet of torque.
2013 Aston Martin V12 Vantage S
Finally, for 2006, the Vantage became its own model once again. It was developed with corporate parent Ford Motor Co., which had own Aston since 1987. Designed to compete with the Porsche 911, the two-seat coupe was initially powered by a 380-hp, 4.3-liter V-8 with a top speed of 175 mph. A roadster debuted for 2007, followed by a 510-hp 5.9-liter V12 model for 2010.
The Vantage was redesigned for 2018, using the DB11’s architecture and powered by a Mercedes-Benz 503-hp twin-turbocharged V8 engine. But in a final gasp of gas-fueled frenzy, the 690-hp 5.2-liter twin-turbo V-12-powered Vantage returned as a final, limited edition in 2022.
What the new Vantage holds remains unknown for now. But one thing is assured: it will be one fast sports car.
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