Sampling Aston Martin's Product Range

Aston Martins are special automobiles; their rarity is on par with products manufactured by companies like Rolls-Royce, Maserati and even Lamborghini.

Understandably it’s an extraordinary treat to get time in just one of this British brand’s cars, but it’s something else entirely when you have an opportunity to sample the breadth of their lineup.

And yet that’s exactly what happened. Earlier this week the company hosted a drive event in Southern California. Select members of the press were offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to sample nearly everything in the Aston Martin showroom. A broad array of models were on hand and in fact I’ve never seen so many of these cars in a single place at one time.

AutoGuide.com was given a chance to thoroughly sample these rarified automobiles on the twisting asphalt of California’s legendary Mulholland Drive, a route that snakes its way through the rugged canyons and sun-drenched hillsides of the Santa Monica mountains.

Over the course of a day we sampled four different machines, each of which plays a unique role in the company’s lineup. There was the V8 Vantage GT with its unexpectedly crisp manual transmission, the head-turning Rapide S sedan was well represented, Aston Martin’s ultimate grand tourer, the Vanquish was available for testing and I also evaluated the V12 Vantage S, a car that shocked me in many ways. We’ll have full reviews of each model in the coming weeks but until these stories go live here’s a brief overview of each car just to whet your appetite.

Vantage is the most affordable model in Aston Martin’s range with a starting price just one Benjamin Franklin shy of 100 grand (excluding destination and delivery charges). At that price you get a 4.7-liter V8 engine that delivers generous helpings of both horsepower and torque, 430 and 360, respectively. This car’s top speed is north of 190 miles an hour and it can reach mile-a-minute velocity in just 4.6 seconds.

Giving drivers some welcome choice, two transmission are offered. They can opt to go with the standard six-speed stick or a quick-draw seven-ratio automated manual. This is the only Aston Martin that’s available with three pedals so if you want to row your own the V8 Vantage GT is your car.

It may be “just” a sedan but the stylish Rapide S turns heads like no other Aston Martin. This shapely four-door garnered more attention from California’s jaded motorists and pedestrians than any other model I sampled. This car has a commanding presence on the road and it appears substantially larger than the company’s other models. This could be why it got so many looks, though the dark purple-metallic paint covering the example I evaluated probably amped up its eye-catching appeal.

SEE ALSO: 2015 Rolls-Royce Ghost Series II Review

The big news with this car is the inclusion of a brand-new eight-speed automatic transaxle. This cutting-edge unit was co-developed with ZF and is mounted at the rear of the car, the first time it’s ever been installed this way. Overall this unit is 3 percent lighter than the six-speed gearbox it replaces and can change ratios in as little as 130 milliseconds.

Thanks to its new transmission the Rapide S is half a second quicker to 60 miles an hour, making the run in 4.2 seconds. It’s also more fuel efficient, returning a claimed 19 miles per gallon on the highway. Not bad for a car with a howling 6.0-liter V12 engine!

As mentioned earlier, the Aston Martin Vanquish is their ultimate grand touring automobile. It’s fast, engaging and able to gobble up long stretches of highway without breaking a sweat. Like the Rapide S it also gains a new eight-speed transaxle, something that pays major performance and fuel-economy dividends.

Reduced engine backpressure has netted the Vanquish an additional three horsepower for a total of 568; maximum torque has also been improved and measures 465 lb-ft. The car’s chassis received some minor enhancements as well and there are new lightweight, 10-spoke alloy wheels that save nearly seven kilograms of un-sprung mass. Top speed for the coupe is north of 200 miles an hour; the drop-top Volante version’s terminal velocity is slightly less at a still-plenty-fast 197 MPH.

The V8-powered Vantage is a highly entertaining machine (especially with a manual transmission), but the biggest surprise of this drive event was the 12-cylinder model. The car is an absolute rocket! Think of it as sort of a British interpretation of the classic American muscle-car. Engineers crammed the firm’s biggest powerplant under the hood of their smallest model. Predictably the results are breathtaking.

This car accelerates like the light beam coming out of a laser, reaching 60 miles an hour in a scant 3.9 seconds, though it feels even faster than Aston’s official figure. With the roof down the noises this machine makes are absolutely unholy, especially when driving through canyons or tunnels, features that allow the sound to reverberate like the reed in a woodwind instrument.

Providing this audio spectacle is a supremely sonorous 6.0-liter V12 that’s good for 565 bhp and 457 lb-ft of torque. The engine is matched to a synapse-quick Sportshift III seven-speed automated manual transmission. Le Mans-grade carbon ceramic brakes ensure drivers can rein in all that power time after time after time.

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