Aston Martin Vanquish S review

There might only be small adjustments, micro-tweaks, but the overall effect is stark. TG remembers being gobsmacked, on driving the outgoing Vanquish several years ago, by how its body control felt so soft and loose, so out of sync, but not to the benefit of comfort. By comparison, the damping is now tight as a drum keeping the body spirit-level flat both side-to-side, and front to back, and even the nastiest jolts are rounded of like flawless pebbles. Shock horror, even the firmer of two dampers settings isn’t strictly for track, you can actually use it when you’re feeling frisky on the road.

We weren't, particularly. Mostly because our encounter was on frost-bitten country lanes around the Aston factory in Warwickshire, and on the first roundabout past the security gate we managed to tickle the throttle and spin up the rears only to be saved from swapping ends by the rather lackadaisical traction control. Lesson learned.

Though it’s not a spiky so and so. Not at all. The lesson learned is that this powertrain is sublime. The eight-speed auto snaps through the gears, and while the engine doesn’t have the low-hanging torque of the DB11, it responds instantly and crisply, and then builds and builds to a soaring, harmonic crescendo. Sorry, but for sheer excitement and sense of occasion, this beats the DB11’s blown V12 hands down. Problem is, with second gear taking you to nearly 70mph, you’ll rarely get to the best bits on the public road. What you can enjoy at legal speeds is the steering: lighter and more fluid than before, but with real feedback and subtle resistance when you pour it into corners.