2015 Aston Martin Vanquish Volante

2015 Aston Martin Vanquish Volante

 Aston Martin is revealing details of a raft of important enhancements to two of the brand's most popular and successful sports cars: the Vanquish ultimate GT and Rapide S four-door, four-seat, sports car.

2015 Aston Martin Vanquish Volante

With the arrival of 15 Model Year (15MY) cars in markets around the world, the luxury British brand is offering not only considerably enhanced performance and much-improved fuel economy and emissions, but also an even more honed, precise and responsive driving experience.

With the debut of the new Touchtronic III eight-speed automatic gearbox in both Vanquish and Rapide S - the first time that this state-of-the-art gearbox has been incorporated into a transaxle layout - Aston Martin is improving every major area of the cars' performance and fuel economy. The brand's engineers have worked meticulously with technical partner, ZF, to develop the eight-speed technology and integrate it perfectly into the latest generation of the iconic and much-imitated Aston Martin VH architecture.

2015 Aston Martin Vanquish Volante

The 0-60 mph times for both the Vanquish and Rapide S are reduced in 15MY cars: The Vanquish drops from 4.1 seconds to just 3.6 seconds (3.8 seconds 0-100 km/h) and the Rapide S is capable of the same sprint in only 4.2 seconds (4.4 seconds 0-100 km/h) - also down by a full half second from its previous figure of 4.7 seconds. These impressive gains not only ensure the cars' exceptional competitiveness in their respective sectors, but also confirm Vanquish as the quickest accelerating series production Aston Martin in the company's 101-year history.

2015 Aston Martin Vanquish Volante

Changes to gear and final drive ratios allow the cars to be not only quicker but also more frugal, with reduced emissions too. In both sports cars the CO2 figure drops by an average of ten per cent - down to 298 g/km for Vanquish and 300 g/km for Rapide S - while economy is boosted to 31 mpg, on average an 11% improvement, on the EU's extra urban cycle for both the Vanquish and the Rapide S under the same stringent test conditions.

Combined with a revised final drive, the ratio changes also mean both cars are, for the first time, now capable of top speeds of 200 mph or above.

A reduction in exhaust gas back pressure as a result of ratio adjustment and other changes also benefits peak power, which rises by up to three bhp to a peak of 568 bhp (576 PS) in Vanquish, and two bhp, 552 bhp (560 PS), in Rapide S. Peak torque is up by 10 Nm, too, to 630 Nm at 5,500 rpm in all the cars.

The new eight-speed Touchtronic III automatic gearbox is not only three per cent lighter than its predecessor, it is also packaged more efficiently occupying precisely the same space within the car yet adding two further ratios over the outgoing transmission.