The Scottish Express Test Drive Aston Martin Vanquish S.
We can finally write an in-depth and detailed article for the 07 Aston Martin S, which comes from the Aston Martin factory and is the last hand-built car. We can look back at this old factory of Aston Martin in the small town of Newport Pagnell. It has produced many excellent cars, from the DB4 in 1957 to the Vanquish Final Edition (50th out of 50 cars) with a cost of 366,700 dollars. It has been off the production line on July 19th, 2007.
"Aston-Martin Vanquish S Appearance"
If this was the first and last time you wanted to drive an Aston Martin Vanquish, what would you do? We want to drive as much as we can, and we want to finish this trip on the best road.
If you have no problem, we will give you a history lesson in the direction of Aston Martin factory, and introduce you to the tradition of making cars by hand, which has come to an end with the last Vanquish off the assembly line. Because we happen to be going to Scotland.
● The beauty of art in sports
On the way from London to Birmingham, we sat outside the now empty Newport Pagnell factory. The last Aston-Martin Vanquish S looks weird just like it did when it first appeared at the Detroit Auto Show in 1998 as Ian Callum’s dominant design project. Since it was put into mass production in 2001 (and then appeared in the American market in 2002), it has not been redesigned. There is a good reason for this, because it has the perfect muscle tissue like Michelangelo’s sculpture.
After leaving the beautiful wooden door installed in the old brick building of Newport Pagnell factory to avoid the noise of the street, we were very depressed when we remembered that this was the last hand-built Aston Martin car. Workers in clean overalls carefully make and assemble various accessories by hand, which adds a special meaning to each car, but the robots produced in Gaydon’s new factory can’t recreate this meaning. The hand-made car has already contained a trace of historical vicissitudes before it began to turn the first wheel.
"Aston-Martin Vanquish S Appearance"
When we were heading for the main road, the first surprise was the automatic continuous manual transmission. It has been criticized in the past, and we are used to the traditional driving mode of three pedals, so we are worried that Vanquish will destroy our enjoyment of driving in this respect. However, the shift knob installed on the steering column is smooth metal, which swings very little and shifts gears accurately every time, accompanied by a pleasant metallic click.
● Scottish express
The vehicles traveled freely on M6 highway to the Lake District, and when they got there, they miraculously dispersed as if by magic. From here on, your right foot only stretches briefly while crossing the border line from England to Scotland. 90 mph is relaxing and interesting. The chassis conveys a surprising number of bumps and defects, but it will never reach the level that makes you uncomfortable and uneasy. In fact, the performance of this Vanquish is what a GT high-performance sports car should look like.
"Aston-Martin Vanquish S Appearance"
With the interweaving of the west coast highway trunk line and the high-speed virgin train suddenly appearing on our left, the car has a dive here at A74M, which is very spectacular. We roared forward for several miles side by side, and the scene at that time was like those spectacular early races: on the way from London to Edinburgh, cars confronted steam locomotives. Undoubtedly, this Vanquish is to realize this daydream, and perfectly integrate the car elite with performance.
We arrived in Glasgow in time, and passed through this building quickly before the spacious one-way street in Scotland ushered in the rush hour. These roads are built along the lake and extend sharply down into the canyon. Unfortunately, it is at least a nominal "summer" now, and there are a lot of chemical odor masking agents to pull the camping tourists to the highlands.
Aston Martin’s Factory
Fortunately, this 520-horsepower 5.9-liter V12 engine is an ideal overtaking tool. At 4,500 rpm, it spins hard and happily, outputting 425 lb-ft of torque, and then maintaining the pressure of this intensity until 7,000 rpm, gently pulling the shift knob with the index finger, and the next beautiful surging sound will come.
As Rannoch Moor’s empty land gradually emerged, we saw the long, pale and barren lane line on the road, and the shimmer gently passed through the hot and humid fog and penetrated the vent on the hood of this Aston. There seems to be only one thing to do now. We saw 100 mph in the third gear and 130 mph in the fourth gear. When we shifted from the fifth gear to the sixth gear, we forgot to look at the speedometer, and now we are approaching the real high speed. That’s why we came to Scotland.