Aston Martin Vanquish S’ roof goes soft for new drop-top Volante

Revived as the replacement for the DBS and its DBS Superleggera offshoot last year, Aston Martin has debuted the drop-top Volante version of the new Vanquish S overnight as its most powerful series production cabriolet ever made.

From hard to soft

Only the second Vanquish S to be offered as a cabriolet as the original, made from 2004 to 2007 as an evolution of the earlier Vanquish, only came in coupe form, the newcomer’s main difference, aside from its roof, involves a number of chassis changes to make up for the loss in structural rigidity.

In this instance, the suspension and Bilstein DTX dampers are bespoke to it, with the chassis itself having required additional bonding to make it as stiff as the coupe.

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Also carried over, the Volante receives the carbon ceramic brakes with a six-piston caliper setup at the front and four-piston at the rear, as well as four modes for the stability control; On, Wet, Track and Off.

Compared to its sibling though, the Volante’s stability control has been retuned, with the same applying to the Sport and Sport+ driving modes.

Tipping the scales at 95 kg heavier than the coupe, the fabric roof required a redesign of the rear decklid as it now folds in a K-pattern into a dedicated recess behind the rear bulkhead in 14 seconds.

Performance

In terms of power, the Mercedes-AMG sourced 5.2-litre twin-turbo V12 continues unchanged from the coupe with outputs of 614kW/1 000Nm.

Paired to the eight-speed Touchtronic transmission, along with the electronic differential or E-diff, the Volante will get from 0-100 km/h in 3.4 seconds, a tenth slower than its sibling, and hit the same 345 km/h top speed.

Spec

Inside, and again without the inclusion of the acoustically sorted roof, the interior remains unchanged in look and design, meaning the retention of the floating centre console, the new steering wheel, physical buttons, the 10.25-inch infotainment system with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, the 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster and a 15-speaker Bowers & Wilkins sound system.

Standard safety and driver assistance systems are Autonomous Emergency Braking, Adaptive Cruise Control, Forward Collision Warning, Driver Attention Alert, Lane Keep Assist, Blind Spot Monitoring, Lane Departure Warning, Rear Cross Traffic Alert, Traffic Sign Recognition and a 360-degree surround-view camera system

Not yet approved

Now available for ordering with delivers starting in the third quarter of the year, pricing for the Vanquish S Volante, as well as South African availability, weren’t disclosed.

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