The thing is that yes, you will get wet if you drive it in the rain. Yes, you will get buffeted by the wind, and scorched in the hot sun, and frozen in the bitter cold. We want you to experience those things, and you want it, too.
It’s important to note two things about the new Aston Martin V12 Speedster. The first is that while this is a new car, it’s not a new concept, particularly for Aston Martin. The first great Astons were almost exclusively open cars. By that I mean they were bathtubs with engines in them, raw and exposed. You barely got a windshield on models like the all-conquering Ulster because windshields were heavy and you weren’t going to whup ass at your local hillclimb with a heavy windshield keeping wind out of your hair. What was so special about your hair anyway?
The second is that yes, it is completely unnecessary. Are you actually racing in this car? Not really. Aston Martin made space for helmets glassed-in behind the seats in the fairings (Aston calls them humps), but that seems slightly pointless without a roll cage.
Do you need to leave the roof behind in an effort to save weight and increase performance? Why would you? An Aston Martin Vantage Roadster, complete with electric-folding fabric roof, would certainly be a fast enough, fun enough car that also would keep you from getting wet when it’s raining and freezing when it’s snowing. You’d be just fine.
But the whole point of sports cars is to enjoy the unnecessary. To get wet when it’s raining. To be battered around and to feel what other drivers in their cocooned cars tune out with cruise control and the radio on.
In any case, the actual specs of this car are wonderful.
Aston Martin says that this car is “its own unique platform” but also that it’s just a mix of the current Vantage and the DBS Superleggera. Indeed the car looks pretty much like a Vantage with the DBS’ 5.2-liter twin-turbo V12 crammed under the vented hood, but I’m sure it was slightly more complicated than I’m making it sound.
Aston estimates 700 horsepower and 753Nm of torque, which Aston thinks would get the car to 60 in 3.5 seconds. Aston didn’t quote any exact weight figure, but the body is entirely carbon fiber, and parts of the interior have structural carbon fiber as well, as per the car’s press release. It is burdened with 21-inch wheels, but they’re center locks, which is neat.
Only 88 examples will be made, and Aston wants £765,000 (about $981,000 at the moment) for them. They’ll presumably bought by people who will be stoked in the case Aston makes a regular production V12 Vantage again. Importantly, the interior has no screens.
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