Motoring News
Today, 18 May 2016Aston Martin V12 Vantage S Manual
Money where your mouth is time - Aston's manual V12 Vantage S driven!
read moreAutocar magazine 18 May – out now
New four-pot Porsche 718 Boxster S takes on Lotus Elise Cup 250, the Bentley Bentayga is subjected our toughest road test, and the Ford Focus RS tackles Spa
This week’s issue of Autocar is packed with some of 2016’s most significant new cars.Porsche’s four-cylinder 718 Boxster S faces one of the world’s best-handling sports cars, the Lotus Elise Cup 250, and the Bentley Bentayga is put under the microscope in a full Autocar road test.We've also got a scoop on Alfa Romeo’s first SUV, the Stelvio, which will be launched next year in high-performance V6 guise to take on the Porsche Macan Turbo, and we reveal details on the two new MG SUVs destined to join the upcoming GS.Plus, Ford factory racing drivers Marino Franchitti and Billy Johnson offer us some tips on tackling Spa in a Focus RS before we have a go ourselves, and we visit the recently revamped
read more2016 Aston Martin V12 Vantage S manual review
Aston Martin reintroduces a manual gearbox to its V12-engined sports car, but it's a seven-speed unit and not without its quirks. We test it
The return of a manual gearbox coupled to a V12 engine in the Aston Martin line-up. Why now? Because when you talk to people at Aston, 'Andy' comes up a lot. Andy Palmer, still a relatively new incumbent to Aston Martin’s top job, has been driving product development like nobody at Aston before him, and the hope is that profit will accompany it like at no other time for Aston. Models need to feel distinctly different from each other, Andy says, and they should arrive more frequently and be augmented by twice-yearly special products. And, oh yeah, always make sure there’s a manual gearbox option.This is that. When the V12 Vantage S replaced the V12 Vantage, the old six-speed manual was dropped (although you can still have it in a V8) because few buyers really wanted one. A seven-speed automated manual, a single-clutch transaxle unit with two pedals and flappy paddles, was standard instead, but its hesitancy has always been a weak spot compared with the dual-clutch automatic units in rival cars. Alongside Palmer’s belief that a sports car company simply ought to offer a manual, so interest in manuals has resurfaced. But instead of reviving the old six-speed ’box, Aston has instead, in effect, fitted a manual shift mechanism and pedal-operated clutch to that ‘Sportshift 3’ robotised seven-speed transmission.
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