DRIVEN + VIDEO: Quite Possibly The BEST Aston Martin V12 EVER Made

There's nothing quite like a naturally aspirated V12 motor. There's nothing like an Aston Martin Vantage that's being pushed to its absolute limit.

So, what happens when you put two and two together? You get an Aston Martin V12 Vantage S.

This vehicle is the most sporting Aston yet — aside from the outrageous One-77 supercar. The marque has equipped the teeny Vantage with the largest V12 to make what may be the BEST 12-cylidner Aston ever created.

As heard in this video review, the car is a phenomenal grand tourer. You can putter around town or you can click a few buttons and have a laugh. Or, like the reviewer in this cilp, a whole lot of laughs.

What's there not to like?

Well, seek and ye shall find. Check out the clip below for this driver's set of impressions.

Any great drive requires three elements: a great road, great road conditions and a great car. And one of the greatest in 2013 was in the Aston Martin V12 Vantage S.

Anyone who says there are no such things as decent driving roads in America has not been to a mountain pass a couple of hundred miles inland from Los Angeles. On these perfect surfaces, under cloudless skies and amid zero traffic, the V12 Vantage S showed us everything that we’d ever wanted an Aston to be.

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MBguy - 12/15/2013 9:33:25 PM

+1 Boost

... except that the Los Angeles Times says the transmission is flawed and completely ruins the experience. They said it is a real shame, because there are many great advancements on the new model that otherwise would have made this a stunning new car.

Agent00R - 12/16/2013 12:39:35 AM

+1 Boost

Aston Martin's transmissions have long been panned by the press.

Frankly, it's B.S. as far as I am concerned. There's two reasons for this:

1) Astons are not track cars. They're GTs unless they're in race spec, which just about never happens.

2) The Graziano transmissions are a lot of fun and offer a really enjoyable motoring experience IF — that's a BIG IF — the driver takes the time to learn how to operate it properly.

In the day and age of the lazy journo looking to plant their foot into the floorboards in the name of speed, it will get panned. Much like Audi's R-Tronic that was originally in the R8.

Single clutch systems are fine if drivers work with them. If you fight them, they're problematic. Drivers have to realize it will NEVER act like a dual-clutch or automatic 'box and that is that.