Aston Martin Vanquish Volante: Rapid GT goes topless

Aston Martin is celebrating the diamond anniversary of its Volante convertibles by unveiling its fastest droptop yet.

The Aston Martin Vanquish Volante is based on the Vanquish coupe, with the British marque claiming it’s not only the quickest convertible it’s ever sold, but also the fastest and most powerful front-engined retractable-roof vehicle on sale.

Launched 60 years after the first Volante, it’s only the second time the Vanquish has been turned into a convertible but, as with its coupe sibling, it’s been comprehensively updated from its previous generation.

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Aston Martin claims it’s increased the Vanquish Volante’s lateral stiffness by 75 per cent compared to its previous convertible flagship, while saying its structural performance is closely matched to the coupe.

The Vanquish Volante is 95kg heavier than its coupe sibling, tipping the scales at 1880kg thanks to the roof mechanisms and additional underbody stiffening.

Rather than opt for a hard-top roof, the Vanquish convertible gets an “acoustically enhanced” fabric roof, claimed to be able to open and close in 14 and 16 seconds respectively, at speeds of up to 50km/h.

Occupants can operate the roof mechanism with the push of a button on the centre console.

Thankfully, there have been no changes to the Vanquish’s twin-turbo 5.2-litre V12 engine, which is a heavy rework of the power plant in the previous DBS.

This is the most powerful engine fitted to an Aston Martin series production car, producing 614kW of power and 1000Nm of torque, enough to make it more potent per litre than the Valkyrie hypercar’s 6.5-litre V12.

That also gives it a huge 114kW and 200Nm advantage over the DB12 Volante, which serves as the next rung down in the brand’s convertible lineup.

Drive is sent to the rear wheels via an eight-speed automatic transmission, however Aston Martin notes in its media release “it could be fair to hint that should a customer really want a manual, they could create something entirely bespoke via Q by Aston Martin”.

Aston Martin claims a 0-100km/h sprint time of 3.4 seconds (one-tenth slower than the coupe), and a top speed of 344km/h – though whether you’d want to go that fast with the roof down is another question.

Under the skin, Aston Martin has tweaked the suspension setup so the Bilstein DTX dampers are better-suited to the Volante’s extra weight, allowing the Pirelli P Zero tyres to remain connected to the road.

Like the fixed-roof Vanquish, a comfortable driving experience is retained when the shocks are in GT mode, though they can stiffen up in Sport and Sport+ modes, also allowing the exhaust flaps to open up and the V12 to sing.

Sitting behind the 21-inch wheels are carbon-ceramic brakes, ensuring the Vanquish Volante can stop as well as it can go.

The Vanquish Volante’s cabin is almost identical to the coupe, which includes the fitment of “performance lightweight leather”, carbon sports seats and carbon interior trim.

Its two seats feature 16-way power adjustment and heating, while a 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster sits in front of the driver, with another 10.25-inch screen acting as the infotainment display.

Below it sit physical switches to change the chassis, stability control, exhaust, lane assist and parking settings.

Aston Martin is yet to announce Australian pricing, but don’t expect many to come here, as the Volante is included in the Vanquish’s annual production cap of no more than 1000 cars per year.

European deliveries kick off in the third quarter of 2025.

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