2025 Aston Martin Vanquish review. Which is better; Ferrari 12 Cilindri, Revuelto or Vanquish?

Well, welcome to a new Harry's Garage video and today's car is the new Aston Martin Vanquish. This is their flagship model, V12 twin turbo, 835PS, mad amount of horsepower, huge amount of torque, 1,000Nm and yeah, this is their statement car and I've been itching to have a go in it and it's taken a long while to finally get a UK press car registered and here it is. So, this car, 214mph and what I'm going to do in this test, recently I have tried the Ferrari 12-cylinder and I had that Lamborghini Revuelto, three new V12 engines in 2025, how do they compare? Well, I'll wait until the end of the video but for this Aston, let's go and have a closer look. Now obviously, this car replaces the Aston Martin DBS and the last one I tested was that 770 Ultimate which I thought was really good and this is the next stage and there's quite a number of key differences with this car. It's more changed than I initially realised until I read all the blurb up on it and now having driven it. First of all, just a bigger intake, 17% bigger they say, the gaping mouth at the front of this to feed this V12 and that's because, well, 835 horsepower is a lot more than went before. 770 on the Ultimate but when it was initially introduced, the DBS, I think it was 725 also. So a big jump and there's a big jump in torque as well. This one obviously has a number of extras on it. Interestingly, the paint isn't that expensive on this. You start with a list price of £334,000 and if you'd like this colour, Magnetic Silver, well that will cost you £4,400, considerably cheaper than special paint on Ferrari. But it does have a carbon pack, a lower carbon pack. You'll see it as we go around the corner and that is an expensive option, £13,500. Upper body package, £9,500. Then it's just extended, if you just come round to the side, you'll see a key difference in it. It is a longer wheelbase and they say it's grown from the base of the A-pillar to the wheelbase here. So this is bigger in this area here and I think it's helped the positioning of the engine which we'll have a look at in a moment. But I do love the profile, you know, big Aston, it's a proper bruiser and it makes a real statement especially when you get round the back. Love this detail as well, Aston Martin V12, different style to it than went before. You don't see quite as much as the wheel which I quite like and this very angular, more sculptured here, sharper, really nicely done, carbon mirrors on it. Another big change which I didn't expect to see was a panoramic glass roof which is a first on the Aston on the coupes, they had it on DBX. But you'd expect a sort of carbon roof, first time it's been offered on this type of car of Aston. And then the muscles at the back, 325, 30, 21-inch Pirelli PZero tyres on it, specially developed for this car. And then the big statement, the big controversial bit on the Vanquish is this rear blade. So you see here, it's this colour here, now you can have it body colour or you can have it in carbon as this one is, very smoked, it's not shouty carbon at all at the back or you can have a completely different colour. If you go on to Aston Martin's configurator, you can have lots of fun and say, whoa, and do purple and yellow and madness on this colour here. But I think this is very subtle, nicely done. Again here, more of a spoiler here, quad exhaust as you'd expect, big Venturi under here, lots of carbon, you can see why it's that much more money and if I touch a little button here, I think a reasonable sized boot really, big black hole, but you would get a reasonable amount of luggage in there. They say it's slightly smaller than Vantage, but my eyes say that's not a bad size at all. So I love the sort of concept like lights on it, these LEDs here, these blades here and you've got a brake light, third brake light up there, but it does look good. It does look very modern from here. Let's go and have a look at the engine. Now, one slight disappointment to me, it's not the big clamshell. On the DBS Superleggera, it was this great big clamshell that came up and you sort of saw the top of the wheels. Not so now, more conventional bonnet and sort of wings tucked in as you'd expect to see. Lots of carbon fibre though, obviously carbon bonnet here and these inner wings are all carbon as well. I guess these front wings are, doesn't actually list whether they are or not, but I suspect they are. And the twin turbo 5.2 litre V12 tucked right back. It's still just slightly nose heavy. I think it's 51.49, the weight balance on it. But what an engine this is. Quite a lot of work on this. It's not just tweaking the boost and all that will do. It's a lot of work with slightly smaller turbos, less inertia, high boost. They spin up quicker and they've also got this extra boost function that it can release boost as you go on the throttle. So it has sort of boost pressure in reserve. So it reduces turbo lag, which I'll explain a bit better perhaps when I'm out in it. But what a chunk of horsepower. 835 horsepower as I say and 1000 Newton metres of torque. And the other big change is it's a transaxle and I can't show you, but the eight speed automatic gearbox, it's not a dual clutch gearbox in this, is right at the back. It's a transaxle along with a diff for weight distribution. Just one thing of note compared to the 12 cylinder, the V12 in that, that has, this is 1830 horsepower, 9250, while this I say produces 835 horsepower at six and a half thousand RPM. But the huge change is the amount of torque with the twin turbo on this. This produces it's 1000 Newton metres at two and a half thousand RPM, while the Ferrari produces 678 Newton metres at 7,250 RPM. So a completely different character between the two. And the other thing, this is wet sump. So there's no sort of track time. It's not a race engine. This is a pure proper GT engine and it's highly effective, which I'll show in a moment. So let's take it outside, take it for a drive. Yeah, the new Aston. Look, the dashboard, no more of DBS. Yeah, it's gone over. Well, we first saw it in, what was it? Was it DBX or Vantage? I'm not sure where we first saw the new architecture of Aston Martin. But it is good with this screen. And I love how they've done this as well. And I suppose the only thing we're not quite sure about, isn't it? This screen for the actual dashboard and whether we could have a real rev counter or something. And yeah, after 12C, first thing to mention is just there's good space in this car. I am extremely comfortable. This has got the conventional seats on it. I think you can get those carbon back race seats, which are very nice once you're installed, but have extremely sharp edge in them. And yeah, they're not popular with my other half, shall we say. Other things, I love how the doors work, how Astons just go up on that pivot and they close. They're just a very natural, good way how they work. Silly, really, but there you go. But yeah, I've got a bin in the door. I've got a center console and I've got wireless charging there. And I've got a glove box in here as well with a green instruction. I haven't actually looked at that. I wonder what joys are in there. Look at that, a whole book on your vanquish. Yeah, well, I never. Sorry, I mustn't get distracted. And space in the back. There is after 12C, there is much more space around the cabin. And I didn't have to have the seat sort of right up against the bulkhead, as I did when I drove that car. So that is good. Very, very high, though, the sort of scuttle at the back. I don't know why that's so high. But yeah, it gives a very letterbox out the back, although you think, well, it seems to have two speakers in it. And I notice it does get reflections when you're driving along to the front. Yeah, a little binnacle quite nice, the carbon around there view. Bowers and Wilkins stereo, I can see. And the pillar box again, it is very high, the bonnet and the scuttle here. And it's a little bit bland. The dashboard I feel on top, there's no sort of sculpture going on. It's like, oh, I don't know. Well, let's put that in. But yeah, it's not distinctive in any way, the view out the front. And then you've got a big plastic thing with all the ADAS nonsense has to go in there. And a panoramic roof, which there is no escaping from all the way back. It's the same with all panos. We'd wish it started a little further forward, but that's the crash structure. And that's how it has to be in today's world. And I ought to just start the engine. There it goes. And dead easy to work here. I'm not going to show you everything on here, but just the temperature, volumes, fan, all very easy. And then push button if I wanted heats, which I don't want today. So I'll turn that off. Yeah, a slightly annoying bleep, but I'm sure there's a way of turning it off. Should you not want it? Do love these vents, though. Really lovely control. They're all knurled up, very nicely done. And it all works a treat, as you'd imagine. I will go through a bit more how you do. I ought to just show you how, obviously, with a new car, you have to turn off the assistance and it's getting easier all the time. So you ping on assistance and I go to custom and I deactivate job done. That's good. I'll go back to telemetry. So, yeah, they're sort of learning that they don't need to overcomplicate it. The sooner you can turn it off, the better. And I like a custom setting. Anyway, there we go. I will turn it off and yeah, I will disappear off and you'll join me on some better roads in a moment. I love how you can tell there's a V12 up the front, even when you're just tickling around like this. There's just this overlay of V12ness coming from the engine and it's most welcome. Right, let's go out of here. And it gets more vocal just when you poke it like that. I am still in normal mode. This is in GT mode, as they term it, and it's flicking through the gears and we're doing about 1100 revs, aren't we, and 60 miles an hour. Yeah, it's hushed in here for the type of car it is. I did measure it and it's around 75 decibels, which is good going. But when we get on the roads, I can't wait to take it on. With these changes you can do, I mean, I can go to sports and sports plus and it all gets angrier as you turn it up, turn the wick up. And you can also on here, I'm going to turn stop start off. I've got a damper selection and the great thing about a damper selection is it works in the mode so I can go to sports plus and put the dampers down, which I really like as well. It's quite interesting how much is in here. Obviously, the assistance, the lights, the vehicle, what you want on your settings. It seems to be a bit more responsive than perhaps it once was. And I like how individual I can set up the driver modes. I can do all sorts of things there should I want to change on the parameters of gearbox and sound and things. I'm going to I'm going to pop it up one to sport and at that moment the dampers go to their mid setting. Press it once I go to hard, I'm going to press it back down to soft. Well, normal. And it also puts the exhaust valve on as well. I'm going to do my little squirt up the hill. I'm going to leave it in auto mode, nothing around 30 miles an hour. And here we go. Yes, I can't press it for very long and stay legal, as you can probably imagine. But what you do notice is in first and second gear, the torque is limited. But and it's when it hits third, it really thumps forward the first and second. It doesn't it doesn't say it does in the in the description. But if I've got the traction control where whatever the setting is in sport, but it's very clever. It doesn't feel as though it's intervening. It doesn't stutter. It just maximises the actual grip available at the back. And boy, do those tyres have some work to do with the amount of torque and power this car has got. It's a three second to 60 type of car. I see Autocar just figured it. I think there was six point something to 100 miles an hour. And it just charged on. I think they got up to 180 on the mile straight, which is flipping good going. Once you've got a car and do over 150 down there. Yeah, then it's a quick car. And this most certainly is a quick car. Put it back into sport. I can press manual or I can just use a paddle and it overrides it and just flick it down. Yeah. One thing about it, it has this conventional automatic gearbox, which you just notice every now and then as a positive. I'll come in. I'll wait until I do that. But, yeah, you've got to be aware that they're not as crisp the changes as some crazy cars have got. Right, let's turn down here. Try use second. Yeah, I'll use second. There we are. I'll just flick through the gears like that. Just a little bit of balance. Off we go. It's such a thump. I mean, it's turbo. There you go. Just lights up, you know, just cannot transmit the power. I mean, I was in third. Let's play silly buggers. Let's go down to 1,000 rpm, flat out. Oh, 2,000. It's coming off. Two and a half. Yeah, it's got maximum torque at two and a half. There isn't much there at 1,000 rpm. No surprise there. Oh, yeah, and I'm on the bumpy bit of road and I'm in mid damper. I can put it back to a softer damper. And this, just its composure on this bit of road for this extreme vehicle, bloody brilliant. Any deflection, nothing going on. It is absolutely nailed. I mean, it weighs more than Vantage, but Vantage was a bit of a handful down here. Never relaxed. This is as laid back as you want and as angry as you want it. It's completely my choice as a driver. If I just poke that throttle, off it goes. But if I'm just going home after a late night or something, I just want to get home, brilliant at it. Absolutely brilliant. It's funny, I just had to check if I was in manual then, because it doesn't say drive as far as I can see on the dash. You just get the number of what gear. God, they're busy, those rear tyres. Flick it into there, round here. Yeah, I'm not thinking, oh, it's a big heavy V12 on the front. I'm just thinking, wow, it's... Yeah, time, let's go. There's a lot to talk about with this car, so let's go through the likes and dislikes. Start with dislikes or slight annoyances, I think. I mean, dislike. It's impossible to really dislike this car. One, the price. It's the elephant in the room. This is an expensive car. This car, as you see it now, is £408,895. Yeah, chunking. Some of the big extras, obviously, I mentioned the carbon fibre. There's also, this has got titanium exhaust on it. That's an extra £10,000. Saves 10 kilos, they say, but does make it sound great. That's in the likes. But it's a proper price. I mean, it's near enough double the price of the Vantage. And I think that's partly because it is 100% Aston Martin. This isn't a borrowed engine. This is their V12 to their spec that's just in this car. That is bound to make it expensive. And they're only going to be building a maximum of 1,000 here, if that. And that's in Volante 4 and Coupe 4. Two, it weighs too much. I did weigh it. It's 1,940 kilos. I mean, they declare it 1770 kilos, I think, dry. It's 200 kilos roughly heavier than the 12C. So, yeah, I just think, come on, Aston, why aren't your cars so heavy? They're all aluminium and carbon, but something makes them heavy. And it's a real shame. Three, I wish the view out was not as similar as it is on the Vantage. I could be in either car or DB12. It sort of all looks the same now. You've got the same layout dash. You've got the same, because they're front engine, same. Everything's very similar. I'd like more differentiation for the flagship model. I think the one big one is the root positives. Just, it exists, and it's wonderful, and it's angry, and it's a proper big bruiser Aston. Let's put it around here. I mean, Aston shouldn't really do it. Damping. Just, there's some big bumps there, but you heard it. How it handles bumps. As I say, I mentioned a sign of you, it was Simon Newton, wasn't it? The vehicle performance, and the gang who are looking after the dynamics of the car have done a fantastic job. It is terrific. The damping control over that bump, mid-corner, no deviation, no sort of patter, straight through, deals with it, crack on. It is superb, the chassis on this, and it rides better than Vantage. And yet, I can dial it up. I haven't even tried Sport Plus yet, have I? So, I'll put it into there. I'm going to calm the dampers down slightly. And it's a drivable, usable system. It's not a track car, this. This is a proper road car, and you can use all of it, and you've got the adjustment on the dampers. It's just a bore. It's one of those cars you see outside a house, and you want to take it for a drive. That's what a big bruiser Aston should be. Other mentions, just on the light sound. I thought I'd be disappointed with the sound. It doesn't rev as high. It's got turbos on it. Not a bit of it. It is a glorious crisp sound. I don't care if it's slightly piped into here. It is pure V12 theatre magic. Beautifully judged, and it gets super angry at the top. Yeah, another positive. It never runs out of horsepower or power. You're battering to the rev limits, redlined at seven, and it's power all the way round. Really impressive. But I said at the beginning of the video, I was going to choose between the three new V12s, which is best. And I suppose I ought to wrap that into the conclusion on this car. Well, yeah. Well, we're spoiled. I didn't expect all three are bloody brilliant. They absolutely represent their brand. So the Lamborghini Velvetto, pure Lamborghini. This is pure Aston. And the Ferrari of that V12, pure Ferrari. I suppose the first one I'm going to knock out is the Lamborghini Velvetto. It's a different sort of car to the other two, the front-engined cars. And it's absolute pure Lamborghini. It's a show-off. It's crazy design. But the niggles I had with it, it's quite heavy. I don't like it's got a battery in it, really. And that tiny tank would make it inconvenient. But they're personal things, really. Now you get to the 12C and this Aston. My God, they're close. They're really, really close between the two. Both terrific front-engined cars and V12s. The Ferrari, it is racier. That V12 just howls to this 9.5 rpm redline. Unbelievable. This, more road bars, more just thump of torque. And then a gaggle of horses at the top end as well. So you've got a best of both worlds. I think, yeah, you really have to push on in 12C to really enjoy it. And the, but it is absolutely magic. When you're changing at max revs into the next gear, just a thwack and the gear change, you're off. And you know you're in a Ferrari. It is very special. But it didn't have the room inside at least did. That annoyed me. There it goes through those thumps. It does not matter if you get a mid-corner bump in this thing. Well, off it goes. Just love this thing. Well, sorry, yeah. This, you don't actually have to be going absolutely flat out to enjoy it. You know you've got this mad, mad car underneath you. And that torque just whacks in and it's there at all revs. So you don't have to go mental on the revs to really enjoy this car. So I'm going to come down with the Aston Vanquish in coupe form. I think the only, I haven't tried Volante version of this, but that 12-cylinder in spider form with a foldy roof just gave you access to that engine. It's 200 kilos lighter than this as well. And it just tipped it if I was after a convertible one. But as a coupe V12 front engine car, I just love this. And I love the panoramic roof. That lends something to it as well. I love the engine. I love the performance. I love the looks. Yeah, I think you'd be very, very happy in this car. So there you go. There is my review of the new Aston Martin Vanquish. God knows what they're going to do next with this car. I mean, it lives on. I did ask about that because I saw one report saying, oh, it finishes in 2028. That's not true. V12 goes all the way through, I hope beyond 2030. So yeah, expect to see more of this car. I don't know if they do a Vanquish S or whatever. History tells us they will. But this is plenty mad enough. And if you are after a big engine Aston, well, you're just going to love this. I hope you enjoyed this video. If you did, well, keep watching, keep subscribing. More videos coming along very soon.