Aston Martin has revealed details of a raft of enhancements to two of the brand’s most popular and successful sports cars: the Vanquish Ultimate GT and Rapide S four-door, four-seat, sports car.
With the arrival of 15 Model Year (15MY) cars in markets around the world over the next few months, the luxury British brand is offering not only considerably enhanced performance and much-improved fuel economy and emissions, but also an even more honed, precise and responsive driving experience
With the debut of the new Touchtronic III eight-speed automatic gearbox in both the Vanquish and Rapide S – the first time that this state-of-the-art gearbox has been incorporated into a transaxle layout – Aston Martin is improving every major area of the cars’ performance and fuel economy.
The 0-60mph times for both the Vanquish and Rapide S are reduced in 15MY cars: The Vanquish drops from 4.1 seconds to just 3.6 seconds for 0-60mph and the Rapide S is capable of the same sprint in only 4.2 seconds.
Changes to gear and final drive ratios allow the cars to be not only quicker but also more frugal, with reduced emissions too.
In both sports cars the CO figure drops by an average of 10% – down to 298g/km for Vanquish and 300g/km for Rapide S – while economy is boosted to 31mpg, on average an 11% improvement, on the EU’s extra urban cycle for both the Vanquish and the Rapide S under the same stringent test conditions.