The Aston Martin Vantage was almost the opposite of Ferrari’s 512BB. Where better now to enjoy both than through the Swiss Alps?

The vagaries of fashion have been followed, laughed at and questioned over the decades. Fashion affects the automobile world as much as it does design in general and clothing in particular. Take the two motor cars we have here. Both have evolved out of previous models: the 1981 Ferrari 512BB (‘Berlinetta Boxer’) from the 365BB first seen in 1973, while the 1987 Aston Martin Vantage is even further along the evolutionary path from the original DBS V8 that was unveiled in 1969. And both protagonists were affected by the whims of fashion at launch.

Ferrari, always conservative with its engineering under the eye of Enzo, came late to the mid-engined sports car layout. Its first mid-engined sports racer, the 250LM of 1964, was not really a road car and only 32 examples were produced. So Ferrari’s first road car with its engine amidships was the 365BB. Yet the fashion for mid-engined road cars had been established eight years earlier when Ferruccio Lamborghini launched the Miura – the like of which had never been seen before. It was a styling and engineering sensation, and lays claim to the title of The First Supercar. Ferrari’s rival was the 356GTB/4 Daytona: sensational to drive but lacking the all-important visual edge that playboys of the time were drawn to. The Daytona simply had no answer to the Miura’s wow factor.
 
So by the time the Pininfarina-designed 365BB was launched, the mid-engine layout was no longer perceived as cutting-edge – to the fashionisti, anyway. The Miura held the high ground and was regarded as a bit of an animal, even though it couldn’t actually fulfil Lamborghini’s claimed acceleration and top speed. But it came first, so the later 365BB – and its replacement 512BB – were seen as ‘me too’. Ferrari made the mistake of wild performance claims à la Lambo (0-60mph in 6.5sec; 176mph) and, when the BB failed to match these figures, it was panned by the press. Then the later 512BB was criticised for being too civilised and well-mannered, never mind that its nemesis, the Miura, is such hard work to drive.

The Aston Martin Vantage was almost the opposite of the 512BB. Its gestation period was far longer because the six-cylinder DBS was first seen in 1967, when the planned V8 engine wasn’t quite ready for insertion. The American-looking DBS, styled by William Towns, was heavier than the previous DB6, the upshot being that it was slower than the older car. Not the most auspicious of starts. But the arrival of the V8 in ’69 saw the big Aston’s performance advantage restored. Troubled times meant the DBS V8 soldiered on until ’72, when the restyled V8 saloon took over, but the reinvigorated 438bhp Vantage wasn’t unleashed until 1977. Britain’s first supercar had arrived.

Aston got its timing just right with the Vantage. Britain was booming and the ‘loadsamoney!’ City high-flyers of the 1980s really liked the look of the thumping Vantage. Big, powerful and flash, it was just the sort of he-man machine for blasting down to the country for shooting weekends or parking outside the casinos of Mayfair, where the doormen would pretend to acknowledge the driver was old money, especially when his Aston was finished in Prince of Wales spec. A starring role in the James Bond film The Living Daylights added pizzazz but the crushing performance (0-60mph in 5.4sec and a real top speed of 165mph) gave the Aston absolute street cred. It was faster than anything from Italy or Germany and the Bulldog breed really liked that!

Where better now to enjoy these fast and powerful supercars than through the Swiss Alps? From deep within the mountains outside Geneva we collect the Aston Martin Vantage from an innocuous-looking modern garage, forgetting the driving for a while as we marvel at the race and rally weaponry stashed within.
 
But with time pressing the Aston is fired up and eases out. And fired-up is the only way to describe the wallop of sound as the engine catches. This Vantage is a very special example of a special breed. One of just 43 left-hand-drive Vantages, it’s a rare X-Pack model with additional suspension, mechanical and power upgrades. Upon hearing that still further upgrades were available from Aston Works Service in the early 1990s, the owner sent the car back to Newport Pagnell for the full package. This included a 465bhp 6.3-litre engine shoving out a staggering 460lb ft of torque, plus a six-speed manual gearbox, a big-bore, free-flow exhaust system, beefed-up brakes and suspension, and 16in alloys shod with wide 255/50 tyres. The total additional bill for this bespoke work came to a tad over £75,000…  in 1992.  Maybe that’s why only five Vantages were afforded the treatment.
 
Finished in metallic blue with a cream piped Connolly leather interior and sitting on the wider rims with flared wheelarches, the Vantage certainly looks powerful. Slide in through the large door and the interior is wide but snug. The lashings of wood and the suppleness of the leather seats provide the ambience of typically British coachbuilt quality, even if things are slightly let down by some proprietary fixtures and fittings.

The driving position is commanding and the driving seat is comfortable rather than gripping. The long gearlever is prominent and an ample cigar ashtray is a pleasant throwback to the days when you would light up the colossal V8 in concert with a fat Cohiba. It starts easily and settles to a solid but high idle that belies the quartet of 48mm Weber carburettor chokes. Aston had problems with fuel injection fitted to the V8 saloon prior to the Vantage, but the way these carbs react to minute throttle inputs indicates that AML took the correct decision to retro-fit old-tech carburettors again. So let’s see how it reacts to rather larger throttle inputs…

The Vantage’s clutch is light but long in travel. The gearshift – this is the only known six-speed car in existence – is rubbery and moves about the wide H-pattern without objection. Twist the unusually small steering wheel and lots of power assistance is at your fingertips; let the clutch out and the Aston steps off the mark without hesitation even though first gear is high. You are immediately aware of the car’s girth, but the visibility and squareness of it all make it easy to place on these narrow mountain roads. As we trundle down the valley, the Aston comes up to temperature, the suspension limbers up and the brakes start to bite.

At the bottom of the mountain you turn onto an open and clear dual carriageway, check that all’s clear, allow the revs to climb gently in first gear, slip it into second in a straight line (I’m not naive enough to try this in first gear out of a 90º turn!), then mash your double-welted brogue down to the thick Wilton pile carpeting. In a split-second the once contentedly burbling V8 emits an almighty bellow, the Vantage hunkers down, the steering wheel starts to writhe in your hands, and the rear tyres spin as the power easily overcomes their prodigious grip. Almost immediately you need third gear, where the force is unleashed again, the tyres spinning ever more demonically, the V8 continuing to roar as you dive for fourth gear. The big car is now really shifting and the long dual carriageway has been gobbled up and spat out with impunity.
 
Think of the throttle pedal as a sharp assegai and the Aston as a wild African buffalo. A sharp prod elicits a furious display of animal power and aggression. You cannot conceive of something so sizeable being so explosively reactive. But the Aston’s aggression is controlled: the awesome thrust is effectively harnessed by the capable chassis with its planted de Dion rear end and limited-slip differential. Like an animal evolved to suit its natural habitat, the Vantage does exactly what it exists to do – to lunge down a ribbon of tarmac at almost unimaginable pace.
 
Recovering from the car’s accelerative onslaught (just five seconds to 60mph!), you begin to explore its wider capabilities through the twisting Alpine roads. Here the Aston requires more concentration and learning. It is heavy at 1971kg and the power steering seems a little over-assisted. You need to commit the car to a corner, allow the steering to gather up the cornering forces, then power on through. Once you get used to the non-linear reaction from the steering wheel, the big Aston can be cornered fast but a heavier, less-assisted rack would be preferable to counter the lateral lurching and to match the other meaty controls.

Also, the suspension seems to have to work hard on less-than-perfect surfaces. On the mostly mirror-smooth Swiss roads the Aston is sure-footed but on rougher sections it seems to jump around a degree too much, which is surprising considering it has the X-Pack and additional upgrades. A word with Kingsley Riding-Felce at the Works Service department suggests that the geometry might need adjustment because these Vantages are very sensitive to this set-up. Or it could be that the Vantage is just so damn powerful and needs a better driver than me to tame it.
 
Having shredded expensive rubber in the mountains, it’s time to roar back down the A1 motorway into Geneva to collect the Ferrari. Through the numerous tunnels the Aston’s massive engine sound is amplified to a cacophonic degree even when you’re loafing along in the tall overdrive sixth. Soon a young driver in his hotted-up Peugeot latches onto the rear of the Vantage and his passenger seemingly climbs out of the car to get some action shots on his camera phone. The whole thunderous adventure is enlivened by dropping a gear in the Aston, sluicing in plenty of juice, then lifting off sharply to allow the exhaust to pop explosively, accompanied by huge flames shooting out from the tailpipes. This has to be the most outrageous tunnel car in existence.

Somewhere behind a block of ordinary suburban flats in Geneva there is a drab grey door let discreetly into the hillside. A man responds to the buzzer and the electric door whirrs quietly back into the concrete. Atmospheric lighting flicks on and reveals a black-carpeted interior, while pinpoint spotlamps highlight a collection of immaculate classic Ferraris, all painted in matching scarlet. It is an astonishing sight, straight out of a thriller.

The Ferrari 512BB is driven out of its lair and, next to the bluff Aston, it looks low and pointy. It’s more obviously a sports car, with its red paint and black leather trim. Observing the Pininfarina form with today’s eye, you realise that the Ferrari is actually very beautiful. The long nose and forward cockpit spell speed, while the fat rear haunches wrapped voluptuously around the mid-mounted, horizontally opposed 12-cylinder engine indicate power. The classic Ferrari alloys, round rear lights and signature large yellow front indicator lenses lend real road presence, so why is it that more of us have not coveted this beautiful BB like some of Maranello’s other models? The whole fashion thing comes back to mind but today that is no longer of consequence because this Ferrari looks so right. Bigger and more commanding than the smaller Dino and 308, this is a proper man-sized 4.9-litre car with an F1 race-derived 360bhp at a dizzy 6800rpm. And in today’s market it costs less than a third of the price of the fractious Miura.

You drop down into the low-slung cockpit, where headroom is spare and the seating position almost fully reclined. The seats are firmer than the Aston’s and you are met with the sight of red illuminated instruments – very discothèque – and that classically turned alloy gear-shifter with its exposed gate. The clutch requires a shove (still an improvement over the 365BB’s) and the cold gearbox oil makes the lever recalcitrant and sticky. So, slide it back into second, then ease it forward into first and add some revs.

Also Weber-caburettored, the BB moves off without fuss but initially feels a bit stiff and unwilling. But within the first few
yards you savour the unassisted yet pin-sharp steering. Everything about this car is sharp. It has that typical Ferrari mechanical tingle and no control has any slop whatsoever.

Onto the motorway the Ferrari strains at the leash. Allow the big 12 to rev and it does so with turbine smoothness, howling as you close in on the red line. It proves to be nowhere near as hard-hitting as the Vantage’s brutal V8 and it really needs to be kept on the boil, but the spinning mill works superbly in this chassis. Relaxing, you allow the BB to motor down the motorway in fifth gear and are amazed at how quiet and refined it is. The suspension proves more absorbent and better damped than the Aston’s.

In the mountains the BB responds with precision. It spears into corners, seeming to pivot about your hips, and you can place it with absolute accuracy thanks to the superlative steering. The set-up is inclined towards initial understeer yet it answers so quickly to throttle inputs that it hardly matters.
 
Gaining confidence and speed through the mountains, you start to attack the bends with more commitment and allow the pliant, high-walled 215/70x15 Michelins to find their envelope of grip. When new, the BB’s engine position – it’s mid-mounted high in the chassis over the gearbox – was criticised for creating a degree of polar movement in extremis. In the real world, driven and enjoyed as a classic car, even a classic Ferrari, this is not an issue – buy a four-wheel-drive Subaru if you are after computer game levels of grip. Here, you turn the BB into an uphill corner, hear the tyres squeal as you get on the power, and enjoy the sensation of it squatting, with the rear end breaking grip for a little oversteer play. Wonderfully tactile stuff.

Coming down the steep mountain passes is a little more tricky as that rear-end weight is more forthcoming and the disc brakes get hot hauling down 1597kg from considerable speed. The Ferrari is not as powerful, as torquey, nor as fast as the rumbustious Aston, but it is quicker through the mountains thanks to its thoroughbred chassis, willing engine and razor-sharp steering.
 
Unexpectedly, the overtly sporting Ferrari BB512 is significantly more refined and quieter than the Aston Martin with its open exhausts and firm suspension. As you might expect, the Vantage is blisteringly fast on open roads, the BB quicker through twists and turns. The Aston Martin turns out to be a beautifully hewn tool of immense power. But the Ferrari 512BB is a precision instrument of deep ability, a supercar you can drive every day. Swap the paint jobs and I’d take the Ferrari.

Thanks to Kidston SA of Geneva for arranging this road test (www.kidston.com).