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Aston GT12 Roadster is a one-off convertible from Q Division

The Aston Martin GT12 is already the most track-focused, hardcore variant in the Vantage lineup. Q by Aston Martin has made the GT12 a little more special by unveiling a one-off GT12 Roadster at the Goodwood Festival of Speed today. Thanks to a naturally-aspirated 6.0-liter V12 engine, the brute puts down 592 hp and 461 lb.-ft. of torque. And thanks to a weight savings of 330 lbs. over the road-going Vantage V12 S, it's blisteringly quick around a track. Chopping the roof off of a hardcore track car seems a little odd, but Q by Aston Martin received a request from a customer and delivered the vehicle in a nine-month period. The roadster may share a lot of the same components as the GT12 it's based off of, but it's a bespoke machine that most likely won't be repeated. While the GT12 Roadster utilizes the same V12 engine and seven-speed Sportshift transmission, changes have been made to the car's body. New carbon-fiber body panels give the GT12 Roadster a menacing look, while changes to the suspension ensure the lucky owner receives the same cornering ability as drivers in the coupe variant. Thanks to a folding fabric roof and titanium exhaust system, the GT12 Roadster's V12 will provide a marvelous soundtrack that can't be rivaled by today's turbocharged cars. Pricing for the vehicle hasn't been announced, but it's surely a lot more than the base price of roughly $343,000 for the hard top. As a one off, the GT12 Roadster will most likely be garaged for the majority of its life. However, the vehicle will make its first - and perhaps only – appearance at the Goodwood Festival of Speed today. Related Video: Featured Gallery Aston Marting Vantage GT12 Roadster By Q Division View 19 Photos Aston Martin Convertible Luxury Special and Limited Editions Supercars roadster vantage

2017 Aston Martin V12 Vantage S coming to US with manual

A few years back, the lovely Aston Martin V12 Vantage was available with an honest-to-goodness six-speed manual transmission. It was capable of instilling serious cognitive dissonance. "If I sell the cars, the furniture, and remortgage the house twice ..." That sort of thing. The package is back, in a sense. For the 2017 model year, Aston will produce the V12 Vantage S with a seven-speed manual transmission. And not the automated manual business supplied by Graziano, that has attracted my ire for being about as subtle as a kick in the pants. There's a human-operated clutch and a proper manual lever. It gets better, at least if you're a manual-transmission geek. Aston fitted a dogleg box to this car, meaning first gear is to the left and down, below reverse and where second gear would sit in a traditional H-pattern floor shifter. Less traditional is the throttle-blipping function, which will make downshifts smoother for those unable or unwilling to heel-toe. If AMSHIFT, which is Graydon's code-word for the system, is not your thing it can be disabled or used in any driving mode. More good news: there's no real penalty for choosing the manual over the Sportshift III transmission. The two cars are mechanically the same, offer the same performance metrics and top speed, and are offered at the same basic price. New for 2017 but not exclusive to the manual are many exterior and interior cosmetic options, like brightly-colored exterior accents, in line with Aston's recent styling trends. As the subtitle suggests, there is a serious catch for Americans. It's not that we won't get the V12-manual combination – we will! – it's just that there won't be very many of them. It'll be a no-cost option in the rest of the world. If you want one, let's hope you've stopped reading this article the first few lines and hopped on the phone with your local Aston dealer to get a place on what looks like a very short list. Related Video:

Aston Martin Vantage gets fresh new nose from Revenant Automotive

BMW's second-generation 4 Series has become the poster child of the shift towards oversized grilles, but Aston Martin jumped on this bandwagon before many when it revealed the current-generation Vantage in late 2017. Its wide, low grille continues to split opinions in 2020, and a British engineering firm thinks it has a better solution. Revenant Automotive redesigned the Vantage with a smaller, subtler grille. It's mounted higher on the front fascia than the original car's, it has black horizontal slats, and it's shaped like a grille Aston's designers could have drawn in-house. It doesn't look aftermarket, which is highly unusual in this corner of the industry. The twin-turbocharged, 4.0-liter V8 engine still needs air to stay cool, so stylists chiseled an air dam into the bottom part of the bumper and concealed it with black trim. The end result is a cleaner, more low-key look. Aston Martin integrated the Vantage's grille into its bumper, so installing Revenant's new-look part is relatively straight-forward. The transformation requires removing the original bumper, probably selling it on eBay for a hefty sum, and bolting on the new one. There is no cutting, sanding, welding, taping, gluing, or riveting required. Revenant's redesigned Vantage bumper is on sale now in the United Kingdom, and it can be shipped to the United States, though the company told Autoblog pricing depends on how it's configured. It's hand-made, and it's available in exposed carbon fiber at an extra cost. Looking ahead, the firm plans to expand its range of aftermarket Aston Martin parts by branching out into paint work and trim pieces, among other areas. It told us it's even planning on redesigning the car's rear end, though it's too early to tell what it will look like yet. Related Video: