{"id":9252,"date":"2024-10-28T01:05:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-27T17:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ayoyo.com.cn\/?p=9252"},"modified":"2026-06-29T01:13:37","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T17:13:37","slug":"aston-martin-vanquish-in-the-age-of-hybrid-are-v12s-obsolete","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ayoyo.com.cn\/index.php\/2024\/10\/28\/aston-martin-vanquish-in-the-age-of-hybrid-are-v12s-obsolete\/","title":{"rendered":"Aston Martin Vanquish: In the Age of Hybrid, Are V12s Obsolete?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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What\u2019s the defining characteristic of a V12 engine? Is it it\u2019s inherit smoothness? Or is it its endless linear acceleration? If it\u2019s either or both of these factors, would it be daft to say we don\u2019t really need 12 cylinders if we have hybrids or even EVs?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hear us out. We went to a private Test Drive in Sardinia, Italy to try out the brand new Aston Martin Vanquish. The namesake has been on a bit of a hiatus since 2018, when it had a 5.9L naturally-aspirated V12 engine; this new iteration brings back the dozen cylinders and slaps two turbos onto them for added shove at the lower end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During our trip and subsequent drives, we couldn\u2019t help but ask ourselves \u2013 haven\u2019t we felt this surge of power, smoothness of execution, and mounting kinetic \u201coomph\u201d before? We had, and it was in a couple of hybrid V8s in a selection of grand tourers. That\u2019s not to say we didn\u2019t enjoy what the Vanquish had to offer, but deep down we were a bit worried that what was just 60 inches in front of us and under our right foot has, in the last decade, been rendered obsolete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re already sold on hybrid power and the benefits it brings, we understand \u2013 you get what\u2019s right for you and your life. But being petrolheads and enthusiasts of all things combustible, we wanted to highlight three key learnings we took away from driving the V12 Vanquish that \u2013 putting aside personal biases towards ICE \u2013 will sell us on the Vanquish time and time again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Great Character, Comes Great Responsibility<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s tackle the biggest and most obvious reason the V12 stands tall \u2013 the NVH (industry acronym for \u201cnoise, vibration, harshness\u201d). Firing up the Vanquish\u2019s twin-turbo 5.2L V12 engine had a satisfying rumble and vibration. While it didn\u2019t sound like a volcanic explosion per se, it did put a grin on our faces with its deep growl and residual grumble at idle \u2013 a reaction we\u2019d never have with an electric car. As we shifted to drive and let off the brake, the car\u2019s take up was so immediate it felt like we had hit the gas by accident, when in fact it was just the cylinders and transmission\u2019s eagerness to up and go. And while we were zooming down straightaways or carving fast corners, even the tiniest of jabs at the accelerator felt like a growing linear force of kinetic energy under our toes \u2013 a tall order in our digital \u201c1s and 0s\u201d age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of these \u201cmicro-feelings\u201d concluded to the car\u2019s personality \u2013 \u201dcharacter\u201d as you may want to put it. With electric cars and their digital propulsion or a hybrid setup, these minor emotions are missing, equating to a ride that feels at the end of the day subdued and dull. It\u2019s clich\u00e9 to say a car has \u201cpassion\u201d or a \u201csoul\u201d and we\u2019re one of the naysayers who cringe at these words, but this emotion is a real thing \u2013 when you drive, the chassis, engine, suspension, wind noise and more are all meant to evoke a response in you. The character in a car is something the sports car makers spend millions of dollars and countless hours attempting to retain and even enhance, and we\u2019re glad the Vanquish didn\u2019t neglect this vital process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buyer Be(a)ware<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s something to be said about someone who buys something like this. They\u2019re aware of the shifting world around us \u2013 they don\u2019t live under a rock. And yet for an owner to decide on a V12 engine that\u2019s counter to the evolution of electric world around them is a statement that\u2019s made consciously and proudly. Aston Martin is also hyper aware of this as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No one will ever buy an Aston Martin Vanquish to \u201csave the world.\u201d They aren\u2019t using words like \u201cefficiency\u201d and \u201ceco-conscious\u201d around their friends when talking about their latest purchase. Does this make them evil, in a world that needs saving? Of course not \u2013 they make it up in different ways (hopefully). But a Vanquish owner can not and will not compromise when it comes to the drive, and they need that reflected in the car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s Aston Martin\u2019s rationale to produce a new Vanquish with an internal combustion engine \u2013 \u201cIt was inconceivable that a new Aston Martin flagship should be powered by anything other than a state-of-the-art V12,\u201d stated chief technical officer Robert Fedeli. AM representatives acknowledged the demands of its customers and understood the uncompromising views they have towards flagship ownership, and knew they\u2019d be laser focused on the right product and the right execution; thus a synergy between company and client. So while Aston Martin may be \u201cgoing against the grain\u201d with government legislation and mandates (even though the Vanquish meets emissions standards), they are giving its buyers exactly what they asked for, because they know they won\u2019t want anything else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ll Miss Me When I\u2019m Gone<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sure we are drawing comparisons between \u201cold tech\u201d and modern electrified powertrains, but one day these engines \u2013 specifically V12s \u2013 will be gone. For good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s take that statement seriously. V10s are pretty much a thing of a past, NA V8s are getting rarer and rarer, and even flat-sixes are now more or less reserved for the track. All we\u2019ll be left with in terms of ICE will be turbo V8s and V6s, boosted four-cylinders and even a 1.6L 3-cyl. The world just doesn\u2019t have room for V12s anymore \u2013 it\u2019s like living in the apocalypse and expecting to find a juicy and tender ribeye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aston Martin\u2019s insistence in creating a V12 Vanquish again is a remark on the unavailability of anything like this ever again. Sure, it has strict competition, but this is our moment to truly capture what we\u2019ll miss when it\u2019s gone. Aston essentially built a love letter to combustion, to displacement, to emotion and passion. For us to walk away from it and compare it to a hybrid or electric vehicle with 800+ horsepower and 700+ lb-ft of torque would be missing the point entirely. It would be eating the remaining blades of grass and saying it tastes like beef.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a world moving forward, Aston Martin built a time machine to the past and somehow made it work in our modern day of restrictions and limitations. It\u2019s something to applaud, not to compare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What\u2019s the defining characteristic of a V12 engine? Is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9225,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[223],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-9252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-car","tag-aston-martin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ayoyo.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ayoyo.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ayoyo.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ayoyo.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ayoyo.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9252"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.ayoyo.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9269,"href":"http:\/\/www.ayoyo.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9252\/revisions\/9269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ayoyo.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ayoyo.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ayoyo.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ayoyo.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}