Reflecting the strategy used in the Porsche 911 R, Aston’s spiced-up sports car comes with a three-pedal layout produced in limited numbers.
Is there really a market for manual gearbox these days?
Over the past years, some supercar makers like Ferrari and Lamborghini have abandoned the manual gearbox from their respective model lines due to small demand.
However, driving purists who still enjoy the sensation of shifting gears with their hands and dipping the clutch pedal at the same time aren’t none existent these days.
Porsche managed to identify this niche by building manual-only versions of the 911 R and Cayman GT4, both based on their previous-gen models, a few years ago.
Aston Martin has become the latest supercar brand to make a special version coming with just a manual gearbox. The so-called Vantage AMR (Aston Martin Racing) has a seven-speed shift-stick whose first gear operates in a “dog-leg” pattern. It has been developed by transmission specialist Graziano.
How much more power has the AMR gotten?
While Porsche found it suitable to give its special-edition 911 and Cayman more power than usual, Aston Martin has kept the 510hp 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 of the standard Vantage just the way it is (torque has dropped from 685Nm to 625Nm, though).
However, the Vantage AMR has carbon-ceramic disc brakes fitted as standard to help reduce weight, along with the disappearance of the heavier eight-speed torque-convertor auto, by 95kg.
Even so, the Vantage AMR is 0.4sec slower than the auto-equipped Vantage from 0-100kph, at 4.0sec. The Vantage AMR’s gearbox can replicate heel-and-toe sensation by automatically blipping the throttle upon downshifts.
It should be cheaper in price then…
No it isn’t. Aston Martin says only 200 Vantage AMRs will be produced globally with 59 of them getting the special Vantage 59 specification.
By commanding a circa-20% premium over the auto version, the Vantage AMR probably won’t rouse potential buyers of sports cars in Thailand. You must be a true fan of the manual gearbox to go for one.
That’s possibly one reason why Aston Martin chose to produce only a small amount of the Vantage AMR to ensure that demand outstrips supply.
However, the suits at Gaydon freely announced that a manual gearbox will be available in the non-AMR Vantage in early 2020; Vantage AMR comes in the last quarter of this year.
Such a cautious approach for meeting demand of manual gearbox is also being used by Porsche with its new-generation 911, which launched in auto-only form late 2019 with the three-pedal layout being pledged for production a year later.
