In the 2015 James Bond film Spectre, Daniel Craig gave a killer performance and Sam Smith’s movie theme, “Writing’s on the Wall,” was chillingly beautiful, but the film was a letdown in one major respect: There wasn’t nearly enough screen time for the stunning Aston Martin DB10. The British manufacturer built just 10 examples of the bespoke coupe for the movie, and the only car sold to the public auctioned for $3.5 million. Luckily for those of us who didn’t quite get our fix, the latest spy shots of the upcoming replacement for Aston Martin’s Vantage display more then a little bit of DB10 influence.
This new crop of spy photos is a better indicator of the production vehicle than the last Vantage prototype we got a look at in February. The new Aston features slimmer lighting, a wide grille, and a revised greenhouse with a profile that appears to incorporate styling cues from the limited-production Bond machine. The development vehicle sports a massive Pirelli decal dwarfing a smaller—if more telling—Oerlikon Graziano sticker. The Italian transmission manufacturer responsible for the dogleg seven-speed manual gearbox in last year’s V12 Vantage S has been hard at work as of late. Its dual-clutch automatic transmissions have been featured in some of the year’s fastest cars—the McLaren 720S and the Nürburgring king Lamborghini Huracán Performante.
Will the Italians be supplying a dual-clutch automatic or a stick-shift in the new Vantage? Maybe both. Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer has not been shy in his love for the manual transmission, nor his desire to make sure clutch pedals won’t disappear from his Astons. The car that Daniel Craig drove in Spectre had a stick, so why not the new Vantage?
Power will come from a twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V-8 courtesy of Mercedes-AMG. If a manual transmission does appear, this would be the first application of the lauded AMG V-8 with a stick. That engine produces 516 lb-ft of torque in the V-8–powered DB11, and if that output holds for the Vantage, it would exceed the torque figure of the former range-topping V12 Vantage S. Speaking of V-12s, expect to find the DB11’s Aston-developed twin-turbo 5.2-liter monster shoehorned into the smaller Vantage sometime in the next few years.
After his last appearance in the franchise two years ago, Craig said that he would not be reprising his role as the suave but deadly spy. A recent announcement from MGM says otherwise—the next Bond movie is coming in November of 2019. We’re glad that Daniel Craig will return as 007, and we’re glad to see the DB10 live on in the next Vantage.
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