2026 Aston Martin Vanquish Volante Review: Like Riding a Pegasus

The Drive

9 hours ago

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The 2026 Aston Martin Vanquish Volante is a triumph of automotive artistry. The design, inside and out, is an exceptional blend of quintessential supercar with refreshing new fixtures. Half the joy of driving it is just appreciating how pretty it is as you walk up to it. The other half? A twin-turbo V12 that'll take you up to 214 mph.
The Volante experience is what I imagine riding one of those magical flying horses is like. Y'know, a pegasus.
The 12-cylinder Aston Martin Vanquish has historically been, and is once again, the British brand's flagship. The madcap Valkyrie hypercar and extreme Valhalla supercar are more purely performance- and cash-flow-focused. The super grand touring coupe and the drop-top Volante are most emblematic and essential Astons on the road right now.
Aston Martin proclaims this is 'the world's fastest, most powerful front-engine convertible,' substantiating that with some head-spinning specs: 824 horsepower, 738 lb-ft of torque, 0-62 mph in 3.4 seconds, and a top speed of 214 mph. According to Aston's Vehicle Performance Director Simon Newton, the top speed is not governed by the position of the roof. I'm sad to say my test loop in and around New York City did not allow me to rate the wind chill at that speed. Aston Martin
The V12 sends its power to the rear wheels only, with a ZF eight-speed automatic transmission allowing the driver to shift via the paddle shifters. Despite the engine's impressive size and the car's very long hood, Newton said the weight balance was close to 50/50 front and rear because the motor's packed mostly towards the cabin. The drop-top is about 209 pounds heavier than the coupe, but my test car tried to compensate by sporting the lighter $14,400 titanium exhaust.
'Stainless [exhaust system] is a little more, fuller, more rounded,' Newton told The Drive . 'Titanium has a higher-pitched, sense of urgency.'
Both the coupe and convertible were developed in parallel. Differences between the two, besides the roof, are reportedly just minimal rigidity enhancements underneath and a 7% increase in spring stiffness on the convertible. Trunk's cargo space is not particularly generous, but there's plenty for a couple's weekend luggage. The rest can be shipped to their vacation villa or luxury hotel ahead of time, after all.
The gauge cluster and infotainment screens are substantial, but not annoyingly large, and more importantly, very nicely integrated into the dashboard. Interesting shapes of carbon frame the screens and give them some depth, while Apple CarPlay Ultra lets you run automotive functions like driving modes and climate control without leaving the Apple interface.
Refreshingly, quite a bit of the car controls are accessed through beautiful knurled metal knobs that are as much fun to spin as they are nice to look at.
The Vanquish Volante's starting price is about $480,000, and personalization can quickly send that way north. A set of 21-inch satin black wheels is $6,700, custom interior colorway is $11,200, and interior carbon trim pieces $28,300. You can get carbon exterior bits too, for about another $33,000. The cheapest option I saw was an umbrella (made in England!) for $600. At this level, it's not about value for money. It's all about vibes.
The new Vanquish face and silhouette will be pretty familiar to anyone who has ever seen an Aston Martin, but I absolutely love what the designers did with the unique taillights, exhaust, huge fender vents, and intense hood sculpting.
This generation Vanquish does a great job adding just enough unexpected flourishes to make the car feel fresh and interesting while retaining its classy and classic persona. Aston Martin
The interior is similarly appointed. Beautiful knobs and switches crafted from exceptionally elite materials abound, and a few key decorative features do a lot of heavy lifting to differentiate the design from everything else out there. Those little wings around the gauge cluster and the gorgeous center console knobs are super cool.
I will admit, I felt a little skittish burbling through Manhattan in a convertible car this loud—and I'm not just talking about the exhaust. There were quite a few eyes on me while I idled at stoplights. I assume those who noticed me were trying to figure out if my dad was famous or what—but this is not a machine for a wallflower.
Things got a lot more comfortable when I started steaming up alongside the Hudson River. The Vanquish ride is not plush, but it is compliant. NYC potholes are pretty rough, but I didn't hit anything jarring while leaving the city.
Once I broke out of the boroughs, I stepped on the throttle a little more and felt the absolute abundance of power accompanied by an insistent intensity of the titanium exhaust note. The exhaust has a loud-mode button, but it's not as instantly dramatic as similar systems I've tested on Porsches and other vehicles. Idle, low-speed loping, and free-revs sound pretty much the same, until you get hard on the gas and the open-valve setting is triggered by a little button on the dash. Then the engine note becomes downright dastardly. Aston Martin
I'm sure none of you will be surprised to read that an 800-hp car felt fast—but the big takeaway with this Aston V12 is how unbelievably deep its energy reserve feels. There's a huge sensation of thrust with a fairly modest application of gas pedal, and as your foot goes down, it just keeps climbing and never lets off.
It doesn't matter if you hit the gas from a slow roll or a canter—there's a tsunami of power at the ready from pretty much any engine rpm.
In a way, this much juice is almost more exciting to experience in a luxury touring car than it is in a pure sports car. When you're strapped into a firm seat and riding on stiff suspension, you expect a snappy response on the throttle. When you're surrounded by the luxurious trappings of private jet—and in a convertible, no less—the rocket-ride whoosh of a twin-turbo V12 can catch you by surprise even after you've been driving for a few hours.
The car's not difficult to handle (despite feeling enormous from the driver's seat), but it does manage to be delightfully intimidating. You can scare yourself well before the gas pedal makes contact with the carpet, and no passenger will ever question its 200-plus top speed.
There is a Wet Mode that softens power delivery, should slippery conditions dare to arise while you're out road-yachting in your Vanquish. I didn't test this, but even decent drivers will appreciate its existence when needed.
I enjoyed some exciting twisty roads around New York's Bear Mountain State Park on a lovely sunny day, which I pretty much had to myself in the middle of the week. The car's certainly enjoyable to link turns with and doesn't beg to be driven hard despite its obvious capability. It's a lot of fun to carve corners in at a relatively socially acceptable speed, then briefly surge on straightaways before being easily reeled back in by its enormous carbon ceramic brakes.
I don't even want to think about what your local Aston Martin shop charges for a new set of pads on this thing, but again, if you can buy the car, you probably don't need to read price tags. Aston Martin
Only two chinks in the Vanquish Volante's shiny armor manifested themselves during my test drive. I found the cabin to still be fairly noisy even with the roof up. Aston's people said there were eight layers of insulation in the quickly retractable roof, but after my test, I can confirm that you shouldn't expect a similar level of isolation as the hardtop. The other thing is cabin cooling. I taxed the air conditioning hard; it was about 90 degrees and very humid that day. Even with the seat coolers on, it was toasty. Considering some of Aston's best customers live in the Middle East, that might be suboptimal.
While not the biggest detractors for a convertible, you're kind of left hoping for a bit more out of a $610,000 car.
Sidebar: I was not enamored with Apple CarPlay Ultra. The selectable Apple-style main gauges make the car look like a kiddie toy, and I'd rather just split the main screen between my map and car controls.
I could easily be impressed by high-dollar hardware because I usually drive jalopies. However, that's not the case. If anything, my real-life basicness makes me even more dismissive of things as conceptually absurd as a half-million-dollar toy. So from a realist's perspective, there's no financially logical reason to buy one. There never is.
But an Aston Martin Vanquish Volante is not for people who logically decide their purchases. This is a car for somebody who wants an exceptional motoring experience and can afford it—and I have to admit, it delivers. It's unforgettably gorgeous, fast, smooth, engaging, fun to drive at any speed, and intimidating enough to make you feel alive behind the wheel. If the Pegasus comparison was a little too abstract for you, the Vanquish Volante feels closer to a Fountain powerboat than a car, but considerably less crass.
It's hard to imagine a grander touring car. And as far as making the ultimate quintessential Aston Martin, there's nothing I would change about the Vanquish Volante. Aston Martin
2026 Aston Martin Vanquish Volante Specs Base Price (As Tested) $483,000 ($610,300) Powertrain 5.2-liter twin-turbo V12 | 8-speed automatic | rear-wheel drive Horsepower 824 @ 6,500 rpm Torque 738 lb-ft @ 2,500-5,000 rpm Seating 2 Dry Weight 4,120 pounds 0-62 (100 kph) 3.4 seconds Top Speed 214 mph EPA Fuel Economy (Coupe spec, Volante TBA) 13 city | 21 highway | 16 combined Score 10/10
Spectacularly grand tourer with regal design and a warrior king's bearing.