Aston Martin introduces the New Aston Martin Virage – supremely elegant and powerful, yet juxtaposed as an understated sports car. The marque can now provide customers with a class-leading range, all with different characters, yet with the same unique Aston Martin soul and luxury.
Beautiful, dynamic and prestigious, the Aston Martin Virage combines outright sports car performance with luxury, comfort and refinement. The front mid-mounted V12 engine’s torque delivery provides outstanding performance, coupled with the car’s inherent agility and perfect weight distribution delivering the ideal balance between outright sports car performance and trademark sporting luxury exemplified by modern Aston Martins.
Aston Martin Virage capitalises on the technology from the DBS and unites it with the comfort and refinement found in the DB9 and Rapide. Aston Martin’s own bonded aluminium ‘VH’ architecture that forms the backbone of the marque’s sports cars, takes inspiration from the aerospace industry where weight reduction is the ultimate goal. Strong yet light, the inherent properties of modular aluminium lend themselves perfectly to an extremely rigid and versatile platform which allows the production of a Aston Martin Virage coupe and Volante.
The Aston Martin Virage sits low and wide asserting the power which lies beneath; single bi-xenon headlamps follow the lines of the car’s flanks to give a more crisp and modern look from the front. A new aluminium metal front grille, inspired by the One-77, features five horizontal vanes which are chamfered creating an aerofoil profile. The new front bumper is pure and relieves the car of any visual complexities, contributing to the overall simplicity of design. The front wings distinguish the Aston Martin Virage from its stable mates housing a new modern interpretation of the Aston Martin iconic side strake housing six LEDs elegantly forming the side repeater. Aston Martin Virage’s side sills carry the simplicity of the front bumper through to the rear diffuser which houses a body-coloured blade accentuating the width of the car.
The Aston Martin Virage engine produces 490 bhp (365 kW/497 PS) and 570 nM (420 lb. Ft) of torque and is identified from other V12s in the family with a black plenum. The plenum houses a new ‘five pillar design’ increasing the rigidity of the manifold delivering an improved sound quality. The V12 has been designed to deliver over 85% of Virage’s peak torque at only 1,500 rpm providing for instant and crucially, real-world useable traction.
The New Aston Martin Virage features a new Adaptive Damping System (ADS) which has been tuned to suit the particular character of Aston Martin’s latest sporting GT. Each damper has five individual computer controlled stiffness settings. This allows the Virage to ‘read’ the road via strategically placed sensors around the car, constantly adjusting the ride at each corner. Using yaw, accelerometer, steering wheel, throttle and brake (ABS) sensors, the intelligent system can take into account the demands the driver is making of the car at any given time. The Adaptive Damping Electronic Control Unit (ECU) uses these measurements to determine the most appropriate damper settings required at any given time, becoming stiffer for better handling and control during dynamic driving, and becoming softer for greater ride comfort during ‘normal’ driving conditions.
Increasing driver control further, the glass ADS button on the facia allows the driver to override the system to push the dampers into a firmer range of settings. As the button is depressed, for the initial five seconds, all damper settings are set to their firmest providing the driver a tangible difference. After five seconds the system reverts to the optimum setting within the firmer range resulting in a more focussed but comfortable driving experience.
