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The "people's Aston" could sell on its looks alone. Fortunately, it doesn't need to

San Francisco, Calif. - Lindsay Lohan could be driving the Mercedes-Benz SL in the next lane, and nobody would turn their head. All eyes are locked on our ride.
Even here, in California, the natural habitat of exclusive convertibles, an Aston Martin is a rare sighting that reduces the iconic Benz to the eyeworthiness of chopped liver.

In Aston Martin's past, however, exclusivity has often been too much of a good thing. In 1992 sales almost evaporated to just 42 cars. Many automotive brands have existed longer than Aston Martin's 94 years, but few have such a long tradition of simply surviving.
Spiking oil prices and faltering economies threaten new perils ahead, but Aston Martin is riding high. Ford ownership between 1994 and 2007 provided modernized engineering and manufacturing capabilities. The model lineup was reinvented. Sales have rebounded from their two-digit nadir in '92 to more than 7,000 last year.
A key component in that revival was the arrival of the V8 Vantage in 2005. Although hardly a threat to Toyota Corolla sales, the new two-seater was the brand's first entry at the "affordable" end of the exotic car market (read: Porsche 911, Jaguar XK, Mercedes SL).
Still breathtakingly beautiful
Now the Vantage has been revised for 2009, which is why I'm driving through filthy-wealthy Marin County, north of San Francisco, heading for lunch in Bodego Bay via some of the best driving roads in California.

The Vantage was already light, compact, and breathtakingly beautiful. Mercifully, Aston Martin has altered not one crease or curve of the award-winning shape for 2009. The re-do is all functional.
A fine-tuned suspension simultaneously tenderizes the ride and tautens the handling. Revised six-speed transmissions are more user-friendly. The switchgear has been rearranged. A single plug-in ECU "key," fashioned from glass, stainless steel and polycarbonate, supplants last year's separate steering-column key and starter button.
But here's what you really need to know: the '09 is faster. Engine displacement expands from 4.3 to 4.7 litres. Maximum outputs grow to 420 horsepower and 346 lb.-ft. of torque, gains of 11 and 15 per cent respectively. The claimed 0-100 km/h time shrinks from 5.0 to 4.8 seconds. Maximum speed rises to 290 km/h.
The cruiser's choice
That said, if exoticar ownership is mostly about being there and being seen, the white roadster we're assigned for the drive to lunch is the Vantage of choice. It has the optional Sportshift, Aston Martin's take on an automated manual transmission à la Ferrari F1.

And oh-my-gosh this car is beautiful. I'm half glad we've left the top up, so onlookers may be spared the disillusion of seeing the two middle-aged male occupants who so don't look like Paul Newman and Robert Redford.
As my co-driver wheels us from our hotel towards the Golden Gate Bridge, the roadster is literally unrattled by the rough downtown streets.
The topless structure may be less rigid than a coupe's, but rigid it still is. And at these urban velocities the robotized clutchwork and shifting of the six-speed in fully automatic "D" mode are imperceptible from the passenger's seat.
On Highway 101 now with the Golden Gate behind us, we're cruising easy. The engine is spinning contentedly well below 3,000 rpm. There isn't even all that much tire noise.
Opening it up ...
The Lucas Valley exit looms - time to head for the hills. But first, we stop to lower the top. In 18 seconds it powers down below a rigid tonneau cover. We manually slot the wind blocker in place behind the seats. Back in motion, there's little turbulence to deter topless cruising at legal or even supra-legal highway speeds.

Now it's my turn at the wheel. A quick repositioning of the tilt-and-tele steering, a few prods on the 10-way power-seat buttons, and I'm sitting pretty. No exoticar weirdness, no claustrophobia. The cowl is way forward at the far side of an expansive dash-top, but no more so than in, say, a Honda Civic. I can see out just fine.
Okay, there are some oddballs. The speedo lacks enough acreage to accommodate 350-km/h worth of calibrations without clutter. The tacho needle spins anti-clockwise. And the Sportshift transmission modes are selected by pushbuttons.
The rally-inspired "fly-off" style handbrake, positioned outboard of the driver's seat, is a throwback that revives long-dormant memories: yank lever up, push button to engage brake, drop lever back to floor. To disengage, repeat.
I do just that, and we head back into the hills.
Really opening it up ...
Just because the Sportshift facilitates cruising and posing doesn't mean it can't do hardcore performance. Gear changes become progressively brusquer as the pace quickens, but the "shift-shock" is more akin to being driven by a deft driver than a ham-footed learner. Few humans, however, can snap off full-bore upshifts in just 200 milliseconds.

The engine is a masterpiece. We've already experienced the docility that can accelerate the car cleanly and strongly from 50 km/h in sixth gear. Now, the V8 is in attack mode, ripping ferociously through the gears to 7,000 rpm. And, oh man, the sound of it - a crackling, barking snarl like a hundred husky dogfight. This could never get old.

The Aston's appetite for speed is equalled by its lust for curvaceous pavement. The steering is a near-perfect blend of effort, accuracy, responsiveness and stability. Agile and balanced, with enormous reserves of grip, the Vantage eats up S-curves and spits them out.
Stick-shift in a tin-top
After our own lunch we get a manual-transmission coupe for the drive back to 'Frisco. This car has the Sport Pack suspension, but we find the ride still quite livable. Handling? Any Vantage already carves curves with such precision that it would take a closed test track to uncover any enhanced capabilities.

The manual shift action isn't totally a tactile delight, but frankly, those of exotic sports cars rarely are. It's not challenging to use, however, and is complemented by fluid, easy clutch engagement. If there is an issue with shifting the stick, it's that while so doing some body types could bang elbows with the centre-console armrest.
As we near the hotel back in downtown 'Frisco, we spot a well-preserved Acura NSX in the next lane. The sighting seems apt. When it was new, the NSX was lauded as the first no-excuses supercar that was also almost as easy to drive as a Honda Civic. Twenty years later, the Aston Martin V8 Vantage is in the same space. Even Lindsay could handle one of these.
2009 Aston Martin V8 Vantage
- Price: base/as tested $139,700/$160,200 (Roadster Sportshift)
- Type of vehicle: Front-engine, rear-wheel drive sports car
- Engine: 4.7 L V8
- Power/Torque: 420 hp/346 lb.-ft.
- Transmission: 6-speed automated manual
- Fuel consumption (European figures): Manual - 19.9 urban, 10.4 extra urban, 13.9 combined L/100 km; Sportshift - 19.4 urban, 9.6 extra urban, 21.4 combined L/100 km
- Competition: Porsche 911, Jaguar XK, Mercedes SL