Aston Martin last used the “Virage” name back in 1988, for an all-new model line that followed decades of “DB” cars. The word is French for a curve or bend, and would establish the company’s “V” naming tradition – remember Vanquish, Vantage and Volante? The Virage had a 5.3-litre V8 engine back then, versus the 5.9-litre V12 of its modern namesake here.
The new Virage has a character that is more GT (grand tourer) than the DB9, but not as hardcore as the DBS. Thanks to the consistency of Aston Martin styling, it is difficult to tell the Astons apart at a distance.
Making more models without actually making more platforms is clever, efficient engineering, but creating unique identities thereafter is a real challenge.
To identify a Virage without looking at its badges, take note of the front face. Its general form and headlamp housings come from the Rapide, albeit with detail changes to the daytime running lamps.
Familiar Aston Martin cockpit has been jazzed up with colour-coded threads and a brand-new, Garmin-supplied satellite navigation system.
The fenders that envelope the headlights are more contoured, sporting a pronounced rib on the top and a further negative curvature between that and where it abuts the bonnet.
The front apron now has an obvious front splitter and a more aggressive form. Additional ridges adorn the hood and a pair of Naca ducts draw hot air out from under it.
While the swan-wing doors look very much like they came off the DB9, the styling of the side sills is different, adopting a prominent ribbed line that rises slightly from the front to the back.
The rump is where it gets interesting, being 21mm wider than the DB9’s and thus giving the Virage that wide-body impression from behind. Porsche has long done this with its Turbo-look option for the 911, so expect the same J.Lo impression when viewing the broadened booty of the Virage.
This button ignites the Aston Martin Virage’s mighty V12, which sends its power through a 6-speed automatic gearbox.
The overall effect is a coupe that is visually more dramatic than the DB9 and yet less overtly sporty compared to the DBS. On the inside, the changes pertain mainly to the upholstery and the seats’ stitching pattern. The cabin’s general architecture is unchanged. There are, however, sexy carbon fibre buckets that save about 17kg each, but they are the fixed-back type, which makes it almost impossible to access the rear seats. Not that any adult would really care to sit here, but tick this option and your Virage comes as a two-plus-zero.
Really distancing the newcomer from other Astons are its 20-inch bespoke wheels, which accommodate huge 398mm carbon ceramic matrix (CCM) brake discs in front and 360mm ones at the rear.
These are standard-fit items, filtered down from the serious specifications of the DBS. The rims are shod with high-grip, ultra low-profile P Zeros, with the purposeful tyres being key to the vehicle’s performance.
A proper drivetrain and sorted suspension would deliver the goods. To this end, Aston Martin’s venerable Cologne-built 5.9-litre V12 has been modified to provide an extra 20bhp over the DB9 for a total of 490bhp, accompanied by 570Nm of torque.
Though 30Nm down compared to the DB9 and Rapide, the torque curve has been tuned such that 80 percent of the maximum torque is on tap at just 1200rpm, giving it real-world useability at relatively low road speeds. This is a new power spec for the V12, neatly positioned between the 470bhp DB9/Rapide unit and the DBS’s 510bhp.
Coupled to this 12-cylinder is the excellent Touchtronic 2 automatic. It is a traditional torque converter slushbox, but with far less slush and a lot more go. There is converter lock-up in all gears and it shifts as quickly as any dual-clutch transmission, but with a buttery smoothness that most DCTs cannot match.
Paddle shifters are now de rigueur for sports cars and Aston’s column-mounted paddles (made of magnesium and clad in leather) provide a proper interface for sports driving, just like those found in Ferraris and Lamborghinis.
Getting the Virage suspension right has been made easier by the intelligent Adaptive Damping System (ADS). Aston’s engineers have thoughtfully decoupled the suspension settings from the engine and gearbox settings, so the driver can enjoy a softer setting for the ride while exploiting the aggressiveness of the drivetrain, or vice versa.
The Aston Martin Virage’s 490bhp 5.9-litre V12 can be viewed as either a tweaked Aston Martin DB9 unit or a detuned Aston Martin DBS powerplant.
The adaptive dampers, when left in their default mode, will select from five different ride-handling maps to suit the situation. Or, you could just hit the Sport button to lock them in their firmest setting.
Armed with all this hardware, we venture out in the Virage to the Andalusian mountains in southern Spain. The coupe quickly lives up to its GT billing and makes the DB9 seem relatively meek.
The superior noise insulation of the Virage prevents almost all of the exhaust sounds from entering the cabin. All one hears is the sewing machine-like whine of the V12 up front, but the authoritative manner in which the Virage makes its way up through the curling roads, without hammering the message home as hard as the DBS, is immediately apparent. And it feels great.
The carbon ceramic brakes are a welcome addition, as the car’s nearly 1.8-tonne weight, although well disguised by the nimble chassis and sheer grunt of the V12, is still perceptible as a reluctance to stop or change direction promptly.
The Aston Martin Virage fills the price/performance gap between the Aston Martin DB9 and Aston Martin DBS.
It does not take long to factor this in while piloting the Virage through the mountain passes. Anyway, this characteristic is only noticeable because we drove the much lighter Vantage S on the same test route.
In all, the Gaydon-based marque has created a worthy new model. Some may say this is what the DB9 should have been in the first place, but Aston executives maintain that the Virage was never intended to be a “DB10”.
They openly admit, however, that it could cannibalise sales from the DB9 and even the DBS. Aston Martin says there will be a 10 percent hike in base price over the DB9.
We reckon most Aston customers would probably just buy the newer toy instead of the DB9.
The new-age Aston Martin Virage drives like a “DB10” in all but name.
After all, the premium is decent value if you consider the “free” extra features of the Virage – 20bhp more, superior brakes, better wheels and tyres, a fancier name… and that eye-popping day-glo orange paintwork.
Aston Martin Virage 5.9 (A)
ENGINE 5935cc, 48-valves, V12
MAX POWER 490bhp at 6500rpm
MAX TORQUE 570Nm at 5750rpm
GEARBOX 6-speed automatic with manual select
0-100KM/H 4.6 seconds
TOP SPEED 299km/h
CONSUMPTION 6.7km/L (combined)
PRICE INCL. COE To be advised (as of May 2011)
Check out the “real” Aston Martin DB10, the Aston Martin DB11
