aston martin vantage
Still a lovable thing, but manifests its
considerable years in a few areas.
sure enough they appear perfectly round from
that angle. But as you stand back up and see them
from a higher vantage point, or from the quarter
view, they stretch into ovals, adding intrigue. “It
gives you something to discover,” declares Lee.
He also points to the spiraling diamond detail in-
side the lamps. “We call them whiskey glasses.”
It’s an echo of the new 3 D-metal-printed version
of the traditional Bentley diamond grille, and of
the similar textures inside the cabin.
Around the sides of the car, between the two
sharply drawn lines that emerge from the skin at
door-handle and sill height, there’s a third much
softer positive volume, and again that helps
make it look light. The line that runs upward
ahead of the rear wheel and back above the arch
samples one of the most classic riffs of the Con-
tinental GT. At the tail, the lights are pure ovals
to match the tailpipes. “Before, we always had
the lit ovals in rectangular lights,” Lee explains.
Inside, as you’d expect from the concept,
there are some pretty exquisite materials—most
notably the door panels, each of which is a solid
piece of cherry wood with a diamond pattern
chiseled out. At the intersection of each diamond
sits a little lozenge of copper. The architecture
through the cabin is again all about lightness.
The dash-top wings float above the main struc-
ture to admit light and shade, and the console
also floats and is slimmer than on any Bentley for
years. It houses a portrait-format touchscreen.
The main dials use a physical chronograph-type
rev-counter cluster plus a virtual speedometer
Pedals, among other
cabin elements, have
copper highlightsGearshift looks like an
eight-speed automatic
selector. Looks costlyWWW.topgear.com.ph TOP GEAR PHILIPPINES 83