Predatory Intention

It could have been a Volvo. Or maybe even an old Saab. A Mercedes-Benz convertible from the 1980s? Absolutely. Something with patina, associations with intellect, cigarette smoke and mirror surfaces. In other words, something that lives up to the claim of timelessness. The murmur in the room, the approving nods of those present would be guaranteed in any case. And a glass of old whiskey, slowly swirling in a hand-blown glass. And the question: is time actually a horrible concept?

We are in Austria, more precisely: Fuschl am See. Schlosshotel. This time-honored building once served a film crew as the backdrop for the Sissi trilogy with Romy Schneider. And even today, there are still plenty of references to the films. A kind of time capsule, you could say. A small exhibition, a touch of museum patina. However, the editorial team unanimously rejected the suggestion to use Romy Schneider as a hook for this story. “Please don't!”

Instead: Aston Martin Vantage Roadster, year 2025, open. British Racing Green. Four-liter V8 biturbo. 665 HP. In other words: a car that is louder than any conscience and more beautiful than anything that the dutiful and serious writers of the feuilleton in Germany want to deal with. This car is less a vehicle than an aggregate state. It is intellectual noise. A performative moment. A “Now!” that emphatically decides against any kind of filing.

The water is smooth on the shores of Fuschl am See, a swan passes by as if it had a contract with the tourist board. Up at the hotel, the Aston Martin is waiting. It is the slow approach to an incredibly fast machine. “Art and performance”, says Marek Reichman, Head of Design, are what this open-top sports car combines. It is therefore a kind of experimental set-up, the aesthetics of which Reichman even attributes to a “predatory intention”. Even the swan on the lake is wide-eyed for a moment. For more insights, you'd better get behind the wheel of course

The electric roof of the Aston Martin Vantage Roadster takes less than seven seconds to open. No one else can do it faster. And yet: an eternity. The reason is simple. Time is a very strange thing. And if you're just waiting to finally set off in this Aston Martin, the less than seven seconds it takes to open the roof will seem like an eternity. Aston Martin knows this, because the particularly impatient can at least roll off at up to 50 km/h while the electric roof mechanism is still folding. Then comes the next formative experience: the first few meters. It is so incredibly outmoded, so exaggerated, so devoid of any justification – and this is precisely where the beauty lies.

The new Vantage Roadster continues the tradition of open-top Aston Martin Vantage models that goes back 75 years. Since 1950, when the first Vantage engine upgrade for the DB2 appeared. What meant 127 hp back then means 800 Newton meters today. An almost absurd development, and yet logical in itself. Historicism – with turbochargers.

In the Aston Martin Vantage Roadster from 2025, you witness a great flexibility in the sense of time. As mentioned, the minutes stretch as the roof folds in just 6.7 seconds – quietly, precisely, casually. Conversely, the hour evaporates while driving, condensing into a single, vibrating now moment. An appointment with the present that you don't want to leave. Science has long been aware of this phenomenon. Prof. Tatjana Tchumatchenko, a neuroscientist at the University of Bonn, once explained it in a radio interview as follows: "The brain only knows the activity in the individual areas of the brain. So in the visual cortex, in the auditory cortex, in the area responsible for feelings... so all areas are available to the brain and based on this activity in these areas and the question of how complex, how active the brain is overall, the brain estimates how long something has taken based on this recording." So far so good.

But it gets even better. But first, please perform a few particularly demanding driving maneuvers: hard braking, for example, turning in with the weight of the vehicle on the front axle, immediate load changes, accelerating out of a bend. This is important to remember. Because, according to Tchumatchenko: "The more complex sensory impressions the brain has to process, the longer the past time seems to us. And in retrospect, when we remember."

Aston Martin did not simply saw the coupé open and say: it will last. The Roadster was developed in parallel – with a clear objective: not a gram too much, no loss of dynamics, no compromises in driving pleasure. The result: only 60 kilograms more than the Coupé. And while the whole world is clocked according to deadlines and timings, the Vantage Roadster defies this with anarchic radicalism. It is an untimely machine. A challenge to chronology. And perhaps this is its real luxury: not saving time, but giving it back.

The V8 twin-turbo itself is a dark, raw unit, a truly great figure of an engine that lives under the hood of the front end. When you look at this engine, you understand that you have always known it – from dreams, from movies, from diaries that you have never written. Even at idle, it makes it clear with a grumble: I'm here. And: I'm not going anywhere. The acceleration? Seriously? We're talking about 800 Newton meters of torque. In this category, acceleration no longer just means movement – it means compression. Acceleration here is a loss of linearity, a crack in the beat. And so this Vantage Roadster always drives as if you want to keep Monday morning at bay with all your might.

The great fascination of the open-top Vantage lies above all in the fact that it masters both extreme ends of the sports car spectrum. It can be driven very hard – and at the same time cruise in a completely relaxed manner. There is no better or worse between these two poles. These are the coordinates of its origins, its socialization, its culture.

Anyone waiting for a conclusion at this point will be disappointed. Drawing conclusions would mean looking backwards. But this Aston Martin is completely forward-looking.