Aston Martin Victor Review

The Aston Martin Victor Is A True One-off. It Also Happens To Be Perfection.

In a world extreme specials and limited run production models, the Victor shows what can, and should, be made. A manual rear-wheel drive NA V12.

Everyone has their favourite type of superhero. Some love the light on their feet, sneaky ones, others the brainy ones and some just pure outright power. The same can be said with cars. The lightweight track weapons like Lotus and Alpine are particular favourites of ours, but for some nutters the heavy overpowered SUV seems to be their calling.

Each to their own. We tend to write lovingly about anything light as it is such a rarity these days, we feel it has to be celebrated, but even some in this team have a dark side. Mine is known as the sledgehammer. What I mean by that is objects of pure power. Yes, many can go around a track wonderfully well, but the first feeling and sense of the vehicle is outright power.

There are many modern examples of this, some of my favourites being Ford’s new GT500, the Dodge SRT Hellcat, Lamborghini’s Aventador SVJ and the Aston Martin Vanquish. Awash with character, power and they never leave your mind.

It is a true one-off creation from Aston Martin’s skunkworks, Q Advanced Operations. It is based on the now 13-year-old One-77, Aston’s first true hypercar. This is the third car, along with the Vulcan, to share its underpinnings.

Do not think however that this is just a rebodied Vulcan. It uses the same 7.3 litre naturally aspirated V12 from the One-77 as opposed to the bored out 6.0 litre V12 racing engine from the vantage GT3 and DBR9, only it has gone via the masters at Cosworth to generate an extra 86 BHP and 60LB ft of torque.

They are enormous numbers from such an old naturally aspirated engine, and if you were lucky enough to have been able to afford a brand new One-77 when it came out, chances are you can now send it back for a power upgrade at quite an expense one would imagine. Final power figures for the Victor are 836bhp and 613LB ft.

Terrifying numbers now, but even more so in a car based on a 12-year-old chassis. In its defence, one has to remember the when launched the only negative comment, when the car was finally driven by journalists was the gearbox something Aston has fixed in the best way possible. It has, and we hope you’re sitting down for this one, a manual gearbox. A six-speed manual with a proper clutch.

One of the reasons, other than because it’s bloody awesome, is because of the name. Victor. Quite a name isn’t it. It comes from the man who saved the company in the 1980s Victor Gauntlett. He was a powerhouse industrialist who not only injected the company with the funds required but also did the deal to get the Aston Martin brand back in the bond franchise for ‘The Living Daylights’.

In the process just to prove his salesmanship skills, he even managed to sell a V8 Volante to one of the producers. Among many of his other great decisions he reconnected the company with Zagato, a relationship that has been thriving ever since. He brought in the Virage, started the work on the DB7 and finally, he oversaw the company’s sale to Ford.

He was a brilliant businessman yes, but he also was a little bit nuts, something the cars that he helped produce during that wonderful 1980s really puts on show. This car is as much as a love letter to him as the Enzo is to Ferrari and the Senna to McLaren. The styling is a perfect combination of 1980s mixed with modern Aston and the whole vehicle so brilliantly encapsulates everything the company stood for, brutish elegance.

This is a masterpiece and put simply, one of the greatest cars Aston Martin have ever made, if not one of the greatest cars ever made. We may never drive it, but just as the Countach did for Lamborghini, the exterior was such a revolution that the driving experience was almost inconsequential.

The perfect balance of both exterior and interior styling, that stunning enormous naturally aspirated V12, a manual gearbox and rear wheel drive is something that will be remembered, admired and adored for many years to come.

I’d like to think that when the EVs have taken over the world, the Aston Martin Victor will be one that people look back on in total envy.

Author: Tom Edwards