It was the dream assignment for every petrolhead: drive anAston Martin V12 Vantage from the UK all the way to Davos, in Switzerland, and spend four days exploring the best roads the Alps have to offer, before pointing it home again. And the best bit? It was all on expenses.

Careering around some of God’s greatest gifts to drivers – the Flüela pass, San Bernardino, Albula, Bernina and, inevitably, Stelvio – a good 15 years later I can still hear that Aston’s V12 ringing in my ears. Its bellow would fill the deepest of valleys, disturbing the distinctive braunvieh cows from their hillside grazing and letting villages for miles around know that something a bit naughty was approaching.

It was late in the year, 2010 I think, and the summer tourists had long-since gone, the ski season was still to begin and the foreboding red and white barriers used to close the passes as the winter weather enveloped the mountains remained open. Needless to say, it would have been rude not to…

I subsequently drove several iterations of the V12 Vantage, which lived a long and fruitful life from its launch, in 2009, until 2016, and never failed to mentally log them as cars I would wholeheartedly recommend to anyone who is serious about the pleasure that can be had from driving. Plenty of others agreed. You might remember Jeremy Clarkson eulogising about the car on Top Gear.  Many other motoring hacks I’ve spoken with also have a soft spot for the V12 Vantage.

So it’s one of the standout performance cars of the early 21st century. A fusion of British elegance and raw, unbridled power, it is a car that’s not only a joy to drive but also a car that demands to be driven. Yet it’s not exactly rare – its various incarnations ran to more than 3300 cars. So how does the market view this hot rod from Aston Martin, a brand that is rarely far from financial controversy and so divides opinions among car collectors?

Let’s look back at the early examples of the car (which is all you need, in my opinion) its place in the market and competitors, and ask our friends at The Classic Valuer to shine the spotlight on how V12 Vantage is fairing in the used market. Could it be a smart buy that will appreciate in value, or a quick way to burn through money as well as a set of Pirelli Corsas?

The birth of Aston Martin’s V12 Vantage

Under the leadership of Ulrich Bez and with the help of Lotus, Aston Martin developed a new generation of cars built around its VH (vertical horizons) architecture. This was clever engineering that brought about a newfound degree of both flexibility when making smaller or larger models, as it allowed for the sharing parts such as suspension assemblies or dashboards.

This opened up new possibilities for Aston Martin’s engineers, who quickly set to work on a concept for a V12-powered version of the V8 Vantage. That 2007 concept was call V12 RS, and it went down as storm with the press and public alike. It showed how a DB9 engine cradle (not just any V12, but the same one from the DBRS9 GT3-class racing car) could be attached to the Vantage chassis, allowing the V12 to squeeze into the V8-sized space. And thanks to an intense diet, (aluminium and carbon body panels, carbon brake discs, a stripped-out interior with carbon-backed Recaros and reduced soundproofing) the V12 RS weighed 1600 kilos – 100kg less than its V8 sibling, despite the V12 motor being 60kg heavier than the V8.

The V12 Vantage driving experience

It may seem a cliché, but you can pretty much tell just by looking at a V12 Vantage what sort of machine Aston Martin created and how it will behave on the road.

It took the 2005 V8 Vantage – a car that still looks good to this day – and injected just the right hint of menace, with that bulging, vented bonnet and flared rear track. Inside, the cabin was far more sumptuously appointed than a GT3 Porsche 911 or Ferrari 430 Scuderia, but then again, Aston Martin has always taken a different direction to its competitors.

Unsurprisingly, the DBR9 race car’s 580bhp V12 was never going to make production but the final version was nothing to turn your nose up at. The 5.9-litre V12 produced 510 horsepower and 470 lb-ft of torque, delivered in a way that left little to the imagination. Its naturally-aspirated, red-blooded soundtrack (helped by active valves in the exhaust) is one of the all-time greats, reverberating through the cabin with a growl that escalates into a scream at higher revs. And because there’s not a turbo in sight when you lift that bonnet, power delivery is deliciously linear. Another thing that you’ll not find in an early V12 Vantage is a paddle-shift gearbox. It was manual or nothing, and all the obvious ways that made that so appealing then make it even more tempting now, when manual sports cars are as good as extinct.

The acceleration is swift, smooth, and intoxicating – 0-60mph takes just 4.2 seconds, and the top speed sits at an autobahn-appropriate 190mph. But while the V12 engine is certainly the star of the show, it’s far from the only reason to consider this car. The V12 Vantage’s handling is another key attribute that sets it apart from some contemporary high-performance cars.

Aston Martin worked hard to make sure the V12 didn’t compromise the agility and dynamics of the V8 Vantage, so it can pull upto 1.3g through corners and the carbon-ceramic brakes have the measure of all that performance. The suspension had been fine-tuned to handle the added weight of the V12 engine, giving it excellent bite at the front and a generally neutral stance that could easily be overwhelmed with a judicious jab of the throttle, at which point it became a drifter’s delight. The hydraulic steering system was precise and full of feedback, and there was plenty of seat-of-the-pants feel too, making it one of those rare sports cars that may have been a bit of an animal but you never felt as though it was trying to savage you.

Yet you could – and I did – drive it in relative comfort over great distances, giving it a good deal of appeal to those considering what modern-classic sports car they’d like to have tucked up in the garage for special drives.

Tracking the values of the Aston Martin V12 Vantage

When new in 2009, the V12 Vantage coupé cost a smidge over £50,000 more than the V8 it was based on, at £135,000. That compares with just shy of £82,000 for the 997, gen-2-era, 911 GT3, and nearly £173,000 for Ferrari’s 430 Scuderia – a couple of useful reference points when look at the V12 Vantage from an investment perspective.

Sixteen years later, early examples of the V12 Vantage coupé are fetching in the region of £60,000 to £75,000, with mileage and condition influencing where it falls. According to car valuation site, The Classic Valuer, which tracks auctions in the UK and abroad and updates results daily, during 2021 and 2022 values were climbing, but the next two years saw sold cars at auction achieve lower prices – no doubt an effect of the cooling of the market after the buying splurge during lockdown.

That’s quite a fall in value. And quite a contrast with contemporaries. The 911 GT3 is hovering closer to £90,000 - £100,000 in terms of average sales price achieved since 2020, and the F430 Scuderia, which is sitting at £150,000 - £160,000 as an average over the same time period. A look at classifieds will reinforce this picture of the Porsche and Ferrari sitting significantly above the Aston.

So there’s an argument for saying the V12 Vantage represents fantastic value for money. Especially if you believe, as I do, that one of the reasons it hasn’t maintained half of its original value is that the trials and tribulations of the Aston Martin brand rub off somewhat unfairly on what is one of the most dazzling packages produced by the company. Whether it will come to be fully appreciated and rise in value is the role of the dice that buyers have to be prepared to take, but even if it never catches up its peers, the V12 Vantage’s special driving experience is worth every penny. Especially if you drive it out to Davos…

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