Those British gents and gentesses at Aston Martin have been busy. The latest addition to their famous cast of cars has just taken to the stage, and the new Vanquish Volante brings you all the drama and excitement you can handle.

AstonMartinVanquish

Every body panel of the Vanquish is constructed from the high-performance, flexible carbon-fibre ‘skin’, limiting the need for as many joints and panels and giving it its sexy and svelte new silhouette. Reinforcement comes in the form of Aston’s fourth generation VH-bonded aluminium structure that lies beneath, 14% more rigid than the previous DBS Volante.

Fluid and smooth, lift the bonnet and you’ll find it’s powered by the same snarling 6.0-litre V12 engine as the Vanquish coupe, driving the rear wheels with a ‘Touchtronic 2’ six-speed automatic gearbox. Which means a nifty 0-62 mph in 4.1 seconds (peak horsepower output comes at 6,750 rpm, while the full slug of torque is delivered a little lower, at 5,500 rpm).

Also nifty, is the speed at which the triple-skin fabric roof takes to fold – just 14 seconds. Huh. That’s a roof, travelling at 50 km/h. You’ll have the top popped and your hairstyle tackling the air currents in no time. It can then tuck itself smoothly away again under an aerodynamically shaped tonneau.

Just like the coupe, the Vanquish has an Adaptive Damping System (ADS) which means you can switch between three damping modes: Normal, Sport and Track, to suit your driving reverie.

First deliveries will hit the UK at the end of 2013 and to bag yourself one you’ll need excess of £200k. Worth it for the dramatic entrance every time.

More details can be found at www.astonmartin.com.