Yes, the Nürburgring is cool. Yes, the Aston Martin V8 Vantage Roadster is cool. No, getting the Nürburgring embossed in leather on the center console of your V8 Vantage Roadster is not cool.
Make no mistake: The V8 Vantage is no stranger to the Nordschleife. Here’s video of Aston’s test driver taking Sabine Schmitz out for a hot lap:
What’s at stake here is an issue of balance and taste.
Firstly, the car in question is orange. An orange paintjob is statement enough. There is really no need to shout over it with a self-conscious nod to motorsports.
Secondly, the car in the video is a coupé and this is a roadster. Physics will dictate that any roadster based on a unibody coupé will be heavier and less rigid—less of a sports car, that is.
Thirdly, it’s just ostentatious. This car was parked in downtown Vienna, Austria. It’s way too clean to have been anywhere near a racetrack.
And finally, at the risk of sounding curmudgeonly, can we all please cut back on the N’Ring fetish? We’ve all been guilty of it here at Jalopnik, yes, but perhaps it’s time to marvel at our local tracks and roads and not worry so much about a ninety-year-old German circuit PR’d into the modern limelight by automakers desperate to out-Porsche Porsche.
Unless you live in Iowa, you will have wonderful roads around to actually drive on. Do that. And leave the racetrack porn to downtown poseurs. Rant over. Drive on.