Class. Style. Elegance. These are some of the things that come to mind when we picture Aston Martin. And the V8 Vantage N430 offers none of them.
The V8 Vantage N430 is old school. It has a six-speed manual gearbox. It has a race-inspired name and lipstick paint job. It's loud as hell. And it has Aston's faithful 4.7-liter V8 engine with 430 horsepower and 361 pound-feet of torque.
Autocar's Steve Sutcliffe says it has an old world, no-nonsense feel to it. He says it's the opposite to the "German techno-fest cars," because it's pure emotion and anger over polish.
That's an interesting thing to say, considering Aston is probably dumping its manual gearboxes soon and switching to AMG engines. The storied brand won't be making cars like this in a few years. Let's enjoy them while we can.