Aston Martin has released the first official images of the new V8 Vantage, and we’re getting a little bit of deja vu — in a good way.
The coupe depicted in the shots is a pre-production model wrapped with camouflage and clad with huge Pirelli stickers, in case you were absolutely dying to know what kind of tires it rides on. Looking beyond the stickers and through the hornet-like wrap, we can tell the next-generation Vantage borrows more than a handful of styling cues from the stunning DB10 that starred in the 2015 James Bond movie Spectre.
Compared to the current Fisker-designed model, which has been on the market for the past 12 years, the DB10-inspired car gets swept-back headlights mounted low on the front fascia, a wide grille, and extra-thin tail lamps. More design details will be revealed when the Vantage starts its strip tease. Under the curvaceous sheet metal lies a shortened version of the DB11‘s aluminum platform, according to Motor Authority.
As a small car manufacturer, Aston Martin doesn’t have the gargantuan research and development budget of rivals like Porsche. That’s why it decided to borrow a V8 engine from Mercedes-AMG instead of developing one from scratch. The unit in question is a twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter unit found in dozens of Germany’s finest sports cars, including the C63, and the E63. In this application, it makes 503 horsepower and 513 pound-feet of torque. Aston tells us the engine has been tweaked in-house by its engineers, yet the power figures are identical to the ones released by Mercedes.
The Aston Martin V8 Vantage will make its debut before the end of the year. Nothing is official at this point, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see it break cover in a few weeks during the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, which has become the venue of choice for high-end companies who want to bypass the traditional auto show circuit. Aston might choose to only show the car behind closed doors to a hand-picked group of customers, however, and wait until the Frankfurt Auto Show in September to reveal it to the public. Either way, we’ll bring you live images of it and full details as soon as it’s unveiled.