Meanwhile, deploying those cars’ grizzled, glamorous racing counterparts in the form of the 499P and Valkyrie AMR-LMH, Aston and Ferrari only days ago battled alongside one another for outright victory at Le Mans, for the first time since 1959 (when the DBR1s of the David Brown Racing Dept saw off a 250 GT quadruple threat).
And another thing, to drive home this affinity. Until the recent arrival of Adrian Hallmark, Aston’s CEO was Amedeo Felisa, who once occupied the very same post at Ferrari. We have yet to see quite such a high-profile transfer in the other direction, but who knows what the future holds? Mr Hallmark is rated.
All of which is to say, if you want to compare Aston and Ferrari, there’s no end of criteria. Yet the comparison that hits hardest and means the most remains Il Classico. We’re talking grand tourers, especially the V12 ones. Maybe I’m too romantic, but for me these extraordinary cars still define the companies.
Does it matter which wins? In truth, not especially. I’ll tell you now that, barring the odd quirk, both the 12Cilindri and the Vanquish offer an experience so absurdly gratifying, exciting and evocative that you would give a kidney to own either. Today’s verdict is more of a gun-to-the-head affair.
The drive up from London to the Scottish Borders confirmed the 12Cilindri is a milder-mannered sort than the 812 Superfast it replaces, even if the V12 has now 600rpm greater scope and redlines at 9500rpm – extraordinary for a 6496cc unit with 12,500-mile service intervals.
This toning down of the format is welcome. I loved the Superfast but it wasn’t a well-conceived GT. It lived in a permanent state of arousal, as a hell-raising supercar in grand tourer drag. It was, even among 800bhp supercars, niche.
There are strong traces of that DNA in the 12Cilindri but the new car is more laissez-faire. From cold it fires into the urgent, faintly industrial idle we’re familiar with, although the din is softer and more nasal. The EPAS gearing is still lightning-quick, but there’s more linear off-centre response, married to an all-round heightened sense of maturity and heft.
