2011 Aston Martin Virage & Virage Volante revealed

The Aston Martin Virage Volante

Aston Martin reveals the Aston Martin Virage and the Aston Martin Virage Volante ahead of a Geneva debut

With the (probably) most important motor show of the year looming – and the major ‘Home’ show in the traditionalal sense for all European car makers – the reveals are coming thick and fast.

Having already had Jaguar’s XKR-S this morning, we now get a pair of all new Aston Martins – the Aston Martin Virage Coupe and Aston Martin Virage Volante. Lots of tradition Aston Martin ‘V’ words all at once. Bliss.

What these two Virages do is fill the hole no one actually knew existed between the DB9 and the DBS. They are, if you like, a toned-down DBS or a tarted-up DB9. Whichever floats your boat. And, for Aston Martin, they are the personification of the advantages of AM’s VH architecture – new cars with little development cost.

The Virage sports the same V12 as the DB9 and DBS, which Aston anoraks will know sport 470bhp and 510bhp respectively. Would it shock you to learn the Viarage sports 490bhp?

Equally, the DB9 is around £125k and the DBS around £175k. It will have to be a shot in the dark, but we’ll leave you to guess the likely list price for the Virage.

Irresistible jibes apart, Aston seem really chuffed with the Virage. Ulrich Bez is calling it “…the next evolution for Aston Martin” and it seems clear that much work has gone on to make the Virage stand out sandwiched, as it is, between two of the most desirable cars on the planet.

The Virage is said to be stiffer thanks to a new shear panel under the rear chassis, which also means less noise transmission. The adaptive dampers have been tweaked to be a bit more supple than the DBS ,but still work hard to perform to the optimum whilst being supple.

Brakes are of the carbon ceramic variety and, according to Aston, are easy to modulate – not always an easy task – and surrounded by some new 20″ alloys.

The Virage also gets extra soundproofing and the convertible gets a layer of Thinsulate to help the peace and quiet with the roof up, a roof that now lowers more quickly. And there is, thankfully, a new Garmin-based SatNav which will spread across the rest of the Aston Martin range. As it should

The Aston Martin Virage and Virage Volante will go on sale next month and, as we said, cost from around £150k with a £10k premium for the Volante.

Yes, please.