Aston Martin Prodrive

Add Vantage. You've got to hand it to Aston Martin; it knows how to jack up our heart rates with careless abandon.

Having just left us more breathless than a 60-a-dayer running a marathon with the V8 Vantage Roadster, there's now a range of upgrades for the V8 to give it even more heart-stopping performance.

OK, the upgrades come from Prodrive, better known for its work on Subaru rally cars, but Prodrive is also the force behind Aston's endurance racing DB9 and rallying V8, so it knows a thing or two and has a hotline to Aston's bosses.

The Prodrive package ups engine power to 425bhp and 325lb ft to bring the 0-62mph time down to 4.7 seconds. More power also pushes up the top speed to 183mph.

In tweaking the engine, Prodrive has also played with the exhaust. There are three selectable options where you can leave the exhaust to behave as normal.

That means the valve in the exhaust that makes the V8 one of the loudest cars ever is untouched, or you can have it permanently closed for a more civil arrival.

Why you would want to do this is beyond us. We'd go straight for the third option, which is to leave the valve open all the time and let the engine roar as nature intended.

There's also revised suspension that can be firmed up at the touch of a button. In normal setting, the suspension has exactly the same settings as the standard V8, but the sports mode firms things up for keen driving or track use.

Helping to keep the V8 pinned to the road with all this extra potential are front and rear spoilers made from carbon fibre, which Prodrive says reduces aerodynamic lift by 45 per cent to improve grip and stability.

All of this is available from Prodrive in early 2007, although it hasn't said how much open-wallet surgery will be required for the V8 upgrades.

© Source: original article on topgear.com