The Aston Martin Vanquish Volante is the all-conquering convertible supercar

The glamorous, semi-subterranean surroundings of Grantley Hall in Yorkshire, a remote stately pile injected with a spa, fusion cuisine and all the accoutrements for a society wedding, served as the backdrop for Aston Martin’s most recent debut. The Aston Martin Vanquish Volante, the new V12-powered droptop grand tourer, stands resplendent by the entrance as if it owns the place.

First up, drink it in. You probably won’t see another pure combustion engine car as beautiful as this ever again. As a swansong for Aston Martin’s era of cylinders, turbos, and throaty exhausts, it’s near perfect. A sinuous side profile culminating in a unique cut-off tail is paired with a wide and deep front grille. As the lines flow back from the classic Aston radiator shape they carve deep scallops in the bonnet, flanked by the cooling vents for the engine.

There are those who point out that ICE technology has been up way past its bedtime for a few years now, but you can’t blame companies like Aston and Ferrari for eking out their expertise for as long as is legally possible. Especially when many auto execs say privately that their buyers are still not remotely interested in the alternative.

We’ll punt that political football into the long grass for now. The Vanquish is a big car, a sybaritically appointed two-seater designed to be personalised down to the last stitch and plumbed with a boosted, uprated twin-turbo 5.2-litre V12 engine with 835PS and 1000Nm of torque.

While there’s scarcely any space to lose a spanner in the crammed engine compartment, the cow’n’carbon fibre trimmed interior is spacious and gracious. Dropping the top of the Vanquish coupe does a couple of things; it gives the driver and their lucky passenger a bigger earful of V12 soundtrack while also putting them on very public display. Sure, some buy convertibles because they like the sunshine, but rather more people opt for a soft-top because they secretly rather like the attention.

You’re certainly not going anywhere quietly in the Vanquish Volante. Crunching my way down Grantley Hall’s long gravel drive and out through a couple of gates is a good way of getting used to the sheer scale of this machine. Yorkshire’s twisty back roads aren’t renowned for their width, and although the Vanquish is geared and sprung to feel like a much smaller car, scratchy hedges and oncoming traffic appear with frightening swiftness.

Once the road opens up, so does the car. Unseasonal but relentless perma-drizzle prevents me from getting the roof down – a mildly ironic frustration, given how long it’s taken to get here – but it doesn’t dilute the overall experience. As a flagship, Vanquish gets the top-billing price and performance stats of Aston’s production car range (as opposed to its more select ‘specials’). That means a top speed of 214mph (unattainable anywhere in Yorkshire, let alone the rest of the British Isles) and 0-62mph in a ferocious 3.4 seconds.

Despite this, Vanquish is more of a cruiser than an out-and-out bruiser. All that torque makes driving at any speed simply effortless. The car has a ‘Wet’ mode as well as a ‘GT’ mode, both of which take some of the bite out of the throttle attack. Select 'Sport' and response time is shortened considerably, but in the ultimate 'Sport+' mode there is again more play in the throttle, allowing the experienced driver to modulate the power depending on the gear. Switchable ESP is also easily accessible, should you be confident enough to handle 835PS without electronic aids.

A wide car on a wet road is a poor place to venture anywhere near the limits, and this car has limits that are broader than most. GT mode therefore sufficed for most of my time with the Vanquish and will probably be the default setting for most owners. A lot of work has gone into making the Vanquish – like the closely related DB12 – ride as smoothly and supply as a limousine. Aston Martin recently upgraded their interiors to accommodate a ‘one-button’ solution to kill the ADAS and their endlessly irritating warning sounds (although the speed limit warning might save your license).

Ultimate luxury is becoming a hard-fought part of the market, a sector where buyers spec lavishly, spend big and profits are high. The imminent tantrum of tariffs threatens to upend that order, introducing new levels of competition between brands as top customers cut back on their annual supercar budget. The Vanquish Volante goes head-to-head with Ferrari’s 12Cilindri Spider, but it’s also up against the spidery brilliance of McLaren’s old-but-excellent 750S. These are all event cars, designed for high days and holidays and unlikely to be used on a daily basis.

Nevertheless, the Vanquish has a docility and refinement and generally greater utility than the other two. Recent HMI upgrades – plus the arrival of Apple CarPlay Ultra – make the car much more user-friendly than the esoteric Ferrari and McLaren. Bowers & Wilkins provides a fine 15-speaker audio system and although there’s slightly less stowage space in the Volante than the coupe, the Aston just about bests the others. If you don’t like being on show, there’s always the coupe, but chances are the Vanquish will never be a shrinking violet.

Aston Martin Vanquish Volante, enquiries to AstonMartin.com, @AstonMartin