With the Vantage having received its mid-life facelift a year ago, it was obvious that a refreshed Vantage Roadster was also in the works. For the 2025 model year, Aston Martin have thoroughly redesigned the Roadster, that considering it a second-gen Vantage doesn’t quite cut it.

Calling it an all-new generation would be a bit much, but the engineers have put in an incredible amount of thought and effort into this refresh for it to be on the same page as the model that essentially came out in 2018.

More Power? That’s an Understatement

As is with 2025 Vantage, the heart powering this drop-top has been revised and upgraded to put out 656 hp and 800 Nm, which is an increase of around 153 hp and 115 Nm over the outgoing model. This has been achieved using larger turbos, a better compression ratio, and reworking the camshafts.

All this power goes straight to the rear wheels, via an 8-speed ZF automatic transmission, helping the Roadster hit 0-100 km/h in 3.5 seconds. Aston wanted the Roadster to embody the same fiery spirit of the Vantage, so development happened in parallel, and this meant they were able to identify the places the former would need special attention to, and work on them effectively and efficiently.

The Wizardry beneath the Elegance

For any convertible, the body sacrifices some rigidity for the visual drama, and that carries over to the performance characteristics. The minds at Gaydon accounted for this, and the chassis and body were reinforced accordingly. The folding roof makes use of a Z-fold configuration, making it faster and lighter than a traditional folding roof, and also does away with a tonneau cover, keeping the weight gain to a minimum.

The end result is a roof that opens and closes in 6.8 seconds, and the overall weight increase is around 60 kg as compared to the Vantage coupe. With that said, Aston Martin have not sacrificed on refinement and ride quality, as the new roof has enough insulation to mimic the hardtop of the coupe, and the suspension has been retuned to ensure you can fling the Roadster around corners just as hard as the coupe.

Beauty with Purpose Runs in the Family

The redesign of the Roadster is particularly noticeable from the exterior, as it adopts a similar front fascia to the DB12 and Vanquish, just like the coupe did. As mentioned earlier, the parallel development of the Vantage twins meant that designers had ample to perfect the body lines of the Roadster, their goal being that onlookers would never think the Roadster is a derivative of the Vantage but instead was designed exclusively to be a standalone model.

The rear end has stayed relatively the same as the outgoing Vantage, and that is by no means a bad thing, as Vantages have always been quite the elegant sportscar. For 2025, Aston Martin offers a few more hues for the body, and five colours for the roof. As for wheels, four different styles of 21” wheels are on the catalogue. Just like any other Aston, an endless amount of further customization is available via Q, Aston’s personalization programme.

Getting inside the Vantage Roadster, we see that it has also inherited the DB12 infotainment package, bespoke by Aston. The dash is dominated by a 10.25” touchscreen, with just enough physical buttons retained for essential operations. An in-house 390W 11-speaker system comes standard, while customers can opt for a Bowers & Wilkins setup as well.

Verdict

All set for introduction in mid-2025, the redesigned Vantage Roadster ups the ante in an increasingly competitive segment. Its sporting credentials were already well established, and the facelift simply adds more to them.

The convertible top may have you assume it’s a meek little British sportscar that lets you feel the wind in your hair, but know that a beast lies ever so ready to let off the leash.