Page 55 - Classics Issue

Craig had invited me to get behind the wheel of the Astons to sample the experience. With an instructor in each car even the less experienced can truly (and safely) sample the immense straight line speeds of these cars. My frst weapon of the day was the brand new V12 Aston Martin Vanquish S, 600BHP of British GT muscle. The marshal’s arms dropped and I nailed the throttle hard to the carpet, the tyres battled for grip as the V12 bellowed with almost operatic tones, fipping the right hand paddle as she reached maximum revs the Vanquish kept accelerating. The car in the left lane was disappearing from view as the numbers rose… 120, 130, 140, 150… the cabin was flled with sound as I felt the wind taking effect. I’m focused on the horizon and it’s coming up fast as we few past the massive BRAKE boards with the needle just over the 180MPH mark I lifted out and started to brake taking some speed off before the sweeping right hand bend at the end. As I dropped to pedestrian “motorway” speed around the back of the circuit and crawled back into the busy paddock area you would hardly know this beast had just tried to tear our faces off. So what about the latest generation Aston, the DB11? This was up next. She felt a little more nibble and the speed of the gear changes was staggering, I was having that much fun I didn’t even look at the speedo, but the instructor beside me said it was around the 180 mark again as we chatted about the feel of this latest offering through the rest of the circuit.Vmax200 was a great fun and unique experience, a track day this is not, more a high octane meeting for a group of likeminded connoisseurs with petrol in their veins and a heavy right foot! I’d certainly recommend you stop talking about it and take your cars for proper run out, have a look at www.vmax200.com for more information. Words Craig Blake-JonesImages Harvey Blake-Jones & Autoviviendi