Fuel the Passion Weekly Report: All Things Aston Martin
Week ending: 14th December 2025
Dan, Editor’s Introduction
The “other” Astons
There are weeks in the Aston Martin world that feel loud, new announcements, big headlines, endless chatter. And then there are weeks like this one, where the stories that really grab you are the ones happening behind the scenes. The kind of details most people never notice… yet they’re exactly what makes Aston Martin so special.
This week, following last weeks Formula One season finale, I’ve found myself thinking about the “other” Astons. The working cars, the unsung heroes, and the people operating under pressure while the world watches.
It’s the perfect reminder that sometimes the most interesting Aston Martin stories aren’t just about speed… they’re about responsibility.
We also bring together the latest on Aston Martin’s corporate and financial developments, the high‑stakes drama on the racetrack, from hypercar endurance to club heritage racing, and the vibrant energy within Aston Martin Owners Club.
Whether you’re an investor, an owner or an enthusiast, there’s something here to fuel your passion.
Stock Watch: Aston Martin Lagonda – Shares Snapshot (Week Ending)
It’s been a relatively quiet week for Aston Martin Lagonda on the markets, with the share price spending most of the time gently moving within a very narrow band. The stock closed the week at around £0.63, having fluctuated between roughly £0.62 and £0.64 over the past seven days, a classic sign of consolidation rather than drama.
In plain terms, this tells us that neither buyers nor sellers were particularly aggressive this week. There was no sharp rally, but equally no sudden drop. Trading activity felt measured and calm, with the share price hovering close to its recent average and showing little in the way of volatility.
AML Share Price
From a broader perspective, this kind of behaviour often reflects a “waiting period” in the market. Investors appear to be holding position, watching for fresh news, clearer signals, or meaningful updates before committing strongly in either direction. Technically speaking, the usual indicators are broadly balanced, there’s no clear bullish surge, but no panic either.
Zooming out slightly, the shares are marginally lower than they were a week ago, but the movement has been modest rather than concerning (although it’s concerning how low their share price is compared to when they entered the stock market). Right now though, the overall picture is one of stability rather than momentum, steady, contained, and very much in pause mode.
As always, this isn’t about short-term wins or losses. Aston Martin’s story plays out over the long road: products, brand strength, motorsport presence, and long-term strategy. In my opinion, this week, the markets simply took a breath.
Bond at Christmas - Ranking 007’s Fastest Cars
During my hunt around for stories involving Aston Martin this week, I came across this one. Now, I think Christmas is the season for comfort films, and few franchises feel as familiar, or as petrol-soaked as James Bond. Whether you’re a Connery traditionalist, a Dalton defender, or a Craig-era convert, there’s something magical about settling down over the holidays and hearing the unmistakable growl of a Bond car tearing across the screen.
This week, UK dealership Beck Evans analysed more than 150 Bond vehicles to determine which of 007’s machines is, officially, the fastest of them all. And in true Bond tradition, Aston Martin dominates the top of the table.
The winner? Daniel Craig’s 2007 Aston Martin DBS V12, first seen in Casino Royale. Sleek, muscular, and capable of 189 mph with a 0–60 mph time of 4.4 seconds, it scored a near-perfect 98.48/100 helped, no doubt, by its legendary seven-roll barrel stunt, still a world record.
Right behind it is another Aston icon: the V12 Vanquish from Die Another Day. Nicknamed “The Vanish” for its (questionable but brilliant) cloaking device, it reached 192 mph and scored 98.29/100, topped only by Bond’s DBS on acceleration.
Third place goes to the bespoke Aston Martin DB10 from Spectre a one-off concept car built specifically for the film, hitting 193 mph and locking in a score of 97.25/100. I’ve previously written about the DB10 and what could’ve been, had Aston Martin decided to build a limited production run of the DB10. Read that HERE.
The Aston domination continues with the mighty V8 Vantage from The Living Daylights, ranking fourth. With rockets, lasers, skis and a top speed of 170 mph, it remains one of the most beloved real-world Bond cars ever produced.
Perhaps the most touching part of the list is seeing the DB5 still ranking within the top ten. Not the fastest by modern standards, 145 mph, 75.31/100, but arguably the most important. It’s the automotive heartbeat of the franchise, from Goldfinger to the present day.
Beyond the Astons, the BMW Z8, BMW 750iL, Jaguar XJ and Lotus Esprit Turbo also made strong showings, but it’s Aston Martin’s engineering and its decades-long connection to Bond that shapes the story once again.
As Sam Evans of Beck Evans put it beautifully:
“These vehicles are cultural symbols… they embody everything we associate with Bond: elegance, innovation and dramatic flair.”
For Aston Martin fans like me, it’s yet another reminder of why the marque continues to transcend the car world and sit firmly in the realm of cinematic mythology.
Other Aston Martin News
This week has been more of a “steady heartbeat” than a headline storm, but there’s still plenty to talk about if you look in the right places. The big theme that keeps returning is Aston Martin’s growing presence in modern motorsport culture and how the brand’s products are being used not only for performance, but for real-world operational roles at the sharp end of racing.
If you only take one thing from this week’s news: Aston Martin isn’t just in Formula 1. It’s woven into how the show runs.
The “Other Astons” in Formula 1 - Safety & Medical Cars
Although, not just in my humble opinion, the FIA Safety Car and Medical Car look really good on television, they’re part of the essential operational machinery of a Grand Prix weekend.
One detail that really struck me from my research into the FTP Feature Article, which was published on Friday, amongst many other things, is just how long the crews can be sitting ready to deploy, hours at a time, engine running, systems live, waiting for the call.
It’s obvious, they need to be ready for the duration of the race, a fair bit beforehand and afterwards too. And when that call comes, it isn’t always “flat-out hero laps”.
Often the Safety Car driver has to do the opposite: deliberately slow and bunch the field to accelerate clean-up and allow racing to resume sooner. But when it is safe to push, they need to run at a pace that prevents F1 tyre pressures and temperatures dropping too far, and do it all under the scrutiny of the world’s cameras.
The cabin itself is a fascinating contradiction: luxury and purpose, side-by-side. You’ve got harnesses, dedicated comms hardware and mission-critical screens, but also the familiarity of a road-car base that still needs to be comfortable enough to live in for long stints.
And then there’s the clever “systems thinking”: colour-coded buttons and controls built around the job. In essence, everything is designed to communicate; to race control, to marshals, to the cars behind, and to the people in danger areas. Even the car’s rear display and roof lighting can be used to manage the flow of the pack and allow controlled overtakes when permitted.
On the Medical Car side, the DBX707’s role is equally serious. It’s not just about pace, it’s about carrying equipment and medical capability, and being quick enough to reach an incident without compromising the start and flow of the race. That balance between speed, stability and payload is exactly why the DBX707 makes sense in this role.
To read the feature article titled ‘The Other Aston Martins’ CLICK HERE and we’ll take you right there.
Aston Martin Bets on Continuity as the Valkyrie Steps Into Year Two
The fact that the Valkyrie made it through its first full world championship season is a milestone, an important statement for Aston Martin’s ambitions in high‑end hybrid performance and motorsport prestige and there’s optimism about the Valkyrie in the 2026 WEC Season.
After a debut WEC season defined not by silverware but by steady, unmistakable progress, the Aston Martin THOR Team is heading into 2026 with exactly the same driver line-up. In endurance racing, continuity is a luxury. But for a programme this ambitious, it’s also a weapon.
Tom Gamble and Harry Tincknell will return to the #007 Valkyrie, supported again by Ross Gunn for the endurance rounds. Over in the #009, Alex Riberas and Marco Sørensen renew their pairing, with Roman De Angelis continuing as third driver for the long-distance events. No reshuffles. No experiments. Just a team that knows exactly what it’s building.
Team Principal Ian James captured the spirit of the decision perfectly:
“We achieved a great deal in 2025, but we learned just as much. The drivers dug incredibly deep, and what we’ve built is a foundation of knowledge, the kind that wins races later.”
And that knowledge is hard-earned. The Valkyrie is the only road-derived LMH hypercar in the field, a machine that started the season as a bold question mark and ended it as one of the most talked-about cars on the global stage. More than 22,000 racing miles, including a drama-free double finish at Le Mans, have turned this once-raw weapon into a serious competitor.
The highlights of 2025 tell the story:
5th place at Fuji - the car’s strongest WEC finish yet
Riberas leading on merit in Bahrain
Back-to-back points finishes to close the season
First global podium in IMSA at Petit Le Mans, missing victory by just five seconds
These aren’t flukes. They’re the markers of a programme finding its rhythm.
And that’s why continuity matters. Gamble, Tincknell, Riberas, Sørensen, Gunn, De Angelis, they’ve lived every high and low of the Valkyrie’s development. They know how it breathes. They know how it bites. They know how far they’ve come, and how far they can go.
In my view, Aston Martin isn’t pressing reset. They’re pressing accelerate. With a stable crew, a year’s worth of hard data, and a car that has already captured the imagination of fans worldwide (helped enormously by that spine-tingling V12 howl), the Valkyrie enters 2026 not as an outsider, but as a genuine threat.
And if 2025 was the learning year… 2026 feels like the one where the gloves come off. I can’t wait to see how they do!
Vantage: The Heart of Racing Doubles Down for WEC 2026
If Valkyrie is the future, Vantage is the backbone.
Aston Martin’s most decorated GT racer, five Le Mans class wins, 53 world-level victories and 11 championship titles, enters its 15th consecutive year in world championship competition. And in 2026, it arrives with double the firepower.
The Heart of Racing will expand to a two-car LMGT3 programme:
#27 Vantage GT3 — Ian James returns
Fresh off a podium in Bahrain and fourth overall in 2025, James continues his WEC campaign with renewed purpose.
In his words: “unfinished business.”
#23 Vantage GT3 — Gray Newell steps up
Gray Newell, who impressed in the Bahrain Rookie Test, now graduates to a full WEC season. At 28, he becomes one of the freshest faces in endurance GT racing. And it’s no soft promotion, the team believes he has genuine pace.
Ian James again:
“Gray set times that might have put him in Hyperpole… he has the potential, and we’ll help him unlock it.”
The Vantage continues to evolve, sharing architecture with the latest road-going model but tuned ruthlessly for competition. Three pole positions in 2025, including at Le Mans, reaffirm that it’s still a weapon. The message from Aston Martin’s Endurance Motorsport boss Adam Carter is clear:
THOR is now the centrepiece of Aston Martin’s GT future, and the brand expects results.
Two series, two classes, and two modern Aston Martin race cars fighting at the world level. For a brand sometimes criticised for inconsistency, this is a rare moment of strategic clarity and momentum. Not that you’re asking, but what do I think?
2025 gave Aston Martin belief.
2026 could give them silverware.
Downforce in a Dram - How Glenfiddich’s Brian Kinsman Mirrors the Genius of Adrian Newey
A story I picked up from Aston Martin’s News updates this week is this one. Now I’m not a Whisky drinker, so I am naive to the technicalities of what makes a great whiskey. But if I were into whiskey, this would interest me a lot. Even though I’m not into whiskey, I’m into Aston Martin, and every so often, a partnership in the Aston Martin world produces something that reaches beyond logos, sponsorships or brand alignments, something that actually feels true to the spirit of the marque (pardon the pun!). This week, that moment arrives in the form of two limited-edition Glenfiddich bottlings, crafted to celebrate the relationship between Aston Martin Aramco and one of Scotland’s most storied distilleries.
At the centre of it all stands Brian Kinsman, Glenfiddich’s Malt Master, quietly sculpting whisky with the same obsessive precision that Adrian Newey applies to airflow and aerodynamics.
Spend five minutes reading how Brian speaks about whisky, and the comparison becomes impossible to ignore.
In the cool, silent warehouses of Dufftown, Kinsman approaches a glass of spirit the way an engineer studies a carbon-fibre wing. He turns it to the light, reads its structure, senses its balance. What most of us would simply call “colour” is, to him, a signal from the cask. What we would describe as sweetness or spice is, in his world, an expression of geometry, the sum of angles, wood grain, time and temperature.
Just as Newey can look at a bodywork contour and see performance, Kinsman can nose a whisky and foresee what it will become 12, 18 or even 30 years from now.
And like Newey, he begins with philosophy before he ever touches the details.
“It starts with the bigger picture,” Brian explains. “Every new expression has to feel like Glenfiddich. You could make an incredible whisky, but if it doesn’t carry the DNA of the distillery, it isn’t right.”
That Glenfiddich DNA, a signature leafy, orchard-fresh note that evolves across decades, anchors everything he creates. From the bright fruit of the 12-year to the layered warmth of the 30-year, the through-line is intentional, engineered, almost architectural.
Brian talks like an engineer, but his imagination is that of an artist. The early stages matter most, the first distillation, the choice of cask, because nothing bottled under his name will be seen again for at least 12 years. The long game is everything. Precision now means pleasure later.
It’s impossible not to notice how closely that mirrors Newey’s world in Formula One: the unseen hours of planning, the long-term thinking, the obsession with detail that becomes invisible once a car is moving at 200 mph. Two masters of their craft, both shaping emotion, one through speed, one through flavour.
It makes the collaboration between Glenfiddich and Aston Martin feel unusually authentic. Both houses understand legacy. Both obsess over detail. Both ask their audience not simply to consume, but to experience.
Downforce in a dram? Perhaps.
But more than anything, this story reminds us that engineering and artistry aren’t opposites, they’re partners. Whether in whisky or in racing, greatness is built the same way: quietly, patiently, and with absolute conviction in the craft.
To find out more CLICK HERE
Historic & Club Racing - Aston Martin Club Racing Limited (AMOC)
On the heritage front, the Aston Martin Owners Club continues to assert its presence. The club recently confirmed that it has transferred its racing programme to a new banner, Aston Martin Club Racing Limited, a structural change designed to strengthen its competitive events offering as the club builds toward its centenary. Classic & Sports Car+1
December can often feel like a bridge month within the AMOC calendar…
…a time for reflection, gratitude, and quietly looking ahead. And this week, that feeling landed particularly close to home.
Earlier this week, I received a genuinely lovely email from AMOC confirming that I’ll be attending the Annual Awards Ceremony at The Belfry on 31 January 2026, where I’ll be presented with the Roger Thornton-Brown Trophy. It was one of those messages that makes you pause for a moment and smile, not just because of the honour itself, but because it reminded me why I joined the Club in the first place.
I became an AMOC member back in August 2024, the very week I collected the FTP Vantage. At the time, I was stepping into a new chapter, both with the car and with Fuel the Passion and AMOC immediately felt like the right home.
Supportive, welcoming, knowledgeable, and above all, built around people who genuinely care about the marque and each other. To have that journey recognised by the Club is something I’m incredibly proud of, and very grateful for.
Across the country, many AMOC Areas are now heading into their Christmas gatherings and festive socials. These events might not grab headlines, but they’re the heartbeat of the Club, moments where friendships deepen, stories are swapped, and plans quietly begin to form.
And plans are definitely forming. More than a few of us are already sketching out Aston Martin-themed adventures for 2026, events, drives, trips, filming ideas and collaborations. The diaries may say winter, but the anticipation of the new season is already building. After a short pause to enjoy the festive period, I can’t wait for the engines and the conversations to fire up again.
“I have some unfinished business with the AMOC Concours”
If you’ve got ideas brewing for 2026, or events you’re already excited about, I’d love to hear them. Drop a comment below or send me a message, many of the best FTP stories start exactly that way.
For me, I’m thinking about a lot of things for 2026. I definitely feel I have some unfinished business with the AMOC Concours, having achieved two 2nd places in my class, which I am very pleased with, but as the points awarded were so close between 1st and 2nd, I feel I need another go! This time, I’ll remove the London Concours window sticker that got some points deducted!
The Sound of 2026 - Honda’s First Roar with Aston Martin
For the first time, we’re beginning to hear what the Aston Martin–Honda partnership might feel like in 2026, and the reaction has been immediate. Honda’s teaser of its new-generation Formula 1 power unit has sparked genuine excitement among Aston Martin fans, with many describing the sound as “angry”, “alive”, and noticeably more visceral than the outgoing hybrid era.
“V6 note feels rawer, sharper…”
While sound alone doesn’t win championships, it does tell a story and this one hints at character, intent and confidence.
With the removal of the MGU-H and a renewed focus on sustainable fuels, the new V6 note feels rawer, sharper, and closer to what many fans have been craving.
Crucially, Aston Martin will be Honda’s sole works partner, giving the Silverstone team a level of focus and integration others won’t enjoy.
Pair that exclusivity with Aramco’s advanced synthetic fuel development and Adrian Newey’s influence on the wider 2026 package, and there’s a quiet sense that something important is aligning.
It’s early days, but for once, optimism around Aston Martin’s future doesn’t feel speculative. It feels earned.
Alonso Calls P10 ‘Horrible’ - But His Eyes Are Already on 2026
Fernando Alonso is not a man who hides from his own standards. After finishing the 2025 Formula One season tenth in the Drivers’ Championship, the two-time world champion didn’t sugar-coat his feelings. In fact, he called the result exactly what he felt it was: “horrible.”
For a driver who has built a legacy on precision, resilience and outright racecraft, P10 is uncomfortable territory. Alonso himself admitted it is “one of the worst positions I’ve ever achieved in my career.” And yet, in the same breath, he made something else unmistakably clear: his driving has never been the problem.
Abu Dhabi proved the point. He qualified sixth, finished sixth, and did so without a single stroke of luck, no safety car, no attrition, no gifts. Just pure execution. “I never get free positions,” he said. “I fight for every one of them.”
That alone tells you everything about where Aston Martin truly sits today.
The Only Benchmark Alonso Cares About
Alonso has long said that the only real measuring stick for any driver is the teammate sitting opposite in the garage. “Ten drivers finish ahead of their teammate, ten finish behind,” he said, “that’s the only real benchmark.”
And in that ranking, Alonso delivered. Comfortably. Convincingly. For the 34th race in a row, he out-qualified Lance Stroll. In the Sunday battle, the gap often looked even larger.
As ever, Fernando did his job.
Alonso Jokes That Adrian Newey’s “Magic Touch” Sparked Aston Martin’s Revival
There’s a lightness about Fernando Alonso again — a spark that’s been missing through much of Aston Martin’s inconsistent 2025 campaign. And in true Alonso fashion, he couldn’t resist adding a playful twist to the growing mythos surrounding Adrian Newey.
When asked why Aston Martin suddenly found form at the end of the season, Alonso quipped that Newey physically touching the AMR25 during the Qatar weekend must have left some kind of magic imprint.
“He touched the car in Qatar… maybe there’s still something on it!” he joked.
When asked why Aston Martin suddenly found form at the end of the season, Alonso quipped that Newey physically touching the AMR25 during the Qatar weekend must have left some kind of magic imprint.
“He touched the car in Qatar… maybe there’s still something on it!” he joked.
Underneath the humour sits a very real sentiment: Newey’s arrival has already changed the atmosphere at the team.
Alonso’s P6 in Abu Dhabi capped off a quietly strong finish to the year, seventh in Qatar, sixth in Yas Marina, finally giving fans a glimpse of the competitiveness the team believed was in the car all along. And although Alonso ends the season an uncharacteristic P10 in the championship, he achieved something statistically remarkable: he once again whitewashed his teammate Lance Stroll in qualifying, repeating a career-long trend of outperforming whoever sits on the other side of the garage.
What really stands out, though, is how grounded yet optimistic Alonso sounded afterward.
He praised the team’s effort, but admitted the obvious: 2025 lacked consistency, performance was up and down, and Aston Martin spent far too many weekends falling out in Q1. But the Spaniard’s attention has already moved to what matters most, the 2026 reset.
With a new car, a new engine partnership with Honda, a new wind tunnel, and Adrian Newey taking over as Team Principal, Alonso is openly excited about the direction the team is heading.
“With a revolution like this, you can suddenly be half a second faster two months later.”
It's classic Alonso; blunt realism blended with the feeling that something big is coming.
And perhaps the most telling line of all:
“Whoever does the best job will be at the front. It depends on us.”
After the toughest season he’s had in years, Alonso is still all in. And Newey’s arrival hasn’t just changed the engineering programme, it’s changed the energy inside the team. A confidence is returning. A belief. Even if, as Alonso jokes, it just started with a touch.
Why 2026 Matters More Than Anything
The moment the Abu Dhabi chequered flag fell, Alonso didn’t head for the beach or the gala dinners. He went straight to the Aston Martin simulator at Silverstone, because 2026 is the season that will decide everything, for the team, for the project, and possibly for Alonso’s own future in Formula One.
“We’re entering uncharted territory,” he said. “Nobody can say they’ll be fast. In Barcelona and Bahrain we’ll see where everyone stands.”
Crucially, he also emphasised something few drivers acknowledge publicly:
Under a regulatory revolution, the car you arrive with in Australia is not the car that decides your season.
“With a change like this, you can suddenly be half a second faster two months later,” Fernando explained. What happens between Race 1 and Race 4 could shape the entire competitive order.
And this time, he believes Aston Martin have the tools they need to fight.
The Newey Effect
Alonso rarely overpraises, and even more rarely talks about the future with optimism. But this week he did both. The influence of Adrian Newey, now taking full leadership of the 2026 car, has clearly lit a fire internally.
“We have a new factory, a new wind tunnel, and Adrian Newey is working on the car for the first time,” he said. “Whoever does the best job will be at the front.”
The message is unmistakable:
Aston Martin has everything it needs.
Now it’s about execution.
Respect for the 2025 Champion
In a moment of generosity, Alonso also praised newly-crowned 2025 world champion Lando Norris, a driver he has followed since the young Brit was a McLaren test driver during Alonso’s final season there.
“They all deserved it,” he said of Norris, Piastri and Verstappen. “But Lando has been very fast. I’m very happy for him.”
A classy close-to-chapter from a driver who has seen the rise of more than one generation.
The Aston Martin Spectrum: £15,000 to £2.4 Million
Whilst looking at well known car sale sites, often dreaming of a list of purchases I would make tomorrow, if I won the lottery, one of the most fascinating things about Aston Martin right now is just how wide the ownership spectrum has become, and this week offered a perfect snapshot of that range.
The price difference of the cheapest to the most expensive
At the entry point sits a 2005 Aston Martin DB9, advertised at around £15,000. It’s not perfect, it comes with the realities of age and the well-known V12 tick, but it remains unmistakably an Aston Martin. Timeless Ian Callum design, a naturally aspirated V12, and that sense of occasion that made so many of us fall for the brand in the first place. For some, this is where the dream begins.
At the other end of the road-legal scale sits the Aston Martin Valkyrie, currently advertised at around £2.395 million. A car that exists as much as an engineering experiment as it does a vehicle, the Valkyrie represents Aston Martin pushing itself to the absolute limit; Formula One thinking, a screaming Cosworth V12, and a design that feels barely tethered to the road.
Alongside it sits another extreme outlier: the Aston Martin Vulcan, offered at just over £2.2 million. Track-only, uncompromising and brutally focused, the Vulcan is Aston Martin stripped of all civility, a pure motorsport machine built not for lap times alone, but for theatre, noise and presence.
Between those extremes sits perhaps the most intriguing story of all. This week, the Aston Martin DB12 Goldfinger 007 Special Edition, chassis 0/60 and originally reserved for EON Productions, sold at Christie’s for £571,500 far exceeding its estimate. More importantly, the full hammer price is being donated to charity, supporting film, youth and creative education across the UK. It’s an Aston Martin that exists not just as a car, but as a cultural artefact, where heritage, cinema and philanthropy meet.
From a £15,000 DB9 needing care and commitment, to multimillion-pound hypercars that push the boundaries of what Aston Martin can be, the story here isn’t really about money at all. It’s about how one marque can mean so many different things to so many different people and why Aston Martin continues to inspire, at every level.
Why the Vanquish Still Wins - Even When It Doesn’t Win the Race
This week, I found an article where Top Gear lined up three giants of the V12 world: Ferrari’s 12Cilindri, Lamborghini’s wild Revuelto, and our home-grown hero, the Aston Martin Vanquish. You already know what happened next, when someone hands Top Gear a long Portuguese pit straight and three V12s, they don’t check boot space. They drop the throttle.
And yes, in the numbers-game the Aston Martin Vanquish came third.
But here’s the thing: the Vanquish has never been about winning drag races.
Where the Ferrari is clinical and razor-sharp, and the Lamborghini is a neon sledgehammer from another planet, the Aston Martin Vanquish plays a different role entirely, it’s the romantic of the group. The gentleman bruiser. A car designed as much for the journey as the stunt.
Why the Vanquish remains the standout - despite the stopwatch;
1. It’s the car people look back at
Even in Top Gear’s footage, the Vanquish is the one your eyes keep returning to. It definitely does for me in any case! The long bonnet, the muscular haunches, the calm confidence. It’s not trying to be a spaceship. It’s just beautiful, which, historically, works out extremely well for Aston Martin.
2. It sounds like a V12 should
Ferraris scream. Lamborghinis roar. But an Aston Martin sings. That deep, operatic swell is emotional rather than aggressive, and even in a flat-out run you get the sense it’s performing rather than attacking.
3. The Vanquish is the car you’d take home
That’s the real test.
One looks fastest.
One is the fastest.
Only one looks like something you’d want to park in your garage and just… stare at.
4. It’s the most ‘Aston Martin’ car of the three
Top Gear loves a spectacle, and the Ferrari and Lamborghini oblige.
But the Vanquish carries a heritage those two can’t touch. It’s elegant. It’s restrained. It’s confident without shoving you in the chest. That’s why so many Aston Martin owners say the same thing:
“It’s not the fastest car I’ve owned… but it’s the one I love the most.”
Me, Dan, at Aston Martin Leeds, taking it all in - the Aston Martin Vanquish Volante. Just stunning!
Our take at Fuel the Passion:
If you judged cars by 0 - whatever times alone, you’d buy a laptop with wheels.
In my opinion, the Aston Martin Vanquish is about feelings, presence, and the kind of joy that doesn’t show up on a timesheet.
And in that test? It didn’t come third. It came first in the thing enthusiasts care about most: desirability.
Now whether people buy them in the volumes Aston Martin would want and whether they retain much of their value, is probably another article in itself.
Final Thoughts
As we head into the final couple of weeks prior to Christmas, this week’s roundup has felt like a proper “Fuel the Passion” reminder of why Aston Martin gets under the skin.
Yes, the big stuff matters; Valkyrie building momentum, Vantage carrying the fight, 2026 already humming in the background, but this week, as we reflect on the conclusion of the F1 season, it’s the other Astons that stole the spotlight for me: the cars that do a job, the people who sit ready for hours with the world watching, and the quiet competence that makes the whole show possible.
Add in a little Bond magic, a dash of Newey-era optimism, a Vanquish that still wins hearts even when it doesn’t win the stopwatch, and a genuinely proud personal moment with AMOC’s Roger Thornton-Brown Trophy invitation landing in my inbox… and you’ve got a week that wasn’t loud, but was absolutely Aston Martin.
Thanks, as always, for reading. Enjoy the build up to the festive season, tell me what you’re most excited about for 2026! Are there any essential events that you think I should attend and shoot an FTP film for our YouTube Channel? If so, I would love to hear your recommendations, views and comments below.
See you on the next one!