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447-kW Vantage? Believe it!

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The official opening of Aston Martin's dedicated design centre in Gaydon was also cause for celebrating the company's latest concept, a rocketing V12 Vantage.

CEO Ulrich Bez chose the occasion to unveil the 447-kW V12 concept to the hundreds of guests present.

Based on the critically acclaimed V8 Vantage coupe, the V12 Vantage RS uses the DB9's 6.0-litre engine and is dubbed as being the fastest accelerating Aston yet.

With a kerb weight of less than 1 600 kg, the RS concept is a study in weight reduction too. Like the recently launched DBS it has a bonnet and boot lid fashioned from carbon fibre while also using carbon ceramic brake discs.

And the car's aggressive styling is functional. The bonnet louvres extract air from the cooling pack, while the boot lid deploys automatically at speed and the front bumper has extra ducts for cooling of the brake discs and a carbon fibre splitter balances downforce.

The concept's engine also features several motorsport-inspired components, such as a dry sump forged pistons and steel con rods and revised cylinder heads.

This unit produces 447 kW at 6 250 r/min and a peak torque figure of 690 Nm at 5 000 r/min. This is good for a 0-100 km/h sprint time of just four seconds.

And while there are no official plans in introduce a production version of this fiery concept, the company would reconsider if demand was there was sufficient demand.

"We will listen with interest to feedback on this concept and, as ever, if there is sufficient demand then we will seriously consider a low volume production run in the near future with a price that will reflect the exclusivity of the car," Bez stated.

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