2012 Aston Martin Virage and Virage Volante - Car and Driver (blog)
Aston Martin’s staffers are devout practitioners of this religion, and that’s why the company is introducing the Virage, which will split the difference between the basic DB9 and the hard-core DBS. The Virage is Quicker than a DB9. . . The aim with the Virage, Aston explains, is to replicate the Rapide’s driving experience in a two-door package, whether that’s in coupe or convertible form. In other words, the Virage is meant to offer more power and more refinement than buyers would get from a standard DB9, but without the brutality of the DBS. To that end, the Virage sports a 5. 9-liter V-12 like those cars, but the engine’s 490 hp—prepare for a surprise—sites the new car perfectly between the 470-hp DB9 and the 510-hp DBS. Aston says that the Virage will sprint from 0 to 62 mph in 4. 6 seconds. Beyond the engine bay, the Virage’s spec sheet will be familiar to Aston Martin aficionados. The sole gearbox is the same ZF-designed six-speed automatic transaxle also found in the DB9, DBS, and Rapide. Similarly, the Virage gets a new iteration of Aston’s adaptive damping system that now offers ten stiffness settings—five in Sport mode and five in Normal mode. Source: www.caranddriver.com
