2021 Aston Martin V12 Speedster

If, as Socrates reckoned, contentment is natural wealth and luxury is artificial poverty, then the Aston Martin V12 Speedster is very luxurious indeed. This pared-back roadster does without a roof, windows, or even a windshield, the last omission being the most obvious when driving it in England while trying to avoid frequent rain showers.

As with the similarly naked Ferrari Monza and McLaren Elva, the V12 Speedster is designed for those in search of something truly different. We imagine the sort of affluent collectors who already have garages filled with fully glazed exotica. Inspiration for its design was drawn from Aston's DBR1, which is high in the running for the title of best-looking race car of the 1950s. The Speedster also bears a more-than-passing resemblance to the CC100 one-off that Aston built to celebrate its centennial in 2013. The company's current design director Miles Nurnberger oversaw the creation of both that car and the Speedster. He also cites some influences from the One-77 in the latter's swoopy carbon-fiber bodywork.

Underneath the V12 Speedster is a version of the Vantage roadster's bonded aluminium chassis, along with most of the front-end structure of the DBS Superleggera grafted on to accommodate the extra bulk of its twin-turbocharged 5.2-liter V-12 engine. The car we drove was a late-development prototype but one we were told was representative of the cars that customers will receive later this year, each one priced at the equivalent of about $950,000.
Practicality was predictably low on the V12 Speedster's list of design priorities. Luggage space is limited to pods behind the seats that are sized to transport helmets. There is also a removeable leather bag where the glovebox would normally be. More surprising is the presence of a full climate-control system and even the Vantage's infotainment suite. Our drive took place close to both Aston's engineering center at the Silverstone race circuit and the company's Gaydon headquarters some 25 miles away. This quickly proved that the best efforts of the car's heater and audio system were quickly overwhelmed by the buffeting slipstream at any speed beyond 40 mph.