Earlier today, we heard a very intriguing rumor: The Aston Martin V12 Vantage S would be getting a seven-speed manual gearbox this year with a dogleg shift pattern. We found it a bit hard to believe, but then we got in touch with Aston Martin.

They didn't deny the rumor about the car. And that's because the car is real, and this is it.

On the outside, the V12 Vantage looks the same as before, but the real updates are inside. A new center stack and infotainment system, much like that in the Vanquish, are now the norm. But the best part is this new lever on the center console that's used to manually select gears.

Aston Martin

The new seven-speed gearbox has a dogleg arrangement, which means first is down and to the left with the rest of the gears organized in two H patterns. That's optimum for a race track, since the gears you use most are in line and readily accessible. Aston hasn't said where the gearbox comes from, but we think it might be Aston's automated Sportshift transmission adapted to work traditionally.

The gearbox also has a rev matching feature, but it can thankfully be turned off with the flick of a switch. Aston says the car, which we presume still has 565 horsepower, will reach 60 in 3.9 seconds and hit a top speed of 205 mph. We presume it'll be a lot of fun.

Aston Martin

Aston will offer just 100 of the manual V12 Vantage S in the USA. It's no different than the V12 with the auto transmission, it'll just be much, much rarer.

And much, much better. Kudos, Aston Martin.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io