From the November 2018 issue of Car and Driver.



Like all good mountain roads, the byways squirming through the Appalachian foothills southeast of Richmond, Kentucky, look as if they were laid out by someone trying to scribble over something else. They barrel helter-skelter across the region's topography, following meandering rivers and tap-dancing along ridgelines. They thread their way past the occasional derelict car, the sort a goat would be proud to stand atop, but otherwise blissfully few domiciles. They are, in other words, the perfect place to put three 500-hp sports cars to the test.

We were not surprised by how much we liked the new Aston Martin Vantage at first contact. We liked the last V-8–powered one so much that we ranked it ahead of a Porsche 911 in its first comparison test. But then Aston let it wither on the vine, then let the vine wither, then, when the whole vineyard was nothing but memories of dust, the Brits bolted a dogleg seven-speed manual behind a 565-hp V-12 and charged more than $200,000 for it.

This, then, is a refreshing change of pace. The Vantage is all-new for 2019, riding on a bonded-aluminum structure that relies more on stamped panels than the blocky extrusions that formed the VH architecture of the past for a more space-efficient design. (Though there's no glovebox.) Its old naturally aspirated engine lineup woefully outdated in the age of turbocharging, wee independent Aston Martin took the easy—and smart—way out and bought a 503-hp twin-turbo 4.0-liter V-8 from Mercedes-Benz. Its 505 pound-feet of torque constitutes a 46 percent increase from the old V-8 Vantages. The car starts at $153,081, but this one's options bill carries it to $186,086.

View Photos Anton Watts Car and Driver

Context for this Aston starts with its heart donor. Mercedes plugs the 4.0-liter into many of its vehicles, including the Mercedes-AMG GT, which it offers in four different strengths. The GT grouping is tight, spanning just 108 horsepower and some $45,000 in base price. The closest analogue to the Vantage is the third step, the GT C, which has a 47-hp advantage on the Aston but is $6086 cheaper to start. With a healthy option load of its own, this GT C lands at $167,765. Where the Aston routes its torque to a rear-mounted conventional ZF eight-speed automatic, the AMG's goes to a seven-speed dual-clutch, also bolted to the rear axle.

It would be unfair to say that Porsche is champing at the bit for a rematch, since after that first meeting in 2006, 911s dispatched Vantages in two subsequent comparison tests. But if you're looking at $150,000 sports cars with 500 horsepower—really, if you're looking at any price between $90,000 and $300,000 and any output between 370 and 700 horsepower—there's a 911 to suit your needs.

In this case, it's a GT3, which also uses a 4.0-liter engine to make 500 horsepower, except this one has only six pistons breathing atmospheric pressure, laid flat, and spinning to 9000 rpm. Porsche's PDK dual-clutch transmission would have been the more congruous choice, but any opportunity to pull a Porsche stick is one worth taking. Opting for a manual in the GT3 also unlocks the new-for-2018 Touring package, which deletes the GT3's rear wing at no additional cost. It retains the aggressive front fascia, double-barrel exhaust, and center-lock wheels, but it still blends stealth and speed in equal measure. A prudent list of extras also means the GT3 has the lowest price in the test, at $151,200.

There are a couple of other base runners in the $150,000, 500-hp ballpark. Acura's NSX is getting a mild refresh for 2019, but the new one wasn't available yet. A 540-hp Audi R8 V10 RWS (for Rear Wheel Series) would have been a delightful way to even the teams between rpm and psi, but Audi wouldn't loan us one. Boohoo.

After returning from Kentucky, we steered west, to GingerMan Raceway in South Haven, Michigan, for an open track night. We didn't get a chance to time laps, but it was an illuminating frolic nonetheless. Here's how it all shook out.

3rd Place:

2019 Aston Martin Vantage

View Photos Anton Watts Car and Driver

Highs: Movie-star handsome, the mischievous streak of a Hollywood bad boy.

Lows: Questionable build quality, never completely relaxes, fun but slow.

Verdict: A very expensive plaything that is in some ways a bit too toylike.

We were barely 10 miles from the office when it happened for the first time. Another driver slowly rolled by, one eye on the road and one on his phone screen, shooting video as he passed. This happened so many times during the course of our driving week that we stopped counting. Not a gas stop or photo break passed without making new friends, and nobody's first question was about the Mercedes or the Porsche. We'll get to the Aston's personality in a minute, but let's not pretend that the first thing everybody notices isn't this car's looks.

Watching the Vantage in your rearview mirror, you can't shake the feeling you're being tailgated by Aston Martin's $2 million-plus track-only Vulcan. It's got the same gaping maw, predatory squint to the headlights, and broad clamshell hood. And the view only gets better as you move around to the back. The taper of the Vantage's greenhouse makes every other car on the road look like a Winnebago, and the wide hips and outrageous diffuser make it a delight to follow, too. Bright colors like the Lime Essence on this car mute some of the details across that hood, but paired with the naked carbon-fiber diffuser ($10,700, inclusive of the front splitter and side sills), they emphasize just how little bodywork there is aft of the rear wheels. Aston design chief Marek Reichman deserves to be knighted for this.

But even though it's the most expensive car here, the build quality doesn't feel up to the level of the design. Other drivers at the track night commented on the sizable panel gaps around the doors, and the mesh around the $1595 quad exhaust outlets appeared either to be melting or to have been hacked through with a spork. And inside, some of the stitching does a bit of a drunken wander over the panels it holds together. The car arrived at our office with an intermittent check-engine light that came on when we took it easy and went away with a good thrashing—though we find that deeply endearing.

View Photos The Aston’s highlighter paint makes lane markers look drab by comparison. And its fluorescence distracts the eye from the Vantage’s beauty. Anton Watts Car and Driver

Because thrash it we did. The numbers show that the AMG is the straight-line champ and the Porsche is the handling master, but they don't tell you what we suspected after our Appalachian journey and confirmed at GingerMan: The Aston is King Hooligan. It's that friend who only makes bad decisions and keeps getting away with them. Even with the longest wheelbase in the test, it feels as if it's pivoting around a single contact patch right in the middle of the car. Like the Porsche, it readily rotates under braking, but unlike the Porsche, it doesn't settle with throttle. The long pedal just freezes the slip angle and then allows the driver to fine-tune it like a Formula Drift driver, the progressive breakaway behavior making child's play out of high-risk tomfoolery. High-dollar, too; we can still smell the smoldering Pirellis. It's not the fastest way around a track—or through the slalom, you'll note—but it's riotous fun.

But that fun comes at a cost, both financial and cognitive. The Aston demands a focus the others don't, and drivers who aren't looking for the Vantage's particular brand of thrills can tire of it. If you want to go even faster, relax a bit while doing so, or do it for less money, read on.

2nd Place:

2018 Mercedes-AMG GT C

View Photos Anton Watts Car and Driver

Highs: Jewelry-box interior, effortless straight-line speed, unflappable stability, IMSA soundtrack.

Lows: Snug interior, inevitable bystander disappointment when the doors don't open upward.

Verdict: Going fast never looked so easy or—until the Vantage came along—so good.

From the driver's seat of the AMG GT C, with that hood stretching out in front, you very much feel as if you're driving from the trunk. The AMG is 3.2 inches longer than the Aston, and you get the sense that's all between the windshield and the grille.

Actually, pop the hoods and you can see that the Mercedes does have a few extra inches between its front axle and the engine, which helps explain how this pyrotechnic Pinocchio manages to carry just 47 percent of its 3743 pounds over the front wheels. That, combined with the most rubber in the test—265s up front, 305s out back—grants the GT stupefying stability. It boasts an almost supernatural ability to put down power on corner exit. Even when we tried to upset it with early and ham-fisted (ham-footed?) throttle applications, the AMG stayed planted, powering out of turns as if it had all-wheel drive. The prominent three-pointed star in the grille, this car's demure color combination, and the existence of a GT R above the C in the lineup might have you expecting the GT C to be something of a gentleman, but don't be fooled: A 1.05 on the skidpad will dent a dainty gent. You'll want to be sure to set the seat's adjustable bolsters to maximum support; the car's enormous grip meant one of us left GingerMan with a sore back because he hadn't.

And what sort of gentleman can drag-race Vipers with impunity? As horsepower gets increasingly commoditized, we're rapidly becoming desensitized to straight-line acceleration. But consider that the GT C will outgun Dodge's paragon of excess power and compromise in the quarter-mile. The Aston hangs with the Mercedes at first, but so much greater is the AMG's pull at high speeds that we'd find ourselves with the Vantage floored, trying to push through another kickdown switch. And in spite of its turbochargers—oh, the GT C's sound. Fa la la la la. The guttural barrage is right off the main straight at Watkins Glen, Road Atlanta, or any other stop on the IMSA calendar. As we rotated through the cars on our drive, all our jurors mentioned the sound in every single one of their logbook entries. Noted, fellas.

View Photos The GT C looks like a modern version of the ’50s 300SL Gullwing with a bobbed tail. Classic Euro-coupe proportions are still powerfully alluring. Anton Watts Car and Driver

Whereas the Aston is a wild and exotic-looking thing, there's a timeless beauty to the AMG. The more you look at it—particularly in a shade you've seen on a 300SL—the more you see the homage to that car in the roofline and the way the C-pillars slope down into the stubby trunk.

We loved the color choices and material mix inside the AMG but found it to have the most cramped interior. Never mind the numbers, which figure this as the largest cabin; the GT C's space is wider than is useful and shorter than is comfortable. Oddly, the C is the only AMG GT on which a sunroof is standard equipment. Taller drivers will struggle to tuck in below the roof without jamming their knees into the dash. And the Mercedes suffers bumps worse than the others, with more harshness in body jolt and sound. All of us ranked the GT C as our last choice for highway slogs.

Not as engaging as the Aston Martin, the AMG is nonetheless more impressive, a no-drama speed sled. But the enjoyment is less experiential and more intellectual, making you marvel at what's happening rather than revel in the fun of it. The Aston Martin is all liveliness, the Mercedes all control. The Porsche is both.

1st Place:

2018 Porsche 911 GT3

View Photos Anton Watts Car and Driver

Highs: A more satisfying pairing of engine and transmission does not exist; deftly balances capability and livability.

Lows: That's a lot of money to spend for cloth seats; it's possible to be too stealthy.

Verdict: If we could have only one car for the rest of our lives, the kids would have to walk.

Sometimes, even on a racetrack, it's not all about speed. Sometimes it's about the love of the game, and few elements of any car today will make you fall in love faster or harder than the GT3's six-speed manual. Depress the clutch, feeling the point where the disc fully separates. Notch that naturally weighted shifter into reverse. Feel the clutch grab, then feather its engagement as you back out of your parking spot. You've moved a single car length and already you're certain that this is the perfect manual transmission. If not for its $150,000 price tag, this would be the ideal tool for teaching teens how to drive a manual.

Or not, because adolescent brains are worse at impulse control than fully developed ones. Aston's chassis might whisper evil nothings in your ear, but the Porsche's 9000-rpm flat-six is a siren call for extralegal speeds. Above 6000 rpm, the soundtrack picks up an edge that takes over as the needle howls around the tach. It's so frenzied at redline that all you can think about is grabbing the next gear and feeling that smooth swell of power pull you to nirvana again. Who cares that third tops out at 109 mph and fourth reaches 140? There's probably not a cop around at exactly this moment! Without turbos, the 911 GT3's flat-six is down more than 160 pound-feet compared with the V-8s, but revs are a far more stirring way of making power. And the GT3 is efficient, too. The Aston's gearing gives it a huge advantage in EPA testing, but on our drive, the Porsche eked out victory by a single mpg.

The GT3 was unanimously our favorite highway mount. As senior online editor Mike Sutton put it, "Despite its exquisite feel and performance, one of the most impressive traits of this car is how docile, comfortable, and easy to live with it is." Its stance tucks the tires so snugly into the wheel wells that you half expect the car to pop up on hydraulics before driving away, but the GT3 suffers no impact harshness or noise over bumps, ignoring imperfections like a grand tourer.

View Photos As with its exterior, the GT3’s interior could easily be mistaken for a run-of-the-mill 911’s. The sweet soundtrack is the giveaway, though. Anton Watts Car and Driver

And the engine's home behind the cabin makes the 911 feel as if there's nothing but legroom in front, with not even our six-foot-seven driver needing to put the seat all the way back. The view out is positively panoramic. One of us compared the Aston's with the Chevrolet Camaro's pillbox visibility; the 911's is more like the commanding view from a UPS truck. It is loud, however—the space where the rear seats live in other 911s functions here as a big echo chamber for the buzz saw lurking behind. Merge onto the highway and you'll be happy the exhaust has a (relatively) quiet mode.

Dive down an exit ramp into some Appalachian foothills, though, and you'll be happier still. Your fingertips tingle with feedback from the front 245/35ZR-20 Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2s, which generate enormous grip despite being the narrowest in the test. It helps that they're supporting just 40.1 percent of the GT3's weight, which, at 3303 pounds, is more than 400 pounds lighter than either of the other cars.

View Photos No fair! The GT3 is a track car! Well, sort of. But its smooth ride, roomy interior, and excellent visibility mean it’s also the easiest to live with. Anton Watts Car and Driver

The Porsche combines the Mercedes-AMG's unflinching front-end grip with the Aston Martin's willingness to rotate, its nose staying attached to the pavement as the tail responds in minute degrees to load shifts without evincing the slightest shred of spooky oversteer that old guys will tell you 911s are prone to. It's been a while since snap oversteer was much of a concern for 911s. Unload the rear end, let the car pivot, and then ease back into the throttle; those wide, sticky Cup 2s squatting under the flat-six lock the GT3 onto its heading and it screams out of the turn, tail tacked in place.

At the cars' respective top speeds, the GT3's standard fixed rear wing generates some 230 more pounds of downforce than the 110 pounds of the Touring package's relatively modest retractable spoiler, but that's a difference you'll likely only notice on a very fast racetrack. As much as we like a Q-ship, some of us feel that a 9000-rpm engine deserves a more exciting visual package. We argued endlessly about whether we prefer the look of the GT3 with or without its wing. But either way, we all agreed that we prefer the GT3.

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