2021 Aston Martin Vantage Roadster Arrives With Folding Soft-Top

The 2021 Aston Martin Vantage Roadster has just been presented prior to its public premiere at the Geneva Motor Show next month.

The drop-top Vantage has been a long time coming and features a fabric top that can be lowered in just 6.7 seconds when the car is stationary or in 6.8 seconds at speeds of up to 31 mph (50 km/h). This makes it the fastest folding automatic soft-top in the industry.

It’s common for convertible versions of cars to weigh more than their coupe counterparts and it’s no different with the Vantage Roadster although it does only gain 132 lbs (60 kg) over the hardtop. This is thanks to the Z-fold mechanism design and the lightweight bracing featured throughout the car.

Powering the 2021 Vantage Roadster is the same twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V8 engine as the coupe with no less than 503 hp and 505 lb-ft (685 Nm) of torque on tap. This engine is coupled to an eight-speed ZF automatic transmission sending power to the rear wheels, accelerating the car through to 60 mph (96 km/h) in 3.7 seconds, just 0.2 seconds slower than the Vantage with a fixed roof. The Roadster will continue accelerating through to 190 mph (306 km/h).

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Elsewhere, the Roadster features the same adaptive damping, dynamic stability control, dynamic torque vectoring, and electronic rear differential as the coupe, with Sport, Sport+, and Track options available for the chassis set-up.

“Convertible sports cars are often seen as compromised when compared to their Coupe equivalents, but the Vantage Roadster remains absolutely dedicated true to its mission of delivering precise, agile and expressive handling dynamics combined with stonking straight-line performance,” Aston Martin chief engineer Matt Becker said of the car. “And of course, there’s the added dimension of driving a great-sounding sports car with the roof down”.