Aston Martin set to confirm V12 Vantage RS

Dr. Ulrich Bez, CEO of Aston Martin, has let the cat out of the bag – and by that we're not talking about some significantly (180bhp) paler Jaguar XKR-S – and given the biggest hint yet that the V12 Vantage RS will hit the assembly line as early as 2009.

Speaking to a neck-straining, pen-primed audience at the Geneva Motor Show, Bez gave the clearest indication yet that the 6.0-litre V12 DBS-sharing power plant will sit within the engine compartment of a proposed Vantage RS; and will be packed with a host of features lifted from the DBR9 Race car.

In receipt of this knowledge, and the subsequent realisation that therefore the RS will generate some 600bhp and 509lb-ft of torque at 5,000 rpm, meaning it would reach 62mph in just four seconds flat (100mph in 8.5) and go on to a nose-bleeding 186mph, Aston Martin fans were witnessed working themselves into a lather.

Previously only publicly viewed as a concept car toward the tail end of 2007 - before that only accidentally glimpsed by the office cleaner at Aston's new Design HQ at Gaydon – the Vantage RS supposedly leapt off the Mac solely as an exercise in styling and engineering so as to prove that something aside from a bridesmaid can look good dressed in baby blue. And to commemorate the opening of said dedicated Aston Martin Design HQ.

Incidentally, Aston launched a competition for someone to name this particular shade of blue that the RS is bathed in – Mako Blue being the non-Dulux blend settled on, apparently named after an agile shark as well as meaning 'blue lightning' in the Maori language. So there you go.

As a footnote, an Aston Martin DBS will presently make a £160k shaped hole in your savings account, yet the V12 Vantage RS would logically surpass both this and a Ferrari 599 at £180k, leaving anyone of Italian/American parentage to question the morality/ethicality of this sort of automobile expenditure.

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