The 2020 Aston Martin Vantage AMRAston Martin NURBURG, Germany As inspirational as the age-old axiom is, it turns out Aristotle did not say the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. What he actually said, according to a translation by W. D. Ross, was The totality is not, as it were, a mere heap, but the whole is something besides the parts.Doesnt have quite the same uplifting kumbaya spark, does it? Indeed, quite how we got from depressing mere heap to Gestaltian greater than the sum of its parts anthem is beyond me (and, if my cursory research is anything to go by, most historians). Nonetheless, we have come to take Aristotles axiom as gospel, and its inverse that individually we are weaker than the aggregate, the basis of nationhood.A perfect case in point, in the physical world, is Aston Martins latest supercar, the 2020 Vantage AMR. Listen to Matt Becker, Astons chief engineer, detail its upgrades compared with the regular Vantage which took but 15 minutes of PR blather rather than the customary hour-and-a-half and youd swear the trip to the Nurburgring to test the new AMR was a giant waste of time. The biggest news and, as Ive been intimating, it really is small potatoes is that it gets a manual transmission. Oh, and some ceramic brakes. Thats it. For this, they claim they made a special edition run of just 200! At US$179,995 apiece! Are you kidding me? Hell, the damned thing lost power it makes 502 foot-pounds of torque in the base Vantage, but this supposed Fancy Dan version only twists out 469 lb.-ft. at its peak. Doesnt sound so special certainly not super to me.And things do get off to a rough start; the AMR is still slower to 100 kilometres an hour than the automatic transmission-ed version. Oh, part of it is that we humans are relatively slow shifting of gear. Another is the lack of any kind of launch control.But whatever excuses you make, a 4.0-seconds-to-100-km/h time is barely super these days. Plenty are the sedans that are as fleet, and its pretty darn hard to find another coupe or roadster with a super even a GT appellation that cant.Now, the part I havent mentioned yet is thanks to the dumping of the automatic gearbox and jettisoning its e-diff for a real mechanical locking rear differential (not to mention those carbon brakes) the AMR weighs a full 100 kilograms less than the garden-variety Vantage. More importantly, says Becker, whats left over is evenly distributed 50/50 between front and rear axles.Thats why and now I am quoting actual Gestaltian philosophy rather than Aristotelian misrepresentation what is happening in the whole cannot be deduced from the characteristics of the separate pieces. In other words, specs that arent quite up to rich-guy bench-racing standards do not capture the total Aston Martin.That loss in torque, for instance necessitated because the manual transmission cant handle 500 pound-feet is hardly ever noticed. Indeed, the opposite. Every time you gun the big Mercedes-sourced twin-turbo V8, the AMR literally jumps, the throttle response so immediate. The Vantage may lose on paper, but out in the real world it is truly competitive. Up top, itll top out at a legitimately super 320 km/h, just in case youre Grand Touring Germanys autobahns. In other words, behind the wheel, there was nothing lesser about it. The 2020 Aston Martin Vantage AMR Aston Martin Then theres the transmission that is the supposed centerpiece that deserved limited edition status. Sporting seven no, not six forward gears, the Graziano-sourced unit uses the traditional manuals H6 pattern for 2nd thru 7th gears; with 1st down and left, reverse is up and left. Compared with the previous Vantage V12 where we first saw this tranny, 1st is a little deliberate to get into to prevent errant downshifts into what would otherwise be second gear. Reverse, meanwhile, is similarly delineated.All that newfound precision aside, while I like the gearbox thank to its AMShifts automatic blipping, it was slicker than the proverbial knife through a fairly solid emulsion of fat globules Im not sure I see the advantage over a more conventional six-speed. Oh, I get the attraction of a stick. And, like most things these days one, does have to promise more in this case, gears to attract attention. But I remain unconvinced that my drive is any better for having an extra cog in the gearbox.Automatics are almost always better with more ratios, but there may be a limit to the effectiveness with manuals. On the other hand, perhaps if Id spent more than 250 kilometres behind the wheel, Id have become more acclimatized.Specs that aren’t quite up to rich-guy bench-racing standards do not capture the total Aston MartinAs for the chassis, other than the jettisoning of 100 kilos and the subsequent weight redistribution, its really changed little. In fact, Astons engineers liked the comportment of the base Vantage so much they softened the AMRs rear springs so its wheel rate
Origin: Aristotle, Gestalt and the 2020 Aston Martin Vantage AMR