Astons are still very recognizable by their alluring lines, and the company has not lost sight of what continues to make their vehicle designs appealing to the eye. An Aston Martin looks like an ideally romantic expression of England, something like an Elgar symphony, but on four wheels: bright, optimistic, fluid, and capable of sudden and profound surprises.

Merge that sensibility with a ragtop, and you have the Volante S grand tourer. With an absolute dragon under the hood—a 5.9L V12—the roadster can cruise to 183MPH, and its non-turbo, naturally aspirated design will jump to 60 in a couple of notches under four seconds. But the pleasure of driving a car with a naturally aspirated V12 is in the smooth response, which more effectively connects the driver with the powertrain; that is, uninfluenced by turbo, lag or no lag. The Volante S is equipped with Aston’s Touchtronic eight-speed automatic gearbox, which uses four gear sets for 130-millisecond shifts.  Smoother still.

Above the fully carbon fiber skin, the Volante S features a three-layer top that retracts in just fourteen seconds. The cabin holds Aston’s AMI III infotainment system for communication, navigation, and vehicle status data, customizable color and material combinations in the thousands, and a 1000W Bang and Olufsen Beosound system, which self-monitors while driving, and will compensate when the top is down, so you don’t miss the resolution of the adagio of Elgar’s first, or a note of Clapton’s guitar solo in the studio version of ‘Badge’ when you drop the top.