---
title: "Is Aston Martin Planning a Limited-Edition V12 Vantage S with a 7-Speed Manual?"
description: "An anonymous source has photographic proof."
date: "2016-04-05"
modified: "2016-04-05"
authors:
  - name: "Jonathon Ramsey"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/jonathon-ramsey"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/supercars/2874/is-aston-martin-planning-a-limited-edition-v12-vantage-s-with-a-7-speed-manual"
categories:
  - "Aston Martin News"
  - "News"
  - "News by Brand"
tags:
  - "Aston Martin"
  - "Supercar"
---

# Is Aston Martin Planning a Limited-Edition V12 Vantage S with a 7-Speed Manual?

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/archive-images/040516-v12-vantage-s-manual-hero.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

The Aston Martin V12 Vantage S – a union of the company’s biggest engine in its smallest car – is a touch uncouth yet totally outstanding. A tight fit, corrugated manners, and enough 6.0-liter V12 heat soaking into the footwell that you could cook a pudding do not keep us from loving it with all of our innards. If an image sent to us by a mysterious source is to be believed, this English object of our unqualified ardor is about to get better: we are being sold – or trolled – on the coming of a seven-speed manual limited to 100 units for the US and Canada.

When launched in 2011 Aston Martin fitted the V12 Vantage with a six-speed manual, said gearbox mastered via a solemn chunk of sculpted aluminum that could have come from the bridge of the *HMS Invincible*. That went away in 2015, the only transmission available since being the seven-speed Sportshift III. A so-called “automated manual,” it imparts the tidal sensations of shifting for yourself without the actual joy of shifting for yourself.

![040516-v12-vantage-s-manual-art.jpg](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/content/archive-images/040516-v12-vantage-s-manual-art.jpg>)

Aston Martin has already said it wants to be the [last manufacturer to offer a manual](<https://jalopnik.com/should-have-refrained-from-having-kids-life-is-so-much-1767888035>) transmission, and its coming lineup of cars will mate [Mercedes-AMG engines with manual shifters](<https://jalopnik.com/should-have-refrained-from-having-kids-life-is-so-much-1767888035>). As an early salvo, the reinstatement of that billet haft and the chance to dance across three pedals, plus one more gear, would make the V12 Vantage S a peerless beast. Better still, the images handed over by our source indicate a dog-leg gearbox, with first gear low and left. It's a sensation seeker's dream, as the layout improves shifting between the often used 2nd and 3rd gears. The purist, six-speed [Porsche 911 R](<https://jalopnik.com/should-have-refrained-from-having-kids-life-is-so-much-1767888035>) might be a revelation, but it won’t possess the feral charisma – that “ultimate analogue experience” – of the English belligerent.

The most recent limited edition based on the platform is the [V12 Vantage GT12](<https://www.astonmartin.com/en/gt12>), not available in the US, that starts at £250,000 (about $400,000). Somewhere less than that, but beyond the 2016 V12 Vantage S price of $183,295, will be your financial target. But money is of no concern here. A seven-speed Aston isn't a value proposition. It's a proper statement. Get in line now.

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