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" &amp;quot;Are you boys lost?&amp;quot; asked a 40-something woman after pulling up alongside us at a stoplight and rolling down the driver&amp;#039;s window of her silver Honda Sonata. It was a fair question, since my 23-year-old brother and I were driving a $302,000 Aston Martin Vanquish (color: Volcano Red) through the rather neglected Frog Hollow section of Hartford, Connecticut, on the eve of his graduation from college.\u00A0 We said that we were heading back to the Trinity campus after dinner downtown. &amp;quot;Is that a Jag?&amp;quot; she asked. My brother complimented her recognizing the car&amp;#039;s style nods to the U.K. and explained that it was actually produced by a different British auto brand, Aston Martin. &amp;quot;Oh, Aston Martin! Okay\u2014be careful!&amp;quot; \u00A0 \u00A0 In the weekend I spent with the Vanquish, situations like the previous one presented themselves over and over again.\u00A0 Driving north on the West Side Highway in stop-and-go traffic, the driver of an air conditioning service company&amp;#039;s blue van rolled down his window and popped his head out to look down into the car, a not insiginifcant distance given how low the Vanqish rides. &amp;quot;Badass car,&amp;quot; he said before slowing down so I could merge into his lane for a construction zone (whose workers stopped their jackhammering to stare at the car as I drove by). On the Trinity campus, as I was double-parked waiting for my brother to come outside to meet me, I noticed a college security truck approching in the rear-view mirror. I put the car in drive and got ready to move, expecting the guard would direct me to clear the road. But actually, like just about everybody else, he just wanted to ask about the Aston Martin. &amp;quot;So, beautiful car,&amp;quot; he said from his perch high up in the truck. &amp;quot;Honest answer. How fast does it go?&amp;quot; The speedometer goes up to 240, I responded (I later discovered that 186 is the top speed quoted by the manufacturer). &amp;quot;How fast have you gotten it up to?&amp;quot; I revealed the figure, which I&amp;#039;ll refrain from doing here in the interest of not\u00A0exposing myself to prosecution for a speeding charge, but the number was at least impressive enough to elicit a &amp;quot;Good for you!&amp;quot; from the guard.\u00A0 It may be slightly ridiculous to say that I shouldn&amp;#039;t be held responsible for breaking the speeding law, but the truth is that the Vanquish is a vehicle for which &amp;quot;Fast&amp;quot; is a natural state. The car, with its 6.0L engine providing 565 horsepower, simply wants to go fast. The noise it emits on acceleration is a satisfying blend of purr and growl, and hearing it can&amp;#039;t help but make you want to push the car to its potential. With all that power under the hood you feel as if you could get out of any hairy situation and that assurance, combined with its sleek lines and sex appeal, makes it no surprise James Bond has driven an Aston Martin in nine of the Bond films. While the driving experience was unimpeachable, a couple of minor UX disappointments stand out: in a few instances the routes provided by the car&amp;#039;s GPS were markedly slower than Google Maps&amp;#039;s versions based on traffic, and once when I started up the car, the 13-speaker Bang &amp;amp;amp; Olufsen sound system was mysteriously mute in spite of the dashboard&amp;#039;s displaying a volume setting of about halfway to maximum volume. Turning the car&amp;#039;s engine off and on provided a quick fix to that issue.\u00A0 The Vanquish proved itself as a conversation starter yet again at another stop of the weekend, a small-town salon where my brother got his hair cut before graduation. While I was sitting near the door waiting for him, a gray-haired man in a Boston Red Sox hat entered and said, seemlingly to himself, &amp;quot;Beautiful car.&amp;quot; He saw me sitting there and asked, &amp;quot;It is yours?&amp;quot; I said it was indeed, at least for the weekend, and asked if he wanted to look inside. We walked out to the car and I opened the driver&amp;#039;s side door for him. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m not going to get in but I&amp;#039;ll take a look. What does one of these go for?&amp;quot; I said that this model was valued at $302,000 (the base price of a Vanquish is just under $280,000), a number that, he observed, put it in the price range of a Ferrari. &amp;quot;I think I&amp;#039;d take this over the Ferrari,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s simply beautiful.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/sporting/a1848/aston-martin-vanquish/>