Even in the video, the twin leather covered ‘humps’ on the hard tonneau cover (not so dissimilar to those seen on the DB AR1) made it to production. The roof, a triple layered fabric type folded down totally flat; it could even be raised or lowered without manual assistance in 18 seconds at speeds of upto 30 mph, neat trick!
The rigidity of the Roadster was enhanced by the use of slightly thicker gauge aluminium within the platform and strengthening webs within the sills. This only added around 70 kg in weight over the closed V8 Vantage coupe. Whilst the stiffness of the Vantage was believed to be 27,000 Newton Meters per degree, the roadster was a very commendable 21,000. In comparison, the early DB9 Volante was, I understand 15,500 although this was improved upon as time passed. Production began in the second quarter of 2007 with an initial UK price of £92,147 for the manual, an £8,000 premium over the coupe.
The V8 Vantage Roadster with the 4.3 litre engine was only in production for a little over a year before the car was updated for the with the addition of the larger 4.7 litre engine.
