Roadsters from England can still attract Bond girls like yuppies to pleated pants. Before entering any thoroughly impractical two-door roofless windbox built just left of the M40 motorway, you already know that you would buy this car if only Dame Diana Rigg purred at you and said you should.

Whereas the 2006 V8 Vantage Coupe has been somewhat of a tempered sensation, we’ve needed the ragtop to give it that full-on wildness it has heretofore lacked. An absolute favored ritual of ours is having the top down in cold weather with the heater raging at ten-tenths. Air, earth, fire, and water all feel vigorously close to the skin, and—certainly in this case—you can hear the double-barreled exhaust frapping off of all flat surfaces in the surrounding countryside. The trend toward heated sport seats—followed here by Aston on these test cars—knocks it up another notch toward seat-of-pants winter’s-over nirvana.

The final crucial ingredient to this practically ideal drive in the V8 Vantage Roadster was the road. True to our title, we light up at the feel of an intelligent person’s winding road. The two-lane roads snaking all through the high, rocky plateaus upland of Marseilles in southern France are not only sparse of traffic every time we use them, but they also allow sensational forward views. This gives the driver ample time to prepare for any directional change. Is this gentleman’s roadster up to snuff out here? Early drives of the V8 Vantage Coupe in 2005 were certainly fun, but the damper and spring ratings struck us as just a bit too roly-poly and in need of more side-to-side integrity. Has this changed?

First, however, let’s hear it for that erupting exhaust note that only Aston Martins have, since no test of a Gaydon car is complete without this soundtrack. Chief engineer for the V8 program David King tells us that all it is is the exhaust bypass valve opening at just north of 4000 rpm under throttle. It’s always hilarious stuff at an Aston Martin product launch as every tester will find or create any excuse whatsoever to trigger the exhaust bypass opening. Curve after mountain curve, the land echoes with the sound of drivers downshifting if they must just to find that magic growl and roar. We can thank the tinkerers at CLF in Derbyshire in the U.K. for all the good noise and added value.

Naturally, much remains the same in the roofless Vantage versus the roof-bearing edition. This is true especially of the engine—a 4.3-liter version of a gracefully aging V-8 originally sourced from the former Jaguar XK/XKR (a 4.0-liter in that case) and shared still with the current XK and XKR (a 4.2-liter). Low-end torque is not what this engine is best at, although the new XKR tries harder with its supercharger. To wring the finest moments from this engine, you need to push it hard and stay at or above 6000 rpm, and the six-speed manual gearbox is best for this.

But now Aston Martin has asked supplier Magneti Marelli to give it the optional ($5000) Sportshift system to mate to the Graziano gearbox, and we hesitated a moment before trying it. This is an updated version of the Maserati DuoSelect sequential-manual mechanism that has never thrilled us much. An aggressive torque converter-free manual gearbox-turned-sequential with an added full automatic mode is not a super- duper solution for what is meant to be a nimble and sporting luxury tourer. The feel is a bit clumsy in full auto mode (press the D button on the upper dash) with the car’s ECU taking the low road of short-shifting on the way up and downshifting late, two habits that don’t go well with this powertrain. The Sportshift behavior is much akin to that of the DuoSelect, although this newer version is just a wee bit improved regarding the shift actions taken. All the same, the manual setup is far more in tune with what this Aston wants to do. If you must have the Sportshift with shift paddles, you will be happiest keeping revs very low and simply cruising the waterfront in high style—for this, there is also a “comfort” button on the upper dash that puts even more pansy in the shift action.

We spent a lot of time with a Sportshift-equipped Roadster, since this setup is the big novelty—60 percent of all V8 Vantages to North America are set to be Roadsters, while 70 percent of those will be Sportshift-equipped. Once we abandoned the full automatic and comfort modes, sticking with the self-shifting paddles and pushing the ECU to better cater to our higher-revving desires, the car was good work. Revs were allowed out much closer to the sweet spot, and we could explore the dynamics of the drive more.

Downshifts that may take you north of 5500 rpm are heavily policed by the under-hood cops (and they could be executed more quickly in general), but we still felt relatively young, wild, and free. What we discovered is that the damper ratings have definitely altered since we last drove a manual V8 Vantage Coupe. There is delightfully less roll to the corners of the car in hot back-to-back curves, answering one of our big wishes for the V8 Vantage drive mix. Engineer King confirmed our suspicions, saying that the dampers supplied by Multimatic in Canada (which also supplied the Ford GT) have been gradually deprived of their excessive play in response to copious feedback from folks like us. This improvement mates wonderfully with the magnificent steering feel of the car that we have always enjoyed.

Coming to the aid of the Roadster’s dynamics as well is a new cross beam at the front bulkhead to add the rigidity lost when the roof went missing. This simple solution means the Roadster weighs only 176 pounds more than the Coupe. Another dynamic assist we benefited from —and wholeheartedly enjoyed—was the set of optional nineteen-inch wheels with grippy, mediumhard Bridgestone Potenza tires. Add these to your purchase, since the eighteen-inchers just look too small and don’t add much, if any, comfort.

Oh, yes, the roof. It’s a three-layer fabric section that opens or closes in twenty-three seconds and can be activated at speeds up to 30 miles per hour. When it is stored behind you, it doesn’t alter trunk capacity at all, since the roof-holding bin is a permanent part of the bodywork within the tail section. Wind and outside noise are toned down quite nicely when the roof is up, and we felt no drafts during our speedy, cold drive. When the roof was open, wind buffeting in the cabin was just a bit more than we expected, but the wind- screen behind the seats is the sexiest design yet for such a tool.

And look to the future, since new Aston Martin owner David Richards and his Prodrive company will create an enhanced Prodrive package for the Roadster just as they have for the Coupe.

So, let’s all chill out on Aston Martin. The ownership circumstances are nervously familiar in nature, but these owners are squarely invested in the continued revival and success of the company. Number one cheerleader Ulrich Bez is committed as leader for five more years, and David Richards has a big investment in the Aston presence on road and at the track. Last year was a great year if you look at the Aston Martin sales ledger, with more than 7100 cars shifted to eager hands. Between this new Roadster, the DBS later this year, and the just green-lighted Rapide four-door (not to mention the rumored DBX Ferrari-masher), sales ought to climb to more than 10,000 cars by 2010. That’s a tempered “ought,” but they ought.

This Bond roadster and kitty magnet starts deliveries stateside in June at a healthy $124,950 base price. But, in this league, if you want a drop-top Aston, nothing else will do.