Aston Martin is preparing to introduce a smaller and more affordable Aston Martin during the 2005 calendar year. Although sources are referring to this model as the DB8, European publications are speculating the car will carry the DB5 designation.

Powered by a 4.3-liter supercharged V-8, the DB8 is expected to have a minimum of 410 horsepower, and will be the first Aston Martin built on the new VH (vertical/horizontal) platform which will be the foundation for all future models.

More affordable? With pricing starting at a bit over $100,000, the Gaydon, U.K.- built Aston Martin will compete with the likes of Porsche and Ferrari. A roadster version will likely be available early in the 2007 model year.

What's every car designer's dream? To start their own company. And Aston Martin's recently departed Henrik Fisker, seen in the image with his AM V8 concept, has done just that. Based in California, Fisker Coachbuild will produce exclusive supercars, with each production run limited to 150. A prototype of the firm's first model will arrive later this year.

Picture the scene. We're flashing through the Arabian desert at something near 160mph. The little black sports car is towing a vortex of sand as it howls towards the horizon, made closer by the gentle incline ahead. When we reach the incline we realise it's a bridge but it's too late for caution now. As we reach the crest and the road falls away beneath us, the back of the car breaks loose. In truth it's just a shimmy, a kick of the hips; there's no time for corrective lock to be applied - only after the event do I raise my eyebrows and the driver shrugs his shoulders as the Aston Martin continues on its way, shrieking into the sun. Four minutes later, we are ten miles away.

There are lots of moments like this when you're prototyping. New and untried cars are fickle in their nature and it's clear in that particular moment and in those specific conditions that, as we went over the bridge a touch too much air had been allowed under the back of the car making it, for an instant, aerodynamically less than ideally stable. It's good that it's happened. By the time this new V8 Vantage goes on sale in the autumn, all chance of a recurrence of this event in the hands of a member of the public will have been eliminated. It's why we're here.

Correction: it's why Chris Porritt and his team of development engineers are here. I'm just piggy-backing on their programme, getting in their way and asking if, instead of collecting the critical data they need to make this car production ready, they wouldn't mind instead parking it in a sand dune. Where it will get stuck. Which it does. Their humour does not waver for a moment: out here you're hot enough under the collar just sitting in the shade.

For all the oceans of ink expelled on the DB9 of late, it's upon the squat, broad shoulders of this Vantage that the future prosperity of Aston Martin really depends. By this time next year, Aston will be building more of them than the DB9 and Vanquish combined, and selling them to a new generation of young hotshots whose aspirations until now have been to drive a Porsche 911. And wonderful though the 911 is, it's not exactly exclusive any more. Unlike an Aston Martin. Each year around 3000 Vantages will be built in Aston's shiny new factory at Gaydon, bringing Aston's total output to around 5000 units, hitherto an undreamt of volume for one of the world's best known, least productive marques. If this figure is reached, Aston Martin will make a few hundred more cars each year than Ferrari.

Official information on the car is scant. Even so, a lot is still known, can be deduced or, at the very least, fairly accurately surmised. We know, for instance, that it's based on the DB9 platform, shortened by 150mm (nearly six inches). This means DB9 running gear and sub-systems from stem to stern from its double wishbone suspension to its six-speed gearbox mounted in line with the rear axle to optimise the car's weight distribution.

The engine can trace its origins back to Jaguar's 4.2-litre V8 motor, but Porritt's otherwise unshakeable sense of humour shows distinct signs of wobbling if you call it a Jaguar engine. He'll then point out its unique bore and stroke - giving a 4.3-litre capacity - and bespoke internals. He reckons the cam covers are the only interchangeable items and that it will give around 385bhp in production form. Aston has already announced that the Vantage will weigh less than 1500kg, giving the Aston the power to weight ratio it needs to keep up with the latest generation of Porsche 911. The prospect is almost indescribably exciting.

What I can tell you now is that this slightly down on power and distinctly dog-eared prototype still possessed that relentless performance that remains the exclusive province of the true supercar. Any number of tricked-up Japanese saloons or stripped-out British sportscars can feel devastating up to around 100mph, but come 130mph or so, almost all are well past their best. If you drop a gear and nail the Vantage's throttle at 130mph, the engine note hardens and it accelerates hard. I didn't get beyond 160mph during my time in the car but even at that speed it didn't feel to be trying that hard. Expect it to reach 60mph in rather less than five seconds and have a top speed somewhere in the mid 180s.

But don't think that even these bald figures will help you get to know the little Aston. In truth, they're not that different to the numbers posted by the DB9. But the car itself is as different as can be - the most radical departure from the Aston Martin form book of any car since at least the 1970s. Think of the V8 as a cut-price, two-seat DB9 and you'll miss its point entirely.

It should be seen instead as the most overtly sporting Aston, certainly of the last generation and perhaps since the legendary DB4GT of 1960. In Bondian terms, if the DB9 is Roger Moore and the Vanquish Pierce Brosnan, then the Vantage is Sean Connery: leaner, cooler, and tougher by far.

You only have to listen to it to understand the difference at once: while its V12 stablemates lay down a multi-layered concerto of rumbles, whizzes and roars, the V8 simply howls. The result may be a little less sophisticated but it's no less compelling for that. The prototype actually sounds more American than English - a slightly more cultured version of a race-tuned small block and it suits the character of the car to perfection. It is to be hoped that it does not fall foul of drive-by legislation and have to be tamed.

And the Vantage does more than merely sound like the DB9's delinquent kid brother. It may possess the same suspension architecture, but it's been tuned for an entirely different purpose so that while a DB9 flows beautifully down the open road, the Vantage prefers to savage it.

Imagine the result of taking a DB9 chassis - already known for its superlative dynamics - and not only shortening it, but stiffening up its springs and reducing the weight it has to carry by over 250kgs. If the results are not phenomenal, something will have gone badly wrong, particularly as the weight loss has also allowed the DB9's speed-sensitive steering system to be omitted.

Of course out here in the desert, we're not in much of a position to find out. For a start I'm in the wrong seat as Aston won't let anyone actually drive the car for some months and I'm not about to start handing out judgements about a car I haven't driven. The problem is compounded by all the roads out here being dead straight and the fact that Porritt reckons the prototype is worth around £250,000 and they don't have another. Damaging the car would put back the entire development programme so it's understandable why Porritt feels disinclined to go hurling it around, just to keep me amused.

Even so, I can report that it rides firmly, has awesome traction for a two-wheel drive, front-engined car and on the dusty roundabouts we did find, it cornered flat and very fast.

All of which should make anyone who loves the idea of an Aston Martin dedicated to the provision of pure driving pleasure very happy indeed. We know the car looks gorgeous and take it from me it sounds at least as good as it looks. It's very quick and there's no reason to suspect that its handling won't be right out of the top drawer.

Of course its opposition, in the form of the Porsche Carrera S, is daunting. But Aston Martin knows that even if the Porker is a fraction quicker off the line and around the track, this can be more than credibly countered by the looks, name and exclusivity of the Vantage. It only needs to sell in tiny quantities relative to the Porsche to do all and more required of it by Aston Martin and, with waiting times stretching back into the distant recesses of 2006, it would be a brave man who bet against its success.

And for Aston Martin, that success could not be more critical. Not only will it make Aston Martin profitable, it will introduce an unprecedented number of younger people to what Aston's CEO Dr Ulrich Bez describes as 'the Aston Martin family.' Once smitten by the Vantage, the hope is they will then progress onto a DB9 or Vanquish and never leave the fold. These are high hopes, but on this evidence I, for one, would not bet against them.