Aston Martin V12 Vantage S vs Gallardo Superleggera: two ways to buy a big manual

Something interesting has happened at the top of our library. The two highest scoring cars we track right now are not limited edition Porsches or seven figure Ferraris. They are a pair of large capacity, naturally aspirated cars with three pedals: the Aston Martin V12 Vantage S manual, scoring 77.4, and the Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggera with the gated six speed, scoring 72.7. Both entered the library this month, and both sit early in their price cycle.

This matters because it lines up with what people are actually searching for. A manual or analogue gearbox is the single most requested criterion in recent searches on the finder, and several recent UK searches sat in the £140,000 to £215,000 band with exactly that requirement. These two cars are the strongest answers our data currently has for that brief.

The case for the Aston Martin V12 Vantage S manual

Price band £95,000 to £175,000. Sold for a single model year in 2017, the manual V12 Vantage S paired the 6.0 litre V12 with a seven speed dogleg gearbox in Aston's smallest body. Production was tiny, it was the last manual V12 Vantage, and it ticks three of the boxes searchers keep asking for: naturally aspirated, analogue gearbox, and last of its kind.

• Score: 77.4, the highest in our library right now
• Cycle position: early, meaning the market has not yet fully repriced it
• Entry point: from roughly £95,000, well below the Lamborghini's floor

The case for the Gallardo Superleggera gated manual

Price band £140,000 to £210,000. The LP570-4 Superleggera was already the lightweight, hardcore Gallardo. Adding the open gate six speed makes it a genuine rarity, since almost all Superleggeras left the factory with the e-gear automated box. The 5.2 litre V10 revs past 8,000rpm and the four wheel drive makes it usable year round, another criterion that appears in most recent searches.

• Score: 72.7, second in the library
• Cycle position: early, with the broader Superleggera coupe also recommended four times by the finder at £130,000 to £195,000
• Rarity: gated manual cars are a small fraction of an already limited run

How to choose between them

On the numbers, the Aston edges it. It scores higher, costs less to get into, and its one year production run gives it a cleaner scarcity story. The Lamborghini counters with a bigger badge, a V10 that arguably has the more special character, and extreme rarity in this specific configuration. If your budget stops around £120,000, the decision is made for you: only the Aston is realistically in reach, and early cars have been offered near the bottom of the band.

Be honest about the risks with either. These are low volume, high maintenance cars. A poor history, an accident record, or deferred servicing can wipe out years of appreciation, and clutch replacements on both are serious bills. Condition and provenance matter more than spec sheets at this end of the market. Nothing here is financial advice; it is an analysis of what our data currently shows.

Where to look next

Both cars sit in our £100k to £250k collection, and if three pedals are non-negotiable the full manual collection runs from £15,000 E46 M3s to the 911 R. For cars the market has not repriced yet, the early in the cycle collection is where both of these currently live.

Want to know which car fits your own budget and criteria? Run the finder and get a shortlist scored against live market data in under a minute.