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Jpritchet 74, I've spent a lot of time thinking about this because I go back and forth like you.
My Logic...and this has yet to be proven, is that there are a couple of camps in the car world. There is "big and loud" and there is "small and light"(yes funny that the cycling trends are going in the opposite direction--big and loud is on trend while we are all looking at our small and light bikes from the 1990's-2010's wondering what is happening!). As a cyclist, you can guess which one makes more sense to me!!!
This odyssey for me began when I rented a cayman gts for my birthday a few years ago. It was a complete waste of money because, I realized immediately, any "fun" car is just a great idea and I should have just spent that money on owning a fun car not borrowing someone else's. The gts was especially fun. Not loud, not flashy but very special. I was hooked.
Back to the argument, I see two two divergent trends in cars. One is the full-on celebration of old-fashioned engineering and all of the consequences of that sensibility. The vantage is perfect for that. A front (ish) large-engined coupe with a big-ol' loud exhaust and a 49/51 weight distribution. The proportions/handling/ergonomics all speak to that mentality. A big fast car that does what it needs to do...to do that thing. My gamble is that this will be special for a while and in the long run, extremely rare because it is NOT the way.
Then we have the Lotus mentality. Add lightness. Evora's and Cayman's fall into that type--especially emphasized by the 718 series. Small displacement motors that fit well into the middle of a car, don't weigh much so they don't stress physics before the game even starts and a potentially perfect 50/50 weight distribution. These have to be the future. They make the most sense--you get more fun from less impact. Who wouldn't go for that? The best example of this would be a first generation boxster that could be had for much less than the price of a new bike these days!
side note--I wish that batteries weighed less so that electric cars (instantaneous power and torque) could match up with the "add lightness" mentality and make a whole new driving experience that wasn't...15 miles/gallon. Maybe in the future there's a chance for small-batteried light cars to be the new sports cars. How perverse would that be (the smallness of the powertrain being the benefit??)
Regardless of what is happening right now, I think the "add lightness" camp is the right camp and all cars moving forwards will be lighter and faster than the old ICE model. So I'm hoping the Vantage will be a really cool piece of that old "big and loud" history that is chock-full of character, noise, dynamics, and a real sense of what driving an ICE car could be. And man....I hope that's the case because I just bought a really weird car!
All that to say, YOU get a Cayman and we can swap out 3-6 months at a time. The Aston is going to be an experience (kind of silly and embarrassing) big brash and beautiful --and a Cayman is going to be an elegant scalpel that is only limited by one's ability as a driver--who wouldn't want both? Who could decide?
For fun, I think that the mid-engined Cayman body looks perfect from front to back. The new 992'a are infuriating because they also look just SO good....
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