New Dreadnought 4×4 melds V8 Vantage looks, V12 power and – hang on, is that an airstrike button…?
The Dreadnought has been revealed as Aston Martin’s take on a high-performance, military-style off-roader.
Designed for the new Call of Duty videogame but revealed as a full-sized physical model last week in New York, the Dreadnought is named for a revolutionary British warship from the early 20th century – which tallies with its hulking, functional design and battle-ready conception.
The V12 brawler makes nods to historic icons like the original V8 Vantage, such as its grille-mounted foglights and swept rear end, but the Dreadnought otherwise departs radically from Aston convention with chunky body cladding, towing eyes and knobbly tyres among its more utilitarian features.
As it is designed for the (virtual) battlefield, it is markedly less luxurious inside than any real-world Aston Martin, placing greater emphasis on functionality. A large screen displays the driver’s speed, direction, pitch and roll and – because the Dreadnought has been developed for the latest Call of Duty video game – how many opponents the driver has eliminated. This function is unlikely to make it to any future production car.
In keeping with the broader industry’s return to physical buttons, the Dreadnought has a suite of toggles and switches for easy access to the most commonly used functions: raising its bulletproof shield, priming the external guns, or calling in airstrikes.
Technical details remain yet to be determined.
There’s no word on any real-world implications for the concept, but many car makers have used videogames as a platform to preview shifts in design – including Aston itself, which previewed the Valkyrie with the DP100 racer for Gran Turismo in 2014.
It does reflect a wider desire to broaden the remit of the British brand. Autocar reported in 2024 that it was mulling a super-4×4 to rival the Mercedes-Benz G-Class, in the same vein as the Dreadnought. That car was internally referred to as Project Rambo.
However, it remains to be seen whether Aston Martin can afford to take a risk on a new, segment-straddling model such as a toned-down version of the Dreadnought. The company made an operating loss of £259 million last year, and its debts rose from £1.16 billion at the end of 2024 to £1.38bn by the same point in 2025.
