Sorry to drag this up from the mire, but kinda FYi, me being a bit of an Aston fan.
The gearbox in the car is the Tremec T56, same (basically) as you'd find in a 6-speed Camaro or a Viper.
The shifty-flappy-paddle bit is the Magneti Marelli electro hydraulic actuator and ECU setup, and it's a bit flaky in the Vanquish.
The new Vantage uses the next generation of the MM actuating kit, almost identical to the Ferrari F1-series setup. The Ferrari has faster shift times, because the gearbox it is attached to is designed for it (or maybe the owners don't care when it breaks) but the Vantage's box is the Graziano 6-speed as fitted to all the new VH-platform manual gearbox cars. Whichever, it's much better than the Vanquish (for I have tried both) but I still prefer a waggly-stick-in-the-middle.
In answer to your question: it's the Italian widget, not the car, the gearbox or the driver. The manual conversion is a little expensive, but worth it if you're tired of the jerkiness of the early ASM when you're just tootling about.
