Late within the spring, Aston Martin launched the most recent in its lengthy DB line of grand tourers, the 2024 Aston Martin DB12. Aston Martin did the whole lot it might to make the automotive appear revolutionary – even insisting it was the primary instance of a brand new breed of automotive known as “tremendous tourer.” However nobody was fooled. It adopted the formulation of each prior DB automotive, and we’d by no means have forgiven them if it didn’t.
It was a beautiful, slinky factor with an extended hood and a brief rear deck, providing sufficient energy to maintain up with devoted sports activities automobiles just like the Porsche 911 in every single place however the monitor but reeling the facility in simply sufficient to make it formally one thing extra snug than a sports activities automotive.
However there’s another step to the formulation. After introducing a brand new Grand T…excuse us, Tremendous Tourer, Aston Martin is meant to quietly usher in a roofless mannequin.
To not fear. Aston hasn’t forgotten that step.
Meet the Aston Martin DB12 Volante.
Aston Martin hasn’t even hinted at pricing. The present DB11 Volante began within the mid-$230,000 vary.
Twin-Turbo V8, RWD
The Volante makes use of equivalent mechanical underpinnings to the hardtop DB12. Meaning a twin-turbo V8 borrowed from Mercedes’ AMG sport division. It makes 671 horsepower and 590 lb-ft of torque. Energy goes by an 8-speed computerized transmission to the rear wheels. Aston says the mixture is sweet for a prime velocity of 202 mph (no phrase on whether or not the roof must be as much as obtain that) and a 0-60 mph dash of three.6 seconds.
Michelin Pilot S 5 tires “made to Aston Martin’s exact necessities” put all that energy down. An adaptive damper suspension helps hold all of it exact. Aston says particular rear damper tuning is “the principle distinction between DB12 Coupe and Volante” – presumably to permit it to bop with the identical agility with the roof within the trunk.
Shut the Roof at 31 mph
There are not any important physique modifications aside from that roof – an 8-layer delicate piece. Aston says it lays right down to a “a class-leading 260 mm stack peak” – making us understand we’ve by no means measured the depth of a folded convertible roof. It hides fully when retracted, “takes 14 seconds to open and 16 seconds to shut, and can be utilized at speeds of as much as 31 mph and right into a 31 mph headwind.”
Inside, Aston Martin has lastly ditched the turn-and-click management interface nobody beloved, utilizing a ten.25-inch high-resolution touchscreen to regulate most local weather and leisure capabilities. However Aston house owners are sometimes folks with concepts about custom. So a military of buttons beneath permits you to do most issues with out touching the touchscreen if that’s your desire.
As with the coupe, it’s the seats which can be the actual head-turners. The look is sculpted of carbon fiber with Bridge of Weir leather-based added solely the place wanted for padding. Right here, too, the Volante differs from its coupe counterpart. Consumers can choose carbon fiber or wooden veneer rear seat shells to “create an additional layer of visible curiosity and luxurious when the roof is lowered.”
Unchanging in a Altering Subject
It’s, frankly, the whole lot you count on from a drop-top Aston Martin. And that alone is exceptional.
As a lot as Aston Martin would really like us to say its automobiles don’t have any friends, there’s a Grand Tourer section the place the DB12 sits naturally. It’s quickly altering.
The Maserati Gran Turismo goes electrical. The Jaguar F-Kind is disappearing fully in 2024, with a probably-electric substitute nonetheless pending. Bentley has hinted that the Continental GT will quickly go electrical, too.
That can make a V8-powered drop-top grand tourer one thing of a throwback earlier than lengthy. That’s most likely precisely what some Aston followers are on the lookout for.
