- The AMG 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 engine, which Aston Martin tuned, is paired with a ZF eight-speed automated gearbox. The engine sends 671 horsepower to the rear, locking an electronic differential.
- The Volante sounded exactly like the car we had driven in Monaco a few months before when the wind blocker was taken off and the top was down.
- The Caribbean Blue Pearl 2 we rented cost $339,500, and the base Volante costs $265,000 before you get there. You can expect to see them in stores starting in Q4.
The beautiful Aston Martin DB12 Volante is both sporty and elegant. They went on dates in the DB12 Coupe before, but now they’re serious. Both sets of parents have met: Aston Martin for the rest of the car and Mercedes-AMG for the engine.
An Aston-tuned 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 engine with 671 horsepower and a ZF eight-speed automatic transmission sends power to the rear, locking an electronic differential, making the drivetrain almost perfect for this ride.
All of that, along with this beautiful, sleek, slightly wider, and oozingly luxurious composite body, makes it easy to get around California quickly. At speeds of up to 31 mph, the eight-layer cloth cover folds over the back deck and is ready to use.
Yes, that’s where our trip left from. We drove through the luxuriously winding canyons of Malibu, which is one place where, technically, you might need to own an Aston Martin.
The Volante sounded exactly like the Coupe we had driven in Monaco, another rich and famous beach resort, just a few months before when the wind blocker was taken off and the top was down. With the top down, it’s almost as quiet.
We called it “aeroacoustics,” and they were good for the DB 11. Simon Newton, head of vehicle performance, says they have been made even better for this car. Newton used to work for Williams F1, Lotus, and Bentley. “And it works well.”
Also, the car is very stable, which you’ll notice as soon as you take it for a test drive, especially if the shop is close to a curve. It will exactly do what you tell it to do, thanks to a steady 13.09:1 electric power-assisted steering (EPAS) ratio.
There is no error anywhere, whether you are starting or leaving a turn. I drove into Da ‘Bu and went about 300 miles. This is because Aston didn’t just take off the top and hope no one drives over a bump. Not at all. The engineering team’s hard work made the whole building stronger.
Newton said of the design of the metal underbody, “There’s quite a lot of redesign of the body.” The front and back shear panels, as well as the up-gauged part called the garden gate, which looks like an X frame, are the major structural parts that change.
The X-shaped frame that shows up when you open the hood?. “It is not the X-frame above the engine. The front longerons are joined to it, and it is put in front of the engine. (You know that a longeron is a part of the car’s frame that holds weight.)
Aston also changed the way the shear panels were made, made the cross bracing above the engine stronger, and made the link between the rear damper top mounts stronger.
He also said, “And that’s very important.” It helps you feel how the back of the car moves side to side compared to a car without that part, especially if it’s a convertible.
Newton says that standards are higher for convertibles than for coupes. If you want the car to feel short and quick, you need to be able to spread the load on the rear axle across the whole vehicle.
It was definitely fun to drive the DB12 Volante because it felt quick and responsive. In the same way, the extra carbon ceramic brakes that cost $14,500 have never broken down. There’s more to the face than just how pretty it is.
If you take off the roof of a car, the torsional stiffness (how hard it is to twist a beer can along its longitudinal axis) is the same as the Coupe’s. However, the bending resistance (how hard it is to fold the same beer can in half) may be severely damaged. This one looks like it has yet to lose ground to the one with the fixed roof.
Newton says that “the car does not suffer like most convertibles in torsion. “You might expect it to be farther away from the coupe, but it’s not.”
The torsional stiffness has gone up by about 5% over the DB11 Volante. The aluminum body structure was made even better so that it could respond better to sideways forces, which was great from a technical point of view.
“For many of our customers, driving down the road is the best thing in the world,” said Amedeo Felisa, CEO of Aston Martin. We’ve changed the game with the new DB12 Volante by making a car that strengthens those feelings while still maintaining the great athletic traits and purity of the DB12 Coupe. This one-of-a-kind sports convertible will clear up many myths and bring in a new crop of Volante buyers.
People who buy this convertible will value the engineering that went into it when they step on the gas and feel the V8’s 590 lb-ft of torque. Aston says that by fine-tuning the AMG engine, it was able to get a 34% boost in power over the DB11. This was made possible by bigger turbos, better compression ratios, and better cooling.
You can send that result to any of the five pre-set dynamic modes and four ESCs. Running at full speed, it can go from 0 to 60 mph in 3.6 seconds and reach 202 mph (top-up).
All of this has the newest Aston Martin media and touchscreens, just like the DB12 Coupe. This is where Aston Martin’s future entertainment system is kept.
Aston Martin says its first in-house system was “designed from scratch with hardware, UI, UX, and audio systems from leading manufacturers in the industry.” Now, Aston Martin’s new customer interface app has been added. It was made for iOS and Android so that people can use their phones to connect with, control, and give feedback to their DB12.
Aston says it has a brand-new 10.25-inch “Pure Black” tablet that can be controlled with gestures made with one or more fingers. Many current systems only have on-screen menus and submenus. This system, on the other hand, has physical buttons for things like selecting gears and drives, heating and cooling, chassis override switches, ESP and exhaust, lane assist, and park distance control.
But what about the bad thing? A Caribbean Blue Pearl 2, like the one I have on loan, costs $339,500. Don’t worry, though—a regular Volante only costs $265,000 before you get there. You can expect to see them in stores starting in Q4.
Some of the AMG haste has been toned down to make the ride smoother and less stressful than an AMG GT, which is meant to be a little more sportier. However, the power still gets to the back wheels quickly and smoothly.
COMMENTS