ROAD CAR TESTS
The Stroll effect is kicking in
With a new boss, new vision and its sporting aspirations, Aston had to make a statement with the DB12. Andrew Frankel hits the road
It may look similar to the DB11, but the new DB12 improves in every area and is “85% new”, according to Aston Martin
Mark my words, this may look like a merely thoroughly face-lifted DB11, but the new DB12 is likely to be considered one of the more important cars in the history of Aston Martin. These come along every so often, vehicles that are meant to reset the direction of the company and return to the course from which it has wavered. This is perhaps not a car of DB2, DB7 or DB9 significance, but as the first new Aston produced entirely under the watchful eye of Canadian billionaire, largest shareholder and executive chairman Lawrence Stroll, it is surely not far away.
Although derived from the DB11, the company says the car is 85% new, and it’s certainly true that no areas of its endeavours have been left untouched. The body is entirely new, the structure beneath stiffened and modified. The suspension retains the same architecture but is broader in track and difference in every setting. The engine is still the AMG 4-litre V8, but now tuned to produce not 503bhp as before – which lagged behind the class average – but 671bhp, which puts it far ahead.