First Look: 2024 Aston Martin DB12

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Aston Martin is feeling its oats. Fresh off a 234-million-pound (CDN$393-million) cash infusion from Geely and its best Formula One season start since there was an Aston Martin team, Gaydon is now looking at inventing a new Touring segment. When “Grand is not enough,” says Aston, the obvious thing to do is go Super.

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So, what warrants this new “Super Tourer” designation? Well, first and foremost are the numbers. More specifically, the engine’s numbers. Boosting the 4.0-litre turbo V8 to new heights — bigger turbos, bigger-bump cams, and “optimised” compression ratios — has resulted in 670 horsepower and 590 lb-ft of torque. Especially impressively, max torque is available all the way from 2,750 to the horsepower peak of 6,000 rpm. It’s made even meatier by Aston’s decision to throw in a shorter rear axle ratio for more torque multiplication, even if the engine might not be quite as relaxed at high speed as it was as a mere Grand Tourer.

Performance is, as the English like to understate, “adequate”: 96 kilometres comes up from a standstill in a fully creditable 3.5 seconds, and the AMG-sourced turbocharged V8 won’t stop pulling until the latest DB is past 320 kilometres an hour.

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Making sure that all this super-ness doesn’t only apply in a straight line, Aston’s eight-speed automatic hooks up, for the first time in a DB, to an electronically controlled rear differential. Its main advantage, says Aston, is its ability to go from fully open to 100 per cent locked in milliseconds, all the better for drivers looking to manage all that torque as it threatens the rear Michelins.

Also completely new are a new generation of what Aston is calling “intelligent adaptive” dampers. “With a 500 per cent increase in bandwidth of force distribution” — that’s just pseudo-engineering talk for Aston’s claim that the damping range is five times as wide as the previous generation — the new DB should provide both a softer ride when in GT mode and less roll when “super-ing.” Certainly, this last will be also aided by the stiffer anti-roll bars that are also part of the “Super” packaging.

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The company also says that the DB12’s chassis is seven per cent stiffer in torsion than the outgoing DB11, and that its specific implementation of electronically assisted power steering — with a non-isolated steering column, no less — results in superior steering feedback to the driver. Meanwhile, harnessing all that speed are some truly gargantuan 400-mm cast iron front discs with grooved and drilled faces. But, if you want the DB12 to be truly “Super,” you have to opt for a set of carbon-ceramic brakes — 410-mm in the front! — which not only resist high temperatures but also reduce weight (all of it un-sprung) by a whopping 27 kilograms. On the “Grand” side of things, however, Aston says its bespoke flavour of Michelin Pilot Sport 5s — 275/35R21 fronts and 315/30R21 rears — feature noise-cancelling polyurethane foam inserts within their carcasses that reduce tire ‘hum’ by 20 per cent.

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Perhaps even more appreciated will be the DB’s revamped interior; the DB11’s cabin being, shall we say, a little traditional. As with all Aston cabins, this remains swathed in aromatic, hand-stitched Bridge of Weir leather and Alcantara trim. What is new is a next-generation infotainment system — entirely designed and developed by Aston Martin, no less. We’ll tell you how the hide-bound British company fares in the software wars when we drive the DB12 in a few weeks, but we do know that it supports wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and features a 1970×720 10.25-inch touchscreen. One good omen is that it still maintains “the most used controls” — drive selection, heating, and ventilation offering the perfect blend of digital and analogue controls as well as suspension, exhaust noise, Lane Assist, and Park Distance Control — as physical buttons.

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One small disappointment, given how Aston is pushing the DB12 as “Super” and not merely “Grand,” is the standard audio system is a 390-watt system with just 11 speakers; if you want the full 1,170-watt, double-amplified, 15-speaker Bowers & Wilkins experience you’re going to have to pony up extra dosh. Considering that a standard “Super” DB12 is unlikely to offer much change from $300,000, we would have thought that it deserved a truly super sound right from the get-go. Methinks Aston has been looking at Porsche’s pricing structure with envy.

The only other thing wrong with the new DB may, in fact, be that Super Touring appellation. Oh, it certainly sounds grandiose. And, after all, grandiosity is what ultra-luxury cars all about. However, when shortened, Grand Touring becomes GT, an abbreviation long recognized for denoting the superiority Aston Martin is after. Abbreviate Super Touring, however, and it becomes “ST,” a designation most synonymous with potty little Ford hatchbacks.

If I were Aston, I would not be putting that badge on the back of my DB12.