Clouds thickened and the air carried a deep, damp chill as I pulled a cap comfortable over my head, zipped up the collar of my jacket, and headed again to Southern California canyon roads to benefit from the prime down so long as I may. It seemed prefer it may pour at any second, and I couldn’t resist chortling to myself that this beast, the 2024 Aston Martin DB12 in its sunny-day drop-top Volante guise, had introduced British climate with it. 

Identical to this odd late-February day with temps within the low 50s, occasional sprinkles, and wispy here-and-gone low-hanging clouds, the 2024 Aston Martin DB12 Volante appears like a refreshing anomaly, and a departure from the more and more soulless norm of efficiency vehicles within the 2020s. 

Positive, the world may nonetheless be getting used to the thought of an Aston Martin SUV—or a Lucid-powered electrical one. However this newest convertible embodies Aston’s duality because the maker of unique automobiles which are as a lot plush luxurious vehicles as quintessentially British sports activities vehicles. 

2024 Aston Martin DB12 Volante

2024 Aston Martin DB12 Volante

2024 Aston Martin DB12 Volante

From the get-go, I used to be acutely conscious that the DB12 sports activities a German engine. Simply as with its Aston Martin DB11 predecessor, the Aston Martin DB12 is powered by a twin-turbo 4.0-liter V-8, individually assembled by Mercedes-AMG at its personal manufacturing heart. Right here it makes 671 hp and 590 lb-ft of torque thanks to greater turbos and a extra aggressive cam profile. And its character contains the form of bark that was reserved for Lamborghini or the edgiest of muscle vehicles. 

Invigorating AMG V-8 energy

I’ve been locked in a world of EV launches in recent times and didn’t drive the DB11, so my Aston information goes again to the DB9 and Rapide S sedan. So this was my very own first dose of any Aston Martin powered by a V-8 from Affalterbach. 

It’s a jolt. In its newest iteration, the engine is means stronger than any V-12 Aston, so the one factor probably lacking is its music and bragging rights. You gained’t miss both.

2024 Aston Martin DB12 Volante

Aston boasts a 0-60 mph time of three.6 seconds, and a fast run on the driest highway I may discover prompt that there’s a great deal of seat-pinning propulsion at any velocity, not simply from a standing begin like in EVs. It’s enabled by lightning-quick downshifts from the rear-mounted ZF 8-speed automated transmission, which hangs in decrease gears on the prepared if you choose the Sport or Sport+ modes from the  twist dial across the engine begin button. All-out blasts are restricted by out there traction from the customized Michelin Pilot S 5 tires, that are fairly darn grippy and very good of their highway noise isolation. 

That drive-mode dial has an important tactile really feel and could possibly be all you might want to use to vary the DB12 Volante’s conduct. It’s on the heart console, together with actual push-button switches for toggling by way of stability, exhaust, and adjustable damper settings (color-indicated to orange and pink with growing ranges of sportiness). There are additionally thumbwheels for temperature settings and quantity. Simply forward of all of it, in a skinny strip and just under the display screen, are extra laborious buttons for local weather features and door locks. It feels just a little quaint but additionally fashionable, exact, and refreshing, and I actually hope Aston doesn’t attempt to ship all of it on-screen sooner or later.

2024 Aston Martin DB12 Volante

Again to the sound of the V-8: It’s addictive, encouraging, and good for the automotive. Round 4,100 rpm, the DB12 will get added urgency. Rev a lot previous that and shortly raise off the accelerator and there’s simply the correct amount of overrun. It soundspeak brutal however not savage in its most vocal modes, sings by way of the shifts, and is very fulfilling with the highest down. It was laborious to dial again the settings and my driving so long as curvy roads and hairpins remained. 

DB12 Volante expresses the duality of Aston

The engine has a duality to its character that matches nicely as a result of it matches the way in which the automotive freely flips between luxury-coupe and edgy-supercar indicators. When sitting nonetheless, the idle of the V-8 is tremendous easy, and there’s a silky high quality and a distant purr beneath gentle acceleration in its comfort-oriented GT mode. 

Whereas the engine helps set the character, the steering is what makes this automotive click on. It’s a really broad automotive, and but seemingly I had completely no situation exactly inserting the automotive inside its lane and infrequently dodging highway particles whereas driving on slender canyon roads. The short ratio by no means leaves you off guard, the chunky steering wheel hundreds up properly off-center, and it  doesn’t pull sideways because the crown of the highway adjustments. 

2024 Aston Martin DB12 Volante

In contrast to a few of as we speak’s different efficiency and status luxurious fashions, the gauge cluster within the DB12 is so simple as you need it to be. With customizable left and proper modules, you’ll be able to choose to put a complete lot of knowledge in it or, as I did, maintain it to one thing akin to a standard gauge cluster with a high-contrast twist. 

I knew after poring over the delicate-feeling cabin and its greater than $20,000 in particular supplies decisions, I’d actually reasonably not check them in a downpour. The cabin’s very plush leather-based didn’t have any trace of the plasticky really feel in much less unique luxurious vehicles. It was a part of an “Encourage Monotone Leather-based Inside” possibility, with distinction stitching and customized colour decisions for the leather-based and carpets, whereas the darkish walnut open-pore wooden trim particularly had the look of one thing that ought to keep dry. 

2024 Aston Martin DB12 Volante

2024 Aston Martin DB12 Volante

2024 Aston Martin DB12 Volante

Costly Aston, costly choices

The DB12 Volante I drove, in Magneto Bronze, pushed nicely previous its $265,000 base worth to a backside line of $327,100, together with the $3,400 vacation spot price. The almost $60,000 in choices additionally included carbon-ceramic brakes, bronze calipers, smoked taillight lenses, a gloss-black lower-body bundle, a particular convertible-top colour, and 21-inch cast satin-platinum-finish wheels. 

The DB12 appears to be like incrementally totally different than the DB11, nevertheless it’s just a little sharper in entrance, extra techy in its look with the brand new headlight design, and extra brash with its bigger grille. It’s not going to be mistaken for its predecessor, though beneath it carries over the identical glorious bonded-aluminum physique development—the important thing to the strong, inflexible really feel of this soft-top convertible and the dearth of any uncouth vibrations. Based on Aston, enhancements to a number of key underbody structural components, plus an engine-bay cross brace, assist increase torsional stiffness—and the Volante will get its personal spring and damper charges. 

2024 Aston Martin DB12 Volante

Inside, it’s a extra radical remake with an intensive revamp to the infotainment system, the shows, and far of the switchgear, whereas conserving to the identical important packaging. The infotainment system is now appropriate with a wonderful integration of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, in a vivid 10.3-inch display screen that makes use of an interface developed in-house by Aston Martin. It’s quick-responding and fairly intuitive; VW ought to take notes. 

An out there Bowers & Wilkins sound system, not fitted to this explicit automotive, cranks out 1,170 watts of encompass sound by way of 15 audio system, whereas the basesystem affords 390 watts and 11 audio system.

The DB12’s seats are extensively adjustable and splendidly supportive and but tender. However the DB12 carries over an odd Aston Martin trait that goes again many generations—a seat that doesn’t alter low sufficient. I’m 6-foot-6, and whereas I had no downside sliding in or discovering sufficient headroom, it merely felt that if an inch or two decrease, I’d be driving with the automotive’s roll heart reasonably than on prime of it. Aston identified to me that the out there carbon-fiber efficiency seats would basically present that. 

2024 Aston Martin DB12 Volante

2024 Aston Martin DB12 Volante

DB12 Volante top-up time

Simply as I felt more and more assured with the automotive’s dynamics, the slight sprinkles turned to greater drops that ratatat-tatted in opposition to the windshield, and I glanced over to the advantageous leather-based with growing alarm. Subsequent likelihood I had  I pulled over and motored up the highest, and located there’s nonetheless respectable rearward visibility with the highest up. 

The DB12 Volante’s convertible prime is lined with an opulent materials that retains it Volante hardtop-quiet at freeway speeds, even within the moist. It powers down beneath a tough tonneau in a matter of seconds (16 to shut, 14 to open). Aston says it will possibly even be operated at as much as 31 mph and right into a 31-mph headwind. Whereas there are a few token rear areas that could be used for extra passengers, it’s laborious to fathom how they could match; that  area is healthier utilized for the wind deflector.

2024 Aston Martin DB12 Volante

2024 Aston Martin DB12 Volante

2024 Aston Martin DB12 Volante

Then the skies opened up and completely poured, bringing extra of the torrential rain that had already scattered my drive with gritty highway hazards alongside the way in which. I used to be once more reminded that that is no fair-weather supercar. 

Heading down on the oddly banked Encinal Canyon Highway—a superb a part of a highway check when it’s dry—I momentarily felt weak because the tail got here unfastened barely as a result of water rivulets on the highway and little mudflows off steep hillsides. 

2024 Aston Martin DB12 Volante

2024 Aston Martin DB12 Volante

However I engaged the Volante’s Moist mode, with its softer throttle and extra stringent stability program, and all of it felt reassuringly in test.

The DB12 is a bit beneath the radar as an unique automotive, and a bit ostentatious as a daily-driving luxurious touring coupe, nevertheless it’s completely up for both position. Take your decide. Both means, it’s a reminder that sensible, luxurious sports activities vehicles with charisma nonetheless do exist, however in as we speak’s screen-focused norm, they’re on the fringes. And that generally gives essentially the most inspiring days of all.