For a time, it seemed as though Aston Martin’s V12 motor was dead, yet another victim of ever-tightening emissions regulations. DB-badged Astons had offered silken 12-cylinder powerplants for 25 years (some Vantages too) but the latest, the new DB12, is V8 only.
Today, though, Aston Martin has confirmed it will continue producing V12s for its forthcoming front-engined flagship, the replacement for the DBS Superleggera, due later this year. Like the outgoing V12 it’s twin-turbo, and while Aston hasn’t said either way, we expect its 5.2-litre displacement is unchanged. But a great deal is new: the engine now features a strengthened cylinder block and conrods, redesigned heads and reprofiled camshafts, new intake and exhaust ports, repositioned spark plugs, higher flow rate fuel injectors and more responsive turbochargers.
It sounds like a thorough reworking of the V12 that served in the DB11 and DBS Superleggera rather than an all-new engine, but that’s no bad thing. It produces a mighty 824bhp and 738lb ft of torque, even more than the old V12 delivered in its most potent form in the run-out DBS 770 Ultimate (759bhp and 664lb ft).
The press release says the new handbuilt V12 ‘will feature across Aston Martin’s most exclusive and limited availability models,’ which might simply mean the DBS replacement and its derivatives, but it does leave the door at least slightly ajar for one or more completely separate models that we don’t yet know about using the new V12 too.
We’ll see it first in that new front-engined flagship, which Aston has all but confirmed will be called Vanquish, as we’ve long suspected. ‘All will be vanquished,’ reads the release…
This is yet more encouraging news from Gaydon. The Aston model line up has been thoroughly overhauled from top to tail – the DB12 and DB12 Volante are in showrooms, the new Vantage lands imminently (and we’ll bring you our review the moment it does), the DBX finally has an interior worthy of the rest of the car and that new flagship will arrive later this year. The mid-engined Valhalla supercar is due to go into production in 2024, too.
Executive Chairman Lawrence Stroll will tell you Aston Martin is ready to burst into the light, its dark days well behind it. We’ll reserve judgement until the Aston wings start flapping, and sales figures and the share price finally begin to fly.
