Nobody buys an Aston Martin because they need a car. They buy one because to drive an Aston is to realise a dream; to become part of an intoxicating story desired by many, but available to few. The new DB12 S Volante fits this bill spot on. Yes, it is faster, sharper and more technically accomplished than the DB12, on which it is based. But its real power is emotional. It sells an idea of life: the roof down, the road emptying ahead, a weekend bag packed with discipline and the city falling away in the rear-view mirror.
The DB12 S is the new halo model of the DB12 family, part of Aston Martin’s revived line of high-performance S models, a suffix that dates back to the DB3S racer of 1953. In practical terms, that means more power and a stronger sense of purpose. The 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 now produces 700PS and 800Nm of torque, taking the Volante from 0-60mph in 3.5 seconds, with a top speed of 202mph. Carbon ceramic brakes are standard, saving 27kg of unsprung weight, while revised dampers, steering, throttle mapping and faster gearshifts make the car more agile and more immediate without turning it into something brutish.
In profile, the DB12 S Volante shows its sharper side: gloss-black sills, a fixed rear spoiler and
stacked quad exhausts adding menace to Aston Martin’s famously elegant grand-touring line.
However, these figures are only part of the seduction. Future-owners are probably not standing in a showroom asking whether the chassis geometry has been finessed. They are asking, consciously or otherwise, whether this car fits the life they’ve built for themselves. The answer is, of course, yes. The DB12 S has the presence of something designed for grand entrances, but is not ornamental. It has a muscularity that suggests independence and elegance without ever becoming demure. Fast, but not adolescent. Expensive, obviously, but not desperate to explain itself.
Its design has been given just enough menace. The new dual-element front splitter lowers and widens the face; bonnet louvres, gloss black sill additions, a fixed rear spoiler and stacked quad exhaust pipes give it a more assertive line from every angle. The effect is not subtle, exactly, but neither is it cartoonish. It is the automotive equivalent of a sharply cut black tuxedo. Aston Martin has always been good at beauty, but here the beauty has teeth. In Volante, that newly tuned exhaust note becomes part of the atmosphere.
The cabin of this Aston Martin DB12 S Volante features tritone semi-aniline leather and Alcantara, S-embroidered seats, contrast stitching, coloured belts and a red anodised drive-mode controller.
Inside, the fantasy becomes more personal. The DB12 S offers monotone, duotone and tritone interiors in semi-aniline leather and Alcantara, with S-specific details including a red anodised drive-mode controller, contrast stitching, coloured seatbelts and headrest embroidery. There is also the option of an Alcantara heated sports steering wheel and Aston Martin wings applied to the seat headrests using an embossing and debossing technique for sculptural depth.
Aston Martin has also been clever about modern luxury. The DB12 S features Apple CarPlay Ultra, which the marque introduced to deliver the next-generation system, bringing iPhone integration across the instrument cluster and central display. That matters because, as much as the driver may love analogue glamour, they still want their diary, route, music and messages readily available.
As a woman, I adore this car because it seems to me to be made for the woman who has outgrown permission. She does not buy it because Bond drove one, though the ghost is useful. She buys the Volante because the fantasy is hers — and because sometimes the most modern kind of power is driving with the roof down without a care in the world. OTR: from £218,500.
Words: Julia Pasarón
Images © Max Earey
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