The Aston Martin DB11, mere weeks after the first few pre-production units began rolling off the production line at their Gaydon factory, has made its Australian premiere in Sydney last week, going on a nationwide tour over the coming weeks. When it goes on sale, buyers will need to fork out $428,032 (excluding on-road costs) for the privilege of owning one.
Aston Martin expects the first Australian deliveries of the all-new DB11 to commence before the end of Q4 2016.
It’s the successor to the much-lauded DB9 that debuted in 2003, and arguably it’s most important car. Its bloodline stretches back all the way to the 1940s with the Aston Martin 2-Litre Sports or DB1, eventually leading to the notable DB5 of the 60s and the DB7 of the mid 90s.
Patrik Nilsson, President of Aston Martin Asia Pacific, said on the DB11’s local launch: “We are thrilled to unveil DB11 in the Australian market. We are already experiencing unprecedented demand in this region for DB11, reaffirming the strong affinity for Aston Martin in Australia,”
“Aston Martin has a proud, 103-year heritage in the luxury automotive market, and the DB11 embodies every aspect of the brand with absolute elegance and indulgence, combining the very latest technology and finest quality hand craftsmanship.”
The DB11 isn’t the newest Aston Martin that we’ve heard about, there’s the Vanquish Zagato and the AM-RB 001. However, both were collaborations – one with a famed coachbuilder, and the other a Formula 1 team.
The DB11, though, is a lot more important for the company as it fills the void that the DB9 left after its production run ended in late 2015. The debut of that car was a landmark moment in Aston Martin’s history as it took the company’s list of ingredients and brought it up to snuff for the period. It modernised Aston Martin.
Like the current range of Aston Martins, the DB11 is constructed extensively from aluminium, providing a lighter but more rigid structure which is formed to showcase the brand’s new evolutionary design language that we first got a peek at on the DB10, a car that was made exclusively made for use in the 2015 James Bond film Spectre.
Unlike any of its predecessors, however, the DB11’s engine features the newly developed 5.2-litre twin-turbocharged V12 engine which ouputs 447kW and 700Nm of torque. While the V12 has shrunk from 6.0-litres, the addition of turbochargers is something that Aston Martin has shied away from up until now, with all their previous engines being naturally aspirated. Sending its power to the rear wheels through an 8-speed ZF automatic transmission, the DB11 can accelerate from rest to 100km/h in just 3.9 seconds and reach a top speed of 322km/h.
The British automaker chose to wait until it could offer an engine that would not diminish the sensory engagement of its characterful atmospheric V12’s through turbocharging, resulting in a motor that endows the DB11 with significantly more power than its forebears.
For more on Aston Martin vehicles, including pricing and specifications, check out our Showroom.
