How perfect is the 2024 Aston Martin DB12? Very

Romance is dead. The idea of refined, beautiful things is a notion that’s been replaced by a post-industrial aesthetic that has utterly ruined product design. It’s as if every design is meant to challenge our notion of beauty rather than endorse it. It’s as if corporate America wants us to accept items we once threw away as something beautiful or useful. It doesn’t matter if it’s distressed denim, a mangy old barn door repurposed as a bathroom door or automobile design that takes its cues from video games. All new design is devised to shock or abuse our sense of beauty.

It’s no wonder that Ralph Lauren’s design vision, one that embraces the greatness of traditional American design, remains so incredibly popular and widely accepted. Or that sports car maker Aston Martin, and its adherence to traditional sports cars values, remains so beloved worldwide?

That’s what makes the 2024 Aston Martin DB12 one of the world’s great sports cars.

But Aston Martin would prefer you call it a super tourer, and while you might think this is merely an exercise in semantics, they’re not wrong.

If the DB12 looks familiar, it should. It comes from a long line of Aston Martin DB sports cars, a series that dates to the 1948 Aston Martin 2-liter Sports, now known as the DB1. For 2024, the 75th anniversary of the DB1, the DB12 arrives looking much like its predecessor, the DB11. And indeed, it does wear the DB11’s doors and borrows the DBS’ roof. But look closely and you’ll see changes. The DB12’s front end is higher than before and sports a larger grille. The headlamps have been redesigned, as has the front splitter and side mirrors. But those changes are subtle enough that you can be forgiven for not noticing. And look closely at its footwear. It’s the first car in the fitted with Michelin’s new Pilot Sport 5S tires.

Its panels cloak the same bonded and riveted aluminum architecture as before, but Aston Martin has gone to work to make it 7 percent stiffer than before. Its track is now 0.2 inches wider up front and 0.9 inches wider in the rear. The automaker has also tended to its suspension, which is all-new and features the latest adaptive dampers, electronic power assisted steering and an electronic rear differential—and the results are impressive.

But before we get to that, let’s look at what’s under the hood.

You might be expecting to find a V12—but you’d be wrong. Worldwide government dictates have consigned this power plant to history. In its place is a Aston-Martin-revised Mercedes-AMG twin-turbocharged 4.0 V8 engine that produces 671 horsepower and 590 pound-feet of torque. That’s an increase of 34 percent from the DB11. All that power flows to the rear wheels through an eight-speed ZF gearbox. That’s good enough to run 0-60 mph in 3.5 seconds on its way to a 202-mph top speed. The driveline includes five driving modes: GT, Sport, Sport+, Individual, and, for the first time, Wet.

Hop in the car and you’ll find much the DB11’s perfect driving position remains intact. So too are the power seat switches on the side of the center console. The placement is less than ideal for those with longer legs. Bracing your leg against the center console inadvertently moves the seats, as I discovered to my dismay. And yeah, you could grouse against the miniscule trunk. But this is a sports car—um—make that super tourer. If you need more space, pack lighter or look elsewhere. This car is about high speed, not voluminous luggage capacity.

But there’s much to like about the center stack, which has been reworked from the DB11. Gone are the round push-buttons for the transmission atop the center of the instrument panel. Instead, a toggle shifter is standard, much like those used on other European cars. Particularly welcome is the revised 10.25-inch infotainment touchscreen, as Aston Martin finally replaces the old Mercedes-Benz COMAND system it’s been using for years. It comes with a standard Bowers & Wilkins audio system. It resides alongside a 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster. Together with the revised instrument panel design, the DB12 has a modern interior that matches its incomparable looks. Now, if they would only install this setup in their DBX 707 SUV.

We had a chance to sample the 2024 Aston Martin DB12 for the first time at The Concours Club, an automotive country club near Miami in the Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport. It proved the perfect place to try out Aston’s newest speed machine, as it features a driving circuit more than 2 miles long. As tracks go, it’s fairly narrow and technical, but a whole mess of fun in a car that’s even more so.

The DB11 is certainly a grand touring car rather than a sports car. In other words, while it could go fast, comfort was nearly as important as velocity. It’s not that the DB12 can’t play that part. It can, beautifully. But far more importantly, switching it into Sport+ mode reveals the DB12 to also be every bit the hyper car you want to track.

Hammering the throttle down The Concours Club’s 2,100-foot straightaway, the Aston Martin’s howls with a knowing menace well into triple-digit speed. The steering is linear, quick and direct, and the car carves through corners without a trace of wallow, eager to follow the driver’s orders. Drifting? It’s a snap, as this car easily rotates around bends exactly as you like. It’s very easy to maintain control, and it’s clearly communicative.

It possesses a lively burliness and intensity missing from the DB11, making the term super tourer more than justified. And much like Superman becomes Clark Kent, so too does the DB12 revert to being just another good-looking, nattily-dressed supermodel once off the track. It almost seems like a solid upstanding citizen, but we know the truth. It stakes out the space between hardcore sports cars like the Ferrari Roma and Porsche 911 Turbo, and grand tourers like the Bentley Continental GT.

And that makes the perfect proposition in a high-dollar sporting driving machine.

NUTS & BOLTS

Base price: $245,000

Engine: Twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V8

Horsepower/Torque: 671/590 pound-feet

EPA fuel economy (city/highway): 14/22 mpg

Fuel required: Premium

Length/Width/Height: 186/78/51 inches

Ground clearance: 4.7 inches

Cargo capacity: 9.3 cubic feet

Towing capacity: Not rated