- Aston Martin DB11

2017 Aston Martin DB11 review: a proper GT

Being a tremendous GT car is no easy task, but ASton might have just nailed it with the DB11

4y ago
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Crunching across the grey gravel of a damp Scottish hotel car park early on a wet Monday morning I’m more sure than ever that Aston Martin has done a good job with the DB11. I’m not really a morning person – I would rather drive all night than get up with breakfast TV presenters – so extracting myself from beneath a warm duvet to undertake a long journey is always a bit of a struggle.

Except when there’s a good GT parked outside. There are plenty of cars that are great to drive, cars that thrill you and come alive on a twisting piece of road. But often those same cars are not the ones you want to climb into in the early hours of a miserable morning. The interiors are often hard and unyielding – you might even have deleted the air con or radio. The firm ride over the first pothole jars your cold muscles and resonates through your bones like a thinned three iron on a frosty day.

Of course, you forgive and forget all that for the joy of the feel through the wheel and the way the lateral forces transmit themselves almost telepathically as a corner develops. But as you walk out to a Caterham on a wet morning the promised joy of future excitement is about as comforting as a thin sheet and a stone floor on a cold night in a draughty house.

Eruption follows Hush

The good GT car, on the other hand, welcomes. Blip the key, open the door and the perfectly lit leather of the driver’s seat looks more inviting than the sofa in lounge you’ve left behind. The hush that descends as you ensconce yourself comfortably between transmission tunnel and arm rest is relaxing and reassuring.

Press the glass starter button (no Emotion Control Unit in this new breed of Aston) and the eruption from the exhaust has enough depth and character to make you feel good, even quicken the pulse a little. It encapsulates the 600bhp contained within the twin turbo V12 and gives you the impression that nothing today will be a problem.

It’s been well-documented that the sat nav, phone radio etc in this new Aston are all purloined from Mercedes, but I couldn’t care less. It works and it’s not a dastardly fiddle like the old Aston tech, so plumbing in a destination doesn’t disgruntle and upset the ambiance before you’ve even begun. You can simply settle in, swivel the selector and know that you’re in safe navigational hands.

I’ve been lucky enough to have spent several long days in various different DB11s in assorted countries and it really is a lovely thing in which to wile away a lot of time. The way the long-limbed suspension soaks up the bumps reminds me of McLaren’s MP4-12C (plus a bit) and makes even the shocking surface of Belgium’s motorways acceptable. Cruising at pace feels totally natural and if you’re lucky enough to find yourself on an autobahn then a steady 130mph feels like a light canter where other cars would make it feel like a gallop.

But what about its sporting credentials?

Of course it’s no good a GT being as comfortable as a country club on a long journey if it can’t summon some sportiness when it encounters an appealing corner.

Thankfully if your long journey includes or culminates in some good roads then the DB11 will prove a fine companion. The steering is surprisingly sharp, almost reminiscent of a modern Ferrari, yet Aston has pulled off the remarkable trick of this quick rack adding agility without instilling nervousness. There isn’t any feel to speak of either, but again Aston has worked some engineering magic (apparently in the stiffness of the steering column) that means when you push the nose hard into corner you can really sense the limits of the tyres. Despite initially feeling a little floaty, the front end won’t wash out on you either, so you can really lean on it with confidence.

The twistiest of roads are not to be tackled at speed in the DB11 as it will feel every bit of its considerable length and width, but medium-sized B-roads are fine. Equally anything too bumpy can see that long suspension getting out of phase with the body, so smoother is better if you’re really pushing on. A well-surfaced Swiss Alpine pass is fun, as would be some of the larger roads in the remoter parts of Scotland.

Ramp the adjustable suspension up from Comfort to Sport or even Track (all done via a button on the steering wheel) slacken the ESP a little or even a lot (slightly harder to do as it involves scrolling through menus on the right hand screen of the instrument binnacle) and you have a surprisingly malleable chassis balance.

Where the sleek GT really comes alive is through faster corners. Here you seem to have the time to settle the car into its suspension and really enjoy the front-engined, rear-drive characteristics. So natural is the handling that even as it starts to oversteer it feels easy to work with.

And although the square steering wheel might look a little odd, it is surprisingly normal once you’ve got hold of it. I’m also a fan of the large paddles controlling the eight-speed ZF auto. It seems fashionable for pretty much everyone except Ferrari to have their paddles moving with the steering wheel, but I’m a fan of the static variety. You always know where to find them.

slippery when wet

A sensation of big, imposing torque is the overwhelming character of the mighty twin-turbo V12. That manifests itself particularly noticeably in a couple of ways. Firstly, in the wet you need to tread incredibly carefully because there is the possibility of spinning up the rear tyres with almost any imprudent prod of the throttle. No longer do you have to be above a certain rpm threshold like the old naturally aspirated 5.9-litre V12, because the turbocharged torque seems to be there from tickover and it takes barely any throttle to have the ESC light blinking and/or the tail twitching.

If you do turn everything off and venture over the lateral limits of the rear tyres then thankfully the quick steering and intuitive balance makes it easy to catch and hold even in the wet, but it’s wise to allow a bit of space…

Presented with a dry road and much greater traction, you tend to notice the engine’s torquey characteristics from the gears you use. Initially a selection of, say, second gear for a corner might feel the natural choice but quickly you find that being a gear higher than normal makes more sense in the DB11. This allows you to use the meat of the engine and avoids you running into the limiter which arrives more quickly than you might expect.

It’s not quite a Valkyrie but when you do pause your journey in a service station or on top of a mountain pass, you notice that there are all sorts of aerodynamic elements to this latest Aston. These may well contribute to the car’s stability at speed, but most of the time they are more intriguing aspects of the car’s appearance.

The slashes that streak back from the top of the front arches (helping to alleviate this high-pressure area in the same way that the gills on a GT3 RS do) are, in my opinion, beautiful. I’m not so sure about the channels in the C-pillars, but I like the idea that they allow the rear of the car to be kept neat. Overall, the look of the DB11 is obviously an evolution of a familiar design language, but that’s hardly a bad thing when Aston has been producing such gorgeous cars for the last decade and more.

beware the Dawn chorus

So, the DB11 is very much a proper GT. And I do like a genuine Grand Tourer – outside they have presence and panache while inside they’re the motoring equivalent of settling down next to a crackling log fire with a good book. No matter the roads or traffic they soothe you through hours of travel as whole countries slip beneath their wheels.

This outside/inside distinction is perfectly personified by the DB11’s sound: Although recognisably Aston it's relatively muted on the inside, but outside it is loud enough to rival some supercars. Something to bear in mind on those early morning starts…

2017 Aston Martin DB11

Price: £157,900

Engine: 5204cc, twin-turbo, V12

Layout: Front-engined, RWD

Gearbox: 8-spd auto

Power: 600bhp at 6500rpm

Torque: 516lb ft at 1500rpm

0-62mph: 3.9 seconds

Top speed: 200mph

Weight: 1770kg

Economy: 24.8mpg (combined)

CO2: 265g/km

Photos by Dean Smith and Alex Tapley

Tags: #Aston #AstonMartin #DB11 #GT #review

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Comments (8)

  • Pretty car, but the cabin looks fairly naff / cheap and actually quite dated.

      4 years ago
    • There have been some very dubious choices of interior colour on the various DB11 press cars...!

        4 years ago
  • The interiors are very much personal choice, & will be better when there are nmore cars out there to see in the flesh rather than on a configurator, but the sales people generally steer you off anything too outlandish. Overall a monster of a car, just amazing

      4 years ago
  • not sold on the rear 3/4 view almost looks camoroish. interior looks nice if you ask me (although i would go for less lairy colour combo)

      4 years ago
  • From side rear it looks like a Lotus Evora?

      4 years ago
  • don't think it looks particularly special in silver. needs a darker colour to really show off the lines.

      4 years ago
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