ASTON MARTIN’S DB11 HAS BEEN GIVEN THE AMR TREATMENT, IMBUING THE V12-POWERED GT WITH A RACIER CHASSIS AND MORE HORSES. SO IS THIS THE BEST DB11 RECIPE YET?
Aston Martin’s evolution of the DB11 has seen its prime GT handed over to the firm’s racing division to, er, make it a bit racier. When we first drove the DB11 a few years back, the emphasis was on Grand Touring, the big blown V12 gave it effortless stonk but it lived in a chassis tuned for Continental cruising. It was a lovely GT, but it had more sport to give. Then Aston gave us the DB11 V8. It didn’t have quite the chugger-chug under the bonnet but with tweaked suspension bits to capitalise on the litheness of the eight, it was better at blasting blacktop. And so we liked it all the more. So what’s an AMR version of the DB11 then?
It uses the chassis of the V8 but they’ve thrown the V12 back at it, and one with a bit more power. This can only be good, right? Well Aston thinks so, as you can no longer get the DB11 in its original trim, the line-up now consisting of the V8, this AMR and the V12-powered Volante, Aston speak for convertible. And anything that is tuned to drive better, with added power, is always going to hit the spot.
The AMR is still a GT at heart, but just a sportier, pointier one. AMR-ing the DB11 sees the 5.2-litre twin-turbo V12 gain a further 22kW, taking the tally to 447kW, or 630hp, while torque remains ample, with 700Nm on the surge from just 1500rpm. Heralding the excess is a louder exhaust system. The torque convertor eight-speed auto gets a software tweak to deliver snappier changes when the mood suits. The AMR V12 gains the same chassis tweaks as they gave the V8, the purpose of which was to tighten the rear end to help it turn more sharply. Here they have added yet stiffer bushes in the rear and to compensate for the V12’s added excess (in terms of both power and weight), the dampers have been retuned and there is a beefier front roll bar.