Aston Martin DB12 Volante review

Sorry to state the bleedin’ obvious, but flipping heck this car is fast. Dispel any notion this is a portly grand-tourer that’ll be embarrassingly dispatched by a pesky hot hatch with half the cylinder count. The DB12’s torque spread is enormous and the traction its bespoke Michelin PS5s generate is staggering. Cross-country, this thing’s got serious pace, though when you do get cracking the slightly delayed eight-speed auto’s downshifts are a gripe.

Does it sound fruity?

What you reckon to the noise depends if you’re a fuel tank half full or half empty kinda person. Is it as evocative and expensive-sounding as the V12s? Nope: it’s a flatter, harder-edged tone, with a bit of start-up theatre but not especially distinctive. But it also feels a bit churlish to moan when AMG is busy replacing this very V8 with characterless four-pot engines, ahead of even decadence-mobiles like this going all-electric. The soundtrack is a case of ‘not great, but you’ll miss it when it’s gone’.

How’s the roof-down experience?

Fabulous. The roof whirrs itself into a recess behind the rear ‘seats’ in 14 seconds. Oddly, it’s two seconds slower to reluctantly re-erect itself. There’s no clunks from the latching mechanism, no unsightly joins or gaps in the coachwork once it’s been concealed and crucially, you can maintain a motorway cruise without undue buffeting. There’s no fancy automatic wind deflector option like the nifty gadget available on a Porsche 911 Cabriolet, but you can probably get away with leaving the manually fitted one at home (and use the extra boot space).

Does it still handle?

Yes, but the most impressive thing isn’t the steering or the brakes or the way it goes around corners specifically: it’s the sense that the car knows exactly what role it’s playing. A sporting grand tourer. It doesn’t try to be a supercar and spoil the ride, or stress you out with hyperfast steering and nervy dynamics. But it’s also much more agile and lithe than its kerbweight or appearance might have you believe. And it’s far better balanced and more tractable than the lazy old DB11 or DBS Volantes. That’s a very clever trick indeed.

There are few cars wearing 21-inch rims that ride anything like as well as the DB12: sometimes you wish you could pull a quick U-turn and head back over the same pothole just to double-check how well the car dealt with it. And it doesn’t all collapse into a heap of marketing rubbish when you cycle away from the ‘GT’ mode into Sport or Sport Plus.

That gives the car bandwidth and makes it feel satisfying more of the time. It’s been set up to entertain, engage and soothe on the road, and to hell with any notions of racetrack performance. The result is easily the best drop-top Aston ever made, so far as satisfaction behind the steering wheel goes.