New upper-level DB12 ‘super tourer’ gets 20bhp extra, weighs up to 50kg less, and aims for a sportier feel.
Aston Martin’s ‘boring but vital’ current business plan, as devised by boss Adrian Hallmark in 2024, is ostensibly to better sweat the company’s assets. To plan smarter. Do more with less, and launch more higher-value ‘special’ derivatives of its series production models, as well as more super-low-volume, ultra-special collectors’ models like the Valour and Victor.Given the state of the company’s share value, you might question how well that plan is working at present. But we have, at least, already seen a top-of-the-line DBX S, a similar-in-philosophy Vantage S, and now this Aston Martin DB12 S: higher-value special derivatives, all. Aston has a history of even-quicker models with ‘S’ badges stretching back to the DB3 S of 1953, but it has never before deployed them as widely or consistently as now. The S version of the first, noughties-era Vanquish was ostensibly a facelift; a reason for dealers to call up Vanquish owners and invite them to part with another five- or six-figure sum. However, the S suffix was used more like it will be from now on within the lineage of the smaller Vantage super sports car; as an addition to the range, and an extension of the territory that these cars can ultimately span, rather than as a mid-life update. So the regular DB12 has survived the introduction of this new addition (just as the equivalent Vantage did last year); and Aston insiders even talk of the opportunity to reappraise the positioning of that base model slightly as a foil to this new, slightly sportier sibling – though it remains to be seen if customers will still want “the lesser one” if they can spend more on an S model with that critical extra bit of reflected glory.
