In April 2012 we brought you the first spyshots of the new Aston Martin DBS – and today we’ve got the next round of photos of the car that will replace the top-dog Aston Martin V12 supercar.
This DBS prototype is much less disguised and we can begin to see more clearly how the new Aston will adopt some of the form lanugage of the One-77 hypercar.
Aston Martin’s next DBS: what do we know?
The successor to the DBS will appear much earlier than you might expect; it’ll be shown in summer 2012 and will go on sale later this year. The current Aston DBS is on run-out and Gaydon recently confirmed to dealers that the DBS Ultimate Edition is now on sale as they clear the decks for its replacment.
The new V12 supercar won’t be called DBS, however. Aston is sitting on a rich box of memories, with nearly a century’s worth of names in its back catalogue – so they could revive an old name, such as Vanquish, or create a new badge for its newest car.
The tech story of Aston’s new V12 supercar
Underneath the fresh suit of clothes lies the familiar VH aluminium-intensive architecture that underpins most of the current Aston Martin range. The platform is good for several more years, according to top brass, but it will be fettled for the DBS successor.
CAR understands that the company will apply some of its learnings from the One-77 project, including some of its composite technology. This won’t be a pure carbonfibre sports car like the One-77, however; its price point of sub-£200,000 demands a more affordable mix of alloys and plastics.
The trusty Aston 6.0-litre V12 will survive, albeit fettled and here producing an anticipated 550bhp. That’s around 40 ponies up on today’s 6.0-litre lump, a rise achieved by improving internal efficiencies of the moving parts and tuning the engine’s electronic control systems. ZF automatic transmissions are planned.
Expect a price point in excess of today’s DBS, which stretches from around £180k-£196k, depending on what spec, transmission and roof option you choose.