Some might be thinking that with all these chassis and aero improvements that Aston Martin has also gone to town with the car’s AMG sourced V8, but only a gentle remap to improve the top-end performance has been carried out, resulting in a 20bhp increase to 690bhp. Which is, as you’d expect, plenty. The DB12 has never left you feeling wanting in the performance stakes and the S is no different, pulling with muscle-car strength from low down and barely breaking sweat, to fizzing at the top end like a thoroughbred sports car.
There’s genuine duality in how you can work with the S. Leave its gearbox in drive and it’s a better GT car than Bentley’s recently launched Continental GT S. Switch to manual mode and climb through the drive modes to Sport or Sport + and the DB12 S becomes within touching distance of Ferrari’s Amalfi dynamically and for entertainment. It would be a tough decision to choose between Maranello and Gaydon if push came to shove.
There are still some foibles with the Aston, however. Its infotainment system, despite being an improvement over its predecessor, is still hard to use. It’s too fiddly when operated in conjunction with Apple Car Play Ultra, mostly due to Apple’s poor integration. And for a GT car, you need to pack light for the boot and be prepared to have a soft bag or two on the rear seats (they’re not much use for humans anyway).
Aston Martin has had its much publicised financial problems for more than half a decade, but despite this it hasn’t stopped the company from developing its best line-up of cars for a generation. If not of all time. From Vantage to Valhalla there isn’t a duff car between them, and the DB12 S continues this trend.
Model:Aston Martin DB12 S CoupePrice:£211,500On sale:Now Engine:4.0-litre V8 twin-turbo petrolPower/torque:690bhp/800NmTransmission:Eight-speed automatic, rear-wheel drive0-62mph:3.5 seconds Top speed:202mphEconomy:23.2mpgCO2:276g/kmSize (L/W/H):4,725/2,135/1,295mm
