2020 Aston Martin DB11 AMR Answers to a Higher Power

Jesus drives a blue Honda Civic hatchback from the early 1990s. And it’s fast. At first, we didn’t think much of the little subcompact when it pulled up beside our 2020 Aston Martin DB11 AMR. Everyone wants a look at this car. Park it in your driveway and the neighbors will come out in droves, drooling and breathing heavy. You suddenly feel like a survivor in an episode of The Walking Dead: “There’s too many of them. Save your ammo, just run.”

Long and low and rich with drama, Aston’s big coupe doesn’t look like it was massaged on the latest virtual-design program. Instead, the work of Aston’s design team, led by chief creative officer Marek Reichman, sucks you in as if it were penned the old-fashioned way—by hand, on a cocktail napkin over a few glasses of brown alcohol. It looks a little like a Lamborghini Espada and shares the Italian’s clamshell hood design. Unfortunately, the Lambo’s NACA ducts didn’t make the cut.

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Interestingly, the DB11 AMR doesn’t actually have “DB11” written anywhere on it, although there are two Aston Martin badges on its decklid. And the only callouts to Aston Martin Racing are hidden on its doorsills. Pity. While this car is too elegant to have “AMR” slathered across its tail, this is now the only V-12-powered DB11 available, and you’ll need to pay handsomely for the pleasure of owning one (some $42K over the lesser DB11 V-8 model). A single AMR exterior badge to go along with the blackened roof, side sills, front splitter, and grille and headlight surrounds certainly seems justifiable.

With the blue Civic still at our door, we resist the urge to look over for only so long. The guy behind the wheel is staring right at us. He’s young and thin, with a long face and chiseled features partially obscured by brown hair and a beard flying freely in the wind. His Honda appears to be mostly stock. No snorting exhaust or Pep Boys graphics. It isn’t even lowered, but it is riding on a set of wheels from a later Civic Si and has a small ducktail spoiler mounted to the top of its hatch.

We cruise for a few miles and look over again. Now he’s pointing at us. Time to send this joker packing. As we put the Aston’s throttle to the floor, its eight-speed automatic transmission quickly drops a few gears and ignites the thrust of the twin-turbo 5.2-liter V-12 under the hood. Aston’s new boosted V-12—no longer the marriage of two Ford Duratec V-6s—makes big power up and down the tach, including a hefty 516 pound-feet of torque from just 1500 rpm and 630 horsepower at 6500 rpm. It also pulls hard to 7000 revs. We reckon the AMR weighs about 4200 pounds and will hit 60 mph in 3.4 seconds. For reference, the previous non-AMR DB11 V-12 we tested, with 30 less horsepower, dispatched the quarter-mile in 11.7 seconds at 125 mph.

The DB11 emits a throaty growl as it pulls ahead of the Honda and starts cranking up the numbers on its digital speedometer. At 100 mph, as the ZF-sourced eight-speed snatches fourth gear, we check our mirrors, expecting to see the Civic left far behind. But almost impossibly, it’s still there, just a couple car lengths off the Aston’s rear diffuser.

Foot still on the floor, our speed climbs rapidly: 110 mph, 120, 130. The Honda’s still with us. The Aston’s high-speed stability is exceptional. Although there’s no visible rear spoiler, the car’s C-pillars are functional scoops, drawing in air that moves through the body and exits through slits in the decklid, adding downforce. Never harsh or skittish, the DB11 AMR rides well, and there’s plenty of feel through its brake pedal and steering wheel. To make this car more responsive than the V-8 model, Aston gave the AMR model-specific adaptive dampers and a slightly stiffer rear anti-roll bar, and it firmed up the car’s engine mounts and the bushings of its rear suspension and subframe.

The company says just 51 percent of the coupe’s weight rests on its front wheels, but the DB11 still manages to feel a bit nose heavy when pushed hard. The driver can select one of three driving modes—GT, Sport, or Sport Plus—with a button on the steering wheel to vary the intensity of the engine’s throttle response, the behavior of the transmission, and the volume of the exhaust. We preferred Sport for its balance of performance and comfort. There’s plenty of grip from the 20-inch Bridgestone Potenza S007 summer tires, especially in fast open corners. But the DB11 can feel a bit big and bulky in tighter bends, despite its limited-slip differential and torque vectoring.

Despite its AMR designation, this Aston is a traditional grand-touring car that’s better suited to high-speed cruising than hardcore canyon carving. Its center-mounted tachometer and squared-off steering wheel feel a bit out of character with the rest of the car. Our example stickered at an as-tested $274,661, yet some of its pricey extras didn’t seem to suit the DB11. The $3825 Technology pack’s blind-spot monitoring and audio-system upgrade make it worthwhile, but the lime-green-colored brake calipers ($3190) and seat stripes ($1595) come off like wrist tattoos on the Mona Lisa. Thankfully, other more tasteful colors are available.

Certain aspects of its interior disappoint. The AMR’s seats, although well bolstered for hard cornering, are a bit shapeless and start to wear on your back before you’ve burned a tank of fuel. The abundance of Mercedes-sourced switchgear is fine—Benz’s parent company, Daimler AG, now owns 5 percent of Aston—but some of the interior plastics aren’t appropriate at Hyundai prices, let alone the AMR’s $248,986 base ask. The car’s small 8.0-inch infotainment screen also feels dated, but the ultimate retro touch is the CD slot in the dash. Is this 1997? Don’t forget to pack your Titanic soundtrack.

As we crest 135 mph in the DB11 AMR, it’s clear that the Civic chasing us is propelled by a higher power. We’re still at wide-open throttle and haven’t spread the gap. At 150 mph, he’s still filling our mirrors. The AMR would continue to pull hard up to its claimed 208-mph top speed if we stayed in it, but we’re done. We back off and pull aside. The Civic returns to our flank and we’re greeted with another vision of its driver’s windblown mane and pointed finger. Only this time, he’s smiling.

Matching revs perfectly, he drops a gear, nails the gas, and pulls away like the Aston is tied to a stump. And that’s when we read the sticker on the Civic’s back window: “Jesus saves.”

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Source: Reviews - aranddriver.com