Aston Martin readying fleet of recent front-engine sports activities vehicles – report

Aston Martin will launch eight new front-engine sports cars over the next two years.

“It feels like watching paint dry or grass grow, but after three years we’ve got our next generation of sports cars and will launch eight in the next 24 months,” Aston Martin chairman Lawrence Stroll said at the Financial Times’ Future of the Car Summit, in remarks reported by Autocar.

“We will bring in new technology, have performance from our F1 team integrated into the business, and continue the great luxury [of cars today].”

In addition to replacements for the current Vantage, DB11 and DBS and their Volante convertible variants – bringing the tally to six – Aston Martin hinted at a model that would be “above GT”.

“We’ve created a new sector above GT,” he said. “A true high level of luxury with a high level of performance. Something new.”

Such a model could be a variant of one of these existing lines.

Mr Stroll also confirmed the company is on track to launch its first electric car in 2025, with more details to be revealed at its capital markets day on June 27.

“The software components have been decided, [and it will be done] mostly in house. We’ve hired several hundred people and brought lots of competency in house. It still has to be an Aston Martin experience with EV,” said Mr Stroll.

The automaker will also grow its mid-engined line-up beyond the Valkyrie and hybrid Valhalla.

The Vantage, DB11 and DBS replacements are expected to be heavily updated versions of the current cars.

The DB11 replacement, expected to be called DB12, has already been spied testing.

The prototype snapped features what looks like a more aggressive front end than the current car, more in keeping with the hotter DBX707 SUV revealed last year and with headlights seemingly inspired by the One-77 supercar.

Fundamentally though, the body remains similar to before. The cutaway behind the front wheel arch remains, as does the floating pillar at the rear of the cabin designed to improve airflow without any big spoilers.

“We will be showing you guys all the whole future product portfolio, the new generation of sports cars… our hybrid program and all the way to our BEV full electric,” said Mr Stroll earlier this year.

“You will visually see the products that I am referring to. So, it’s not only going to be us discussing them, you will visually be seeing models of them. Some will already be made. Some will be prototypes.

“But you will see a real clear vision of the journey that I have been building for the last three years, which is now really coming to light.”

Aston Martin has previously said customer deliveries of the sports cars will begin in the third quarter of this year, and the first of these is already in production.

Mr Stroll told Autocar last year the front-engined sports cars would be receiving updated suspension, engines and transmissions, along with heavily revised styling inside and out and fresher technology.

In short, Mr Stroll said the updates will make them “what those cars should have always felt like”.

Mr Stroll told reporters that externally, “there’s no similarity at all to the current cars” apart from “some carry-over” at the rear end.

Inside, the updated cars will finally have a touchscreen, abolishing the old Mercedes-Benz COMAND interface which uses a trackpad.

Unless things have changed, the Vantage and DB11 are expected to retain a twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 sourced from Mercedes-AMG, with the DBS sticking with its 5.2-litre twin-turbo V12.