New Aston Martin DB12 Volante 2024 review: a stunning drop-top GT

Verdict

The DB12 Volante really is everything you’d want from a super-sporting convertible car, plus some extra cream on top. So while it’s not cheap, at £200k and probably has a firmer ride than you’d expect, Aston’s latest offering is every inch a rival to the Ferrari Roma Spider. That makes it one of the most desirable – and fastest – drop-tops money can buy.

Removing the roof from any sports car usually requires a major amount of engineering work, and a fair few compromises to be endured by its owner compared with the equivalent coupe. But Aston Martin doesn’t see it that way with this new £199,500, 671bhp, 202mph DB12 Volante.

The reason why is simple. When they built the all-new DB12 coupe, Aston’s engineers left absolutely no stone unturned, so they claim. The chassis, suspension, steering, engine mounts, drivetrain, you name it – the entire car was engineered from its wheelnuts up to be more complete than any previous Aston, and by a fair margin, virtually without financial compromise. 

So when it came to removing the roof and creating the Volante version, it was, relatively speaking, a pretty straightforward exercise. No extra strengthening bars or beams were required. The suspension didn’t need to be redesigned in any way. The steering could be left just as it was.

As a result, the designers were given an unusually free hand to create a car that looks as sexy with its fully electric hood up or down (I think down with the windows lowered is peak Volante) but only because so little extra engineering work was required on the rest of the car. True, the rear suspension has been retuned subtly to accommodate the extra 90kg of hood mechanism, but otherwise the Volante is the exact same car as the coupé.

It gets the same thundering 671bhp twin-turbo V8 engine, supplied in base form to Aston by AMG but then re-engineered to be an all-but-bespoke unit; the same eight-speed ZF gearbox; the same brakes; the same enormous 21-inch Michelin Pilot Sport 5S tyres; even the same interior, apart from the bit above your head.

The hood itself might not be the fastest in the business, taking 14sec to lower and 16sec to raise (which can be done at anything up to 31mph) but once in place, it leaves the Volante feeling, and sounding, incredibly similar to the coupé on the move – to a point where you’d be hard pushed to tell the difference if you weren’t told. 

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Hood-down refinement is also strong once you put the wind deflector in place manually (in much the same way as you have to in the Ferrari Roma, which has quite a clumsy deployment mechanism by comparison). There isn’t much buffeting inside the cabin, even at motorway speeds, so on a sunny day, along a quiet stretch of road and with its V8 twin-turbo under load, the Volante takes quite some beating for pure sense of occasion. 

Even you don’t like cars, you will find it hard not to succumb to this one’s charms, which are strong enough almost to taste on occasions. And if yoy do like cars, the Volante will get you right where it counts – right in the chest – more than most. Including the Ferrari Roma Spider? Without comparing them back to back on the same road it’s impossible to tell; that’s how good the Volante is to drive, hood up or down, at full throttle or just bumbling through a village, and pretty much everywhere in between.

If anything, the Aston feels stronger than the Ferrari for pure mid-range thrust, especially from 4500-6500rpm, even if it isn’t just as rapid off the line, according to the official figures. It’s so potent that you don’t often use full throttle for anything longer than momentary blasts, with 0-62mph taking just 3.7sec (Ferrari 3.4sec), but it’s the 50mph-upwards urge that’s most impressive. That’s where the engine’s thumping 760Nm of torque comes into its own, and when the eight-speed gearbox also does its best work if you select Sport or Sport+ modes.

The default setting on start-up is GT mode (there is also Individual and Wet) in which the Volante still feels quite firm in its ride quality, despite the dampers being in their softest, theoretically most refined setting. Some might be quite surprised by how firm it feels across a UK B-road, given Aston’s previous in this area. The DB11 Volante, for instance, felt nowhere near as sharp as this. But the trade-off in extra precision everywhere else is surely well worth the compromise in ride quality on rough roads. Overall the DB12 Volante is a much more cohesive car compared with its predecessor, even if it is a touch stiffer.

As for the rest of the car, it’s hard thing not to like, or sometimes just fall head over heels in love with in the right conditions. We’re still not convinced by the clarity of some of the minor instruments (the gear and drive mode indicators are both minute within the otherwise-lovely instrument display) or by the emissions when viewed beside most other new cars in 2024. But as a package, the DB12 Volante is a fearsomely magnificent car. One that’s confidently out of kilter with much of the rest of the world, perhaps, but good enough to stand comparison with the very best that money can buy at this level, in this very particular arena.

It is more than a job well done. It’s a work of art, one that drives every bit as good as it looks. And in this instance, that really does mean something.