ASTON MARTIN DB12 S

THE LETTER S IS HAVING A MOMENT AMONG fast, expensive, luxury cars. Bentley has given the Continental GT the treatment, Porsche has a new Turbo S, and Ferrari has the new Amalfi...

- RH

FOR Aston’s sporty refresh has added more bandwidth to the DB12

AGAINST For a GT, you’d still want the boot and back seats to be more usable

OK, so they forgot the S. But what does the S suffix mean to Aston and the DB12? More, basically. More power, more aggression, more noise, more intent.

The AMG-sourced 4.0-litre twin turbo V8 now makes 690bhp, a 19bhp lift over the standard DB12. Torque remains 590lb ft, 0–62mph drops by a tenth to 3.5 seconds and top speed stays at 202mph. Underneath: gearshift times are down by more than 50 per cent, carbon ceramic brakes are now standard, and Aston has fiddled with the dampers, e-diff, geometry and chassis settings.