Aston Martin is eager to celebrate the arrival of its latest DB beauty, the DB11.

That car comes packing serious heat in the form of an all-new 5.2-liter V-12 breathing through a pair of turbochargers to crank out 600 horsepower. Still, some prefer the glorious wail of eight cylinders at full strength, and Aston Martin appears to be prepping an engine for them. When you're a technical partner with Mercedes-AMG, good things are bound to happen in this space.

The British brand was recently spotted testing one of its V-8 prototypes at the Nürburgring, where it houses one of its R&D centers. The car in question is a DB11 wearing that oh-so flattering camo wrap typically applied to prototype machines. There's no V-12 gurgle emanating from the rear end, however. In it's place is the glorious growl that comes from a V-8.

We already know that Aston Martin has a deal in place to use the Mercedes-AMG twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V-8, so that must be the engine in this car. We are fans of this engine as it does everything right between the front fenders of the AMG GT S.

What we don't know is what state of tune the Aston Martin version will use. It makes 503 hp in the GT S and is set to kick out 577 horses in the upcoming GT R. Perhaps Aston Martin will do its own tuning, resulting in unique power figures. Whatever those figures are, we want to drive it.