Twelve-cylinder engines are an endangered automotive species. Only a handful are left: Mercedes and Maybach share one, and so do BMW and Rolls-Royce. Ferrari has its holdout—and it’s impossible to leave out Bentley’s W-12, though its offbeat cylinder layout makes it an outlier among outliers.

The 2019 Aston Martin DBS Superleggera brandishes a big V-12, and it flips out a Rolodex worth of time-honored names with a flourish. The Superleggera tag harks back to the ‘60s when other hot Italian models had similarly long last names like Lollobrigida. The DBS initials come from the same era, when they were affixed to what was billed as the world’s fastest four-seat car.

After a second generation in the 2000s, then a name change to Vanquish, the DBS is back, now with the Superleggera surname. It boasts all the evocative badges—and bristles with the raw power of a Superfast without the slightly insecure name.

2019 Aston Martin DBS Superleggera

2019 Aston Martin DBS Superleggera

A dozen, done dirty

The new DBS Superleggera throws down a newly evolved Aston V-12. With 5.2 liters of displacement, twin turbochargers, and stop/start with a restart cycle that seems long enough to time eggs, the DBS howls out 715 horsepower. An epic 664 pound-feet of torque spools up at 1,800 rpm, and twists its massive tires until they yield 0-62 mph runs of 3.4 seconds and a top speed of 211 mph.

Aston promises crushing passing power and delivers it with dead seriousness. The DBS rifles from 50 to 75 mph in 2.0 seconds.

Aston engineers put a lot of pressure on the V-12’s turbos and focus their output through an active exhaust system. The Superleggera can keep things civil in GT drive mode, but spin the dial to Sport or Sport Plus and the DBS turns off all the filters that amplify the wraithlike wail. It rasps, it crackles, it pops, it turns underpasses into a Mormon Tabernacle of exhaust overrun.

With its rear-mounted ZF 8-speed automatic, the DBS wastes not a single scrap of that mechanical viscera. It straps it together with a mechanical limited-slip differential and a carbon-fiber prop shaft, then grafts on electronic torque vectoring all in the name of finely balanced handling.

2019 Aston Martin DBS Superleggera

2019 Aston Martin DBS Superleggera

Weight shed, wait shed

At roughly 160 pounds less than the structurally similar Aston DB11, the DBS has grand-touring composure that’s not at all hurt by a nearly even weight split front to rear, at 51:49.

In the most southeasterly corner of Germany, the DBS Superleggera logged a couple hundred miles without a ponderous move. It wove through summer-tourist traffic and snipped off four-car passes, stable and sure through a relatively quick electric power steering system weighted for extreme high-speed stability. Carbon-ceramic brakes come standard.

Aston beefed up the big V-12’s engine mounts so its motions wouldn’t reverb in the steering rack. Despite hulking Pirelli P Zero 265/35-21 tires up front and 305/30-21s in back, it didn’t roll over road crown or reveal anything but a huge appetite for kilometers.

Like the DB11, the DBS has a bonded aluminum body, a double-wishbone front and a multi-link rear suspension. It rides a little lower than the DB11 (barely 0.2 inches), but the DBS benefits more from adaptive dampers that dissolve light road patter away in its best-life GT drive mode. Stiffer settings? Maybe you’d like a Vantage instead, ma’am.

2019 Aston Martin DBS Superleggera

2019 Aston Martin DBS Superleggera

2019 Aston Martin DBS Superleggera

2019 Aston Martin DBS Superleggera

2019 Aston Martin DBS Superleggera

2019 Aston Martin DBS Superleggera

2019 Aston Martin DBS Superleggera

2019 Aston Martin DBS Superleggera

Sheer beauty

Aston design chief Marek Reichman has delivered some of the most beautiful shapes in our generation of cars. The DBS takes a place somewhere in the upper percentile of his studios’ work. The DB11’s sensuous themes take a wider stance here—even at the nose, where the broad grille and air-intake dewlaps make the most visual compromises. The span of taillamps over its gorgeous sculpted rear, the graceful “aeroblade” fillip down its flanks, and the flickers from its cat-eyed LED headlights make up for what’s surely the most controversial bit, the super-wide grille. Dressed up with carbon-fiber trim and decked out with a Formula One-style double diffuser, the DBS Superleggera’s shape has some 397 pounds of downforce, which it claims is the highest of any regular-production car.

The DBS cabin wears all the colors Aston offers in sweetly rendered detail. Piano-black gloss trim, ash wood, and honeycomb-stitched leather with logos and contrast threads weave their way into the cockpit. It’s an orgy of organic shapes, studded by a serviceable infotainment screen and shift-paddle-framed gauges.

The cabin doesn’t differ so much in size from the DB11. Both measure at about 185 inches long, on a 110-ish-inch wheelbase. It’s a two-seater in all but the most dire of circumstances, with some padded nacelles in back. The trunk holds a pair of roll-ons, once you find the release mounted way down on the decklid, near the bumper. It’ll take a couple of tries to slide open the center console cover—unless you locate its power control switch quickly (we didn’t).

Aston fits a new raft of electronica and luxotouches inside, from snug-fitting front sport seats with cooling to automatic climate control, a surround-view camera system, Bluetooth with audio streaming, and navigation. The DBS broadcasts its own wi-fi hotspot, but the infotainment system doesn’t have Apple or Android baked-in alternatives.

Our test car came with white-stone paint, carbon fiber trim on the body, lightweight 21-inch forged wheels, blue haze and light argento grey leather with a gray Alcantara roof, a sport steering wheel, gray brake calipers, beautifully clean Bang & Olufsen audio, and cooled power front seats.

The DBS may be the last new Aston that’s so devoted to its ancestors. The next new cars to come from the brand will be an SUV, a supercar, electric cars, and Lagonda fastbacks.

For now? The 2019 DBS Superleggera takes its heritage seriously, from its beautifully sculpted shape to its road-warping V-12 muscle.

The DBS Superleggera lands in showrooms late this year, while a convertible comes in 2019. Prices start at $304,995, but save another $3,086 for destination and delivery.

 

Aston Martin provided travel and lodging to Internet Brands Automotive to bring you this firsthand report.