If there’s one thing Aston Martin’s got right during its near 100 years in the business of manufacturing automobiles, it’s the Grand Tourer. Over the past eight years, the DB9 has been the poster car in that very segment for beauty and elegance, appealing to those with premium tastes and tantalizing those who appreciate design – yet remaining competently fast. For 2013, the Gaydon-based firm has made the DB9 just that bit better.
The award-winning design has only seen minor alterations to keep the DB9 current, such as a new grille inspire by the One-77 hypercar with five horizontal vanes, Bi-xenon headlamps underlined by “feature lines” that accentuate the DB9’s width, LED indicator repeaters, and muscular rear wheelarches.
The new AM11 V12 engine takes pride of place underneath the long bonnet, parts of which have been borrowed from the range-topping Vanquish. To coax 380 kW and 620 N.m of torque from this twelve-cylinder unit, Aston Martin engineers have used a revised engine block, dual variable valve timing, enlarged throttle bodies, uprated fuel pump and revised intake manifold.
As can be expected, the interior has been sumptuously appointed, such as a leather welt feature (constructed by sandwiching a narrow strip of leather between two opposing pieces and meticulously hand-stitching them together), and lightweight seats constructed from carbon-fibre and Kevlar.
“I am very excited to be unveiling the new DB9 now. My team here at Gaydon has been working hard for many months to improve and update key aspects of this superb Sports GT – the mainstay of our sports car range – and I believe the results to be exceptional. Aside from the undeniably beautiful exterior styling and now even more luxurious interior, there are many important and impressive engineering changes that demonstrate Aston Martin’s renowned ability to create compelling cars in the modern era,” says Aston Martin CEO Dr Ulrich Bez.
Both the Coupe and Volante (convertible) will be made available from the DB9’s launch in October.
