2024 Aston Martin DB12 Volante Just as Good without a Roof

• The Aston Martin DB12 Volante comes with a 671-hp Aston-tuned version of the AMG 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 mated to a ZF eight-speed automatic transmission routing power to the rear locking e-diff.

• Top down, with the wind blocker in place, the Volante sounded as quiet as the Coupe we’d driven only months before in Monaco.

• Our Caribbean Blue Pearl 2 loaner stickered at $339,500, while a base Volante starts at $265,000 before destination. Look for them in dealerships starting in Q4.

Elegance and sporty precision meet and marry in the beautiful Aston Martin DB12 Volante. They’d already dated in the DB12 Coupe, but now they’re serious. They’ve met each other’s parents, which are: AMG for the powertrain and Aston Martin for everything else.

With a 671-hp Aston-tuned version of the AMG 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 mated to a ZF eight-speed automatic transmission routing power to the rear locking e-diff, the powertrain is just about perfect for this ride.

There’s no slip or delay in delivering power to the rear wheels, while some of the AMG immediacy has been dampened just enough to make the ride more enjoyable and less hectic than what you’ll find in an AMG GT, which has slightly sportier pretensions.

Wrap all that in this beautiful, svelte, slightly wider, oozingly luxurious composite body, then stow the eight-layer fabric roof completely flat under the rear deck in only 16 seconds (at up to 31 mph!) and you have the perfect recipe for cruising comfortably in California.

Which is exactly where we cruised. In fact, an Aston Martin may technically be a legal requirement for residents of Malibu, through whose sumptuously curving canyons we carved.

Top down, with the wind blocker in place, the Volante sounded as quiet as the Coupe we’d driven only months before in another waterfront enclave of the rich and famous (Monaco). With the top down, it’s almost as serene.

“It was in a good place from when we did the aero acoustics, as we called it, for DB 11, and it’s had further optimization for this car,” said Simon Newton, director of vehicle performance, whose career includes stints at Lotus, Bentley, and even Williams F1. “And it is good.”

Likewise, and you’ll notice this as soon as you set off on your test drive, especially if the dealership is located anywhere near a curve, the car is surprisingly sure-footed. With a constant 13.09:1-ratio electric power-assisted steering (EPAS), it goes exactly where you point it.

There’s no imprecision anywhere, neither entering nor powering out of a turn. And I entered and powered out of about 300 hundred in my drive in Da ‘Bu. That’s because Aston didn’t simply chop the top off and pray no one ever drives over a bump. No, the engineering team went to great lengths to strengthen the entire structure.

“There’s quite a lot of redesign of the body,” said Newton of the aluminum underbody’s design. “The key structural elements that are different are the shear panels front and rear, as well as up-gauged what we call the garden gate, which looks like a garden gate in that it’s like an X frame.”

Meaning the X frame we see when we pop the hood?

“It’s not the X frame on top of the engine. It’s actually in front of the engine, and it helps to tie the front longerons of the car together.”

(A longeron is a load-bearing member of the car’s structure, as you know.)