It's been a busy day at Aston Martin, what with the debut of its AM37 powerboat in Monaco and the first DB11 rolling off its production line in Gaydon, UK. The DB11 takes up the baton from the DB9 and is the first of seven new Aston models planned for launch over the next seven years.
The critical response to the DB11 has been very positive, not least of all from us, and that's been reflected in the order book. Over 3,000 people have already put pen to paper for one of the new models, all of which will be hand-built. The first deliveries are expected to be made next month.
Of those orders, the first 1,000 off the production line will apparently be checked for quality personally by company CEO Dr. Andy Palmer. What will he be looking for exactly? Well, in short, "absolutely everything," Aston Martin tells us.
As you might expect, it has exhaustive checklists for quality assurance. We're told that these cover such things as the gaps between panels, making sure all buttons are working properly, ensuring all seals are sound and even making sure everything on the car makes the right noise.
"It's an exciting moment for the entire company when the first car of a new model goes into production," says Palmer in a press release. "The DB11 is a special car and it heralds the start of a new and exciting era for Aston Martin."
That new era sees the 103-year-old carmaker moving deeper into its second century of production that is being marked, in part, by the flurry of planned new models. Where the DB line is concerned, it's also seen a move from natural aspiration in the DB9 to turbocharging in the DB11, and the first use of a new bonded aluminum structure that makes the DB11 lighter, stronger and more spacious inside.
Aston tells New Atlas that its move from a 6-l naturally aspirated engine to a 5.2-l twin-turbo V12 engine hasn't actually changed the DB character a great deal. The turbocharger, we're told, compensates for the smaller engine, and great efforts have been made to ensure that the Aston Martin feel and noise have been retained. After all, "that's what people buy our products for," one of Aston's flock espoused to us.
Elsewhere, we're told that the DB11 is the first Aston Martin to benefit from Daimler's new electrical architecture, which runs everything from the backend, to the sat nav, to the user interfaces. Those interfaces, including the 8-in LCD touchscreen on the dashboard, are still stylized by Aston Martin and integrated with any Aston-specific systems, such as the Bang and Olufsen sound system.
Among the DB11's other features will be 360-degree parking sensors, parallel and reverse parking assistance and torque vectoring for improved handling. Pricing for all luxury comes in at £154,900 in the UK, €204,900 in Germany and $211,995 in the USA – before upgrades.
The DB11 debuted at the Geneva Motor Show in March.
Source: Aston Martin
