![]() Apart from the restricted vision through the small rear window, it essentially feels like a coupe on the move with the hood up. But even with the hood up the Volante can play the refined, smooth-driving mile-eater perfectly well. Predictably, the Volante’s wide range of dynamic personalities are best enjoyed with the hood down, when wind noise is impressively well suppressed, at least up to three figures, although you need the wind deflector in place much above 50mph. The Volante’s steering, in particular, is quite lovely, with a sharper response to it on turn-in and a lovely consistent sense of weight mid-corner. Surprisingly sharp, and very possibly the sweetest DB11 of them all on the move as a result. The rear chairs, for instance, are spacious enough to feature ISOFIX attachments for the first time ever in a Volante. The new hood – which can be raised or lowered at up to 31mph and takes less than 20 seconds to do its thing – also takes up a fair bit less space than previously thanks to its clever packaging, meaning you get more room in the rear seats and boot. The result is a good-looking car when viewed either in profile or, especially, dead on from the rear. There’s also a trick new electric hood that stores much more neatly than before into the rear bodywork, which has allowed the designers to really go to town with the Volante’s lower-than-normal rear deck. > Click here for more on the all-new Aston Martin Vantage It would be nice, after all, to be able to enjoy the extra noise from the V8 without being in a gear too low most of the time in Auto. In a way it’s a shame you can’t have the loud exhaust without also having the more aggressive throttle and transmission maps. Which, given the compromises, is more than a little bit surprising.Īs with the Coupe versions, there are three different drive modes to choose from for both the drivetrain and the chassis, so in theory six different modes in all Normal, Sport and Sport+ for each (chassis and drivetrain). And as a collective these modifications have made the Volante the sweetest of all three versions of DB11 on the move. Without going into exhaustive detail about how Aston’s engineers have conjured such strong results from the Volante’s chassis, essentially there is extra bracing at both the front and back ends, plus significantly stiffer springs and dampers all round. The gearbox is the same eight-speed ZF automatic with paddle shifters that’s used in the Coupe, with the same shift-by-wire control system and mapping tuned by Aston Martin to deliver different responses, depending on which drive mode is selected. Aston claims 4.1sec to 62mph, 8.8sec to 100mph and a top speed of 187mph, so it’s still well beyond the right side of brisk. The Volante weighs 110kg more than the DB11 V8 Coupe (making it exactly the same weight as the V12 Coupe) so it’s not just as rapid in a straight line. Power is 503bhp at 6000rpm, while maximum torque of 498lb ft is developed as a flat peak between 2000-5000rpm. ![]() > Click here for our review of the Aston Martin DB11 V8
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