2019 Aston Martin DB11 AMR: This GT wants to play
Aston Martin has a new, hotter flavor of DB11 ready for your driving enjoyment, and the resulting package is looking sweet.
The new DB11 marked the formal beginning of the reinvention of Aston Martin , a shift away from cars with just enough character to cover their various foibles and into a future of genuinely great machines that drive as well as they look. And, indeed, it does.
The V8 flavor of the DB11 came next, and then the epic Vantage, which absolutely cemented, in my eye, the notion that this new Aston Martin is playing for keeps. Now, it's time for the next chapter, the next flavor of DB11, and it's indeed, the genuine article.
It's the new 2019 Aston Martin DB11 AMR. AMR here stands for "Aston Martin Racing," a nod to the company's many (and successful) endurance racing efforts. While not as racy as the track-only DB11 AMR Pro, the road-going DB11 AMR looks to bring some of that car's DNA to the streets.
It starts with a hopped-up version of that Mercedes-Benz-sourced, 5.2-liter, twin-turbo V12, now offering 630 horsepower. That extra power, plus some aero tweaks, brings the car's top speed up to a very generous 208 miles-per-hour and drops its 0-to-60 mph time to just 3.5 seconds. That's quite healthy for a car that weighs just a tick under 3,900 pounds!
Power ducts through the same eight-speed automatic as before, now reprogrammed to be more responsive to your shifting desires. The exhaust, too, has been decorked a bit, creating what Aston says is a "more vocal" car. I can't wait to hear it sing.
No surprise that the car also flaunts a number of visual enhancements, most of which entails blacking out the chrome bits and creating an overall more muted, more sultry appearance. Like the normal DB11, which proudly exists without a massive rear wing or spoiler, the AMR, too, keeps its aerodynamics subtle.
The 2019 DB11 AMR will hit the streets in the second quarter of this year, with prices starting at $241,000 in the US. However, if you want the limited AMR Signature Edition version you can see in the gallery, wearing the Stirling Green and lime accents made famous by Aston's various racing efforts, you'll need to pay a fair bit more -- and hurry. Only 100 of those will be made.