The most beautiful V12 on the planet? This car
Is it Ferrari’s 812 Superfast, Roll-Royce’s Wraith, Lamborghini’s Aventador, Bentley’s Continental GT or Aston Martin’s DB11?
I talk a lot about how cars look and sound. For me, a deep appeal of the luxury automobile lies in the way it speaks to you through your senses, and also what it communicates to the rest of the world. So lately, after having driven an impressive collection of incredible V12 engine cars, which surge with power and cutting-edge technology underneath your feet, I began to think about all the energy that went into designing everything else that makes them great. The perfectly-crafted mirrors. The thunking doors. The headlights that can either flirt, or threaten.
These cars are as varied in their styling as they are in their on-road personality. Where the stylish, extravagant 812 flaunts itself around corners like a supermodel, the bulging body-builder Bentley punches forward like a heavyweight boxer. The Wraith is handsome, confident, and sure, an automotive Jason Statham. The Aventador, all geometric edges and screaming fury, is by far the wildest of the lot over any road configuration. They range in price from roughly US$200,000 for the Continental GT to US$320,000 and up for the Superfast and the two Rolls. (And even those prices are rough estimates; virtually every person who owns them chooses customisations and options that make the price as bespoke as the car.)
And yet none, to me, are the most perfectly proportioned and stylishly designed. That title belongs to the Aston Martin DB11.
That the DB11 is beautiful* is no news. Since it made its debut last year, the US$230,345 coupe has won critical and popular worship as a masterpiece. Somehow the folks at Aston figured out how to make the four-wheeled equivalent of Michelangelo’s David: curved across its clamshell hood, muscled along the side haunches, edged across its bladed 20-inch diamond-turned rims and casually potent, from the slender veins of his feet to the curled locks on his brow.
Er, from the new wide front grill to the rear aero blade and deployable spoiler, I mean. I’m talking about the car.
Anyway, photos don’t do (either piece of art) justice. But what I would like to offer for your consideration is the idea that this four-seater is the most capital-B “Beautiful” 12-cylinder car on the market today. Even sweeter: It’s fairly priced, when compared with the others in its class.
