Is the DB11 Aston’s Most Important Car Ever?

Aston Martin’s plan for the next 100 years begins with this car.

The DB11 is a somewhat polarizing car. Its design elements are clearly evocative of those that came before, and it only takes one glance to determine you’re looking at an Aston. This is a new platform, and a new turbocharged engine, but it still has the DNA of a Brit, right down to the brogued leather. Is this enough of a step in the right direction to help Aston stick around for another century? Motor Trend‘s Jonny Lieberman thinks that it just might be, as he notes in the video above. Technological advancement, as well as a partnership with Mercedes-Benz, is probably the shot in the arm that Aston needs.

But is the car actually any good? To find out, Jonny hands the keys off to a proper Brit: 24 Hours of Le Mans winner, Justin Bell. The car, in Justin’s eyes, still has a great Grand Touring feel. It has all of the right smells, and the touch points are perfectly comfortable and built from quality materials. This is a car that appears to be quite composed in street driving, and we feel comfortable in telling you that you could drive it across the country and arrive refreshed and in a good mood. It’s fast, but it’s also a fantastic place to plant your hind end for hours upon hours.

CHECK OUT: What Forum Members Are Saying About the DB11

In the third act of this short film, the car is next handed over to racing ace Randy Pobst, who does all of the track testing for Motor Trend. You can see Randy gets a bit out of sorts at Turn 6 coming onto the sort-of-curvy-straight. The back end steps out, and he easily catches it, but how many of us lesser-skilled drivers would have sent the car for a loop in that moment ? The Turbocharged V12 Aston with 600 horsepower lapped the track in 1:30.38, which is faster than last year’s GT-R, but slower than a four-year-old Porsche 911. Track times aren’t really everything, though, are they?