In an era of V-6 Formula 1 cars and Inline-4 hybrid C63 AMGs, most manufacturers are not focused on developing V-12 engines. Aston Martin is, thankfully, an exception. The brand currently offers a twin-turbocharged V-12 in its outgoing and range-topping DBS Superleggera, and on Wednesday morning, it announced that the engine is getting a new generation.
Aston Martin calls the new engine a “complete redesign,” although it seems to be a major new iteration of its existing engine rather than a clean slate design. Changes include reprofiled camshafts, redesigned cylinder heads, strengthened cylinder blocks, repositioned spark plugs, higher flowrate fuel injectors, and reduced inertia turbochargers. Displacement is not listed, but the outgoing V-12 is a 5.2-liter engine with twin turbochargers.
The automaker has not actually said what the engine will go in, but we do know that it will produce 823 hp and 738 lb-ft of torque. The outgoing version of the brand’s V-12 made 705 hp and 555 lb-ft of torque in its most recent application, the limited-run Valour. DBS orders ended with a special variant that produced 759 hp, still well below the output of the upgraded new engine. Aston also put a V-12 in its Valkyrie hypercar and will race a new variant of that car at Le Mans in 2025. That engine is an unrelated, naturally aspirated V-12 built by Cosworth.
Aston Martin says that the new V-12 will be “handcrafted in limited numbers” for the brand’s “most exclusive and limited availability models,” suggesting the engine will be reserved for more spectacular cars like the Valour. The first of those is supposed to be revealed later this year, and the line “all will be vanquished” at the end of the press release suggests that it will be a new Vanquish. The company previously introduced a new Vanquish as an effective replacement for its last DBS in the 2010s, so the next Vanquish will presumably also sit as a super-GT at the top of the brand’s range.