Is the DB12 the supercar to lead Aston Martin’s recovery?

A weekend behind the wheel of a DB12 will help convince you that Saudi Arabia is right to be a big investor in the latest supercar from the elite British manufacturer Aston Martin.

It’s hard to know exactly what it was that persuaded the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), to grab a 20 percent stake in Aston. Was it the sizzling performance – zero to 100 kilometres per hour in 3.6 seconds and a top speed of just over 200kph?

Or was it the driver’s cockpit, kitted out with state-of-the art technology, a new custom-built sound system and just the right balance of digital and analogue instruments?

Or maybe PIF was just blown away by the mystique of the DB brand, with its heritage in luxury, high performance grand tourer driving – and of course James Bond.

It’s more than 60 years since the actor Sean Connery delivered what I, and many other movie fans, think of as the ultimate Bond performance in the film Goldfinger, throwing a DB5 into hairpin bends on Alpine roads, adjusting the front-facing machine guns to blow away the bad guys, all the while avoiding accidental use of the passenger ejector seat.

Ever since, Aston Martin has nurtured the charisma of the “James Bond car”, and reprised the link in the 2015 movie Spectre with actor Daniel Craig playing the role in a specially built DB10.

I’m sure PIF made the investment for sound financial reasons, attracted by the opportunity for solid future returns from a turnaround in Aston Martin’s recent challenging commercial record and the benefits of cross-fertilisation of Aston’s remarkable automotive technology with its EV brand Lucid.

PIF is joined on the share register by Chinese motor group Geely and Europe’s Mercedes, as well as the largest shareholding held by Canadian fast-car enthusiast Lawrence Stroll, who has pumped £600 million into Aston since taking it over in 2020.

If Stroll ever wanted to end his association with Aston, there would appear to be no shortage of potential investors – including, you have to assume, PIF.

But matters of high finance are the last things on your mind once you are driving the DB12. The car is a head-turner on the streets and hotel driveways of Dubai, with its powerful aerodynamic styling guaranteed to attract attention from the Instagramming classes.

The one I drove over an all-too-short weekend was described as “metallic bronze” but I thought “rose gold” would have been a better description, and retained the Goldfinger link.

The car is powerful. Its 4 litre V8 turbo engine (made by Mercedes) delivers 671 horsepower – enough to make you pretty confident on the informal “grid” that lines up most weekends along Dubai’s Beach Road alongside Ferraris, Porsches and Lamborghinis.

What I really loved about the car was the oh-so-precise steering and road-holding that allowed me to throw it into a tight turn on the exits from Sheikh Zayed Road and accelerate out of the bend totally in control and stuck like glue to the road.

For a couple of seconds, you get the thrill that a driver from the Aston Martin Aramco F1 team must experience overtaking on the inside on the final lap of the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Saudi Arabia.

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Although officially described as a “super tourer” and therefore with four seats, it would be hard to fit anything other than a couple of Louis Vuitton weekend bags in the back of the car, or maybe two very small children. Dropping off from a DB12 would be a big win on the highly competitive Dubai school run.

The holding company Aston Martin Lagonda has faced its fair share of challenges over the years – changes of ownership, a disappointing IPO on the London Stock Exchange, supply blockages and parts shortages.

To these must be added the huge hurdle presented by President Trump’s tariff wars, which will hike up prices for exports to the USA, Aston’s biggest market.

This is an issue all the elite carmakers face. Maybe Aston’s deep-pocketed share register leaves it better placed to meet that challenge.

From conversations with Aston executives in the Middle East, there is a sense that the DB12 is a turning point in the company’s fortunes and will help drive the rest of the range – principally Valiant, Vanquish and the SUV DBX – back to the glory days of Bond and Goldfinger.

There is a sense too that Saudi Arabia will be integral to this recovery.

Frank Kane is Editor-at-Large of AGBI and an award-winning business journalist. He acts as a consultant to the Ministry of Energy of Saudi Arabia

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