The Vulcan is  described by the company as ‘the most extreme Aston Martin in our 102-year history’ which means that the power output has even eclipsed the 750 bhp of the 7.3 litre One-77, somewhere around 800 bhp. As it’s been solely built for the track, the car is in direct competition to such machines as the McLaren’s P1 GTR and Ferrari’s FXX-K. And also like these cars, it is taken for granted that the purchase price will include exclusive opportunities to sample the car at race tracks around the globe together with a team to set up both car and driver.

No exact price has been given but it will be in the region of £1.5 million plus local taxes but it’s a given that production will be severely limited to only 24 examples.

As the Vulcan is entirely carbon fibre, I think that it is safe to assume the starting point for the car has been the One-77.

We will get a first proper look as the Vulcan will debut at Geneva on the 3rd March 2015.

The Zagato is closely based on the DBS Superleggera but with an uprated version of the 5.2 litre V12 twin-turbo engine with peak power of 760 bhp.

The first example of the GT Zagato was shown at the Audrain’s Newport Concours in Rhode Island in the USA during October 2019. Finished in Supernova Red – a paint colour exclusively reserved for the DBS GT Zagato – with contrasting exposed carbon fibre accents, Satin Black and Gold 3D machined wheels and Caithness Spicy Red leather.

The DBS GT Zagato is the first car that utilises the first automotive application of configurable carbon and metal 3D-printed interior finishes. A central ‘saddle’ design feature in the interior is available in a range of three materials and finishes. This includes the choice of printed Carbon, Aluminium, or – as part of the Centenary Specification – Gold PVD (physical vapour deposition). The latter requires almost 100 hours of print time with additional polishing and post-processing by skilled craftsmen to achieve a perfect lustrous finish.

At the car’s front, a newly created and unique “dynamic” grille allows the car’s frontal area to transform its appearance. When stationary, each of the 108-individual diamond-shaped carbon fibre pieces remain flush with the car’s beautiful formed exterior. However, upon start-up DBS GT Zagato appear to flutter into life, as each piece opens to allow the car’s twin-turbo V12 to breathe.

This is also the first Aston Martin to utilised a camera-operated rear view central mirror as the car has a full length carbon fibre roof which covers where the rear windscreen would typically be.

The blue car below was one of the prototypes that was refinished to production specification. It was displayed in the showroom of Aston Martin Mayfair in Park Lane during Autumn 2021 with an asking price in the region of £1.2 million.

Only 19 pairs of cars plus prototypes have been built at the cost of £6 million pounds plus local taxes. 

Delivery of the customer DBS GT Zagatos began in November 2020.

So far as we knew, the Volante was expected to be powered by the same 5.2 litre twin turbocharged V12 as already seen in the coupe,  but as it has turned out the lighter AMG V8 which will be fitted to the upcoming AM6 Vantage was actually intended. Interestingly, the photos released didn’t show the front of the car. Did that mean the Volante was to have a face different to the coupe? Well no as it turns out.

When launched in Spring 2018, the  DB11 Volante was offered at a price of £159,900 plus extras.

Built in a strictly limited run of just 24 cars and delivered to customers throughout 2016, the 820BHP Aston Martin Vulcan was conceived and engineered to deliver the excitement and exceed the performance of Aston Martin’s Le Mans-winning race cars. Over the last two years, Aston Martin Vulcan owners have received step-by-step driver training by Aston Martin’s expert team of instructors – among them Aston Martin Racing works driver and three-time Le Mans winner, Darren Turner.

The Aston Martin Vulcan AMR Pro’s aerodynamic enhancements begin at the front-end with louvred panels added above the front wheel arches to extract high pressure air and reduce aerodynamic lift. A sizeable pair of dive planes have been added to each side of the nose to help pin the front-end to the track and the huge front splitter has turning vanes fitted to its underside to improve steering response. Weight has also been saved with optimisation of the carbon fibre lay-up and core form reducing the weight of the engine cover by 5kg. Changes to the rear are equally effective and even more dramatic, courtesy of a new rear wing. Now of dual plane design, rather than the original single plane item, the main element of this enormous rear wing features a 20mm ‘Gurney’ flap – a simple but hugely effective upstand on the wing’s trailing edge – which is supplemented by slotted wing endplates that sport additional 15mm Gurneys to maximise the amount of downforce. The combined effect of these aerodynamic changes is a major increase in downforce, from the standard Aston Martin Vulcan’s 3150Nm to a colossal 4000Nm. This compares to 3104Nm generated by the 2017 Le Mans winning Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTE. The aero changes have also improved the aerodynamic balance of the Aston Martin Vulcan, shifting its Centre of Pressure forwards bringing it closer to the middle of the car (47% compared with 41.5% for the standard Aston Martin Vulcan) to improve traction, steering response and front-end grip.

The Aston Martin Vulcan AMR Pro upgrade package will be installed by Q by Aston Martin Advanced Operations. Work is already underway on the first upgrades, with the first customer cars expected to be completed in the Autumn. The Aston Martin Vulcan AMP Pro will make its dynamic debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed today.

With any open car based on a coupe, in order to compensate for the loss of rigidity from the roof structure, the sills were stiffened by increasing the thickness of the metal’s wall thickness. Also 45% more rigid brushed were used on the rear subframe and a cross-member known as the ‘garden gate’ is attached to the cast suspension mounts ahead of the engine. Taking into account the torsional rigidity of the coupe is 34kN/deg, the Volante drops to 22kN/deg. This might not sound good but it compares very favourably to the DB9 Volante which was 14.4kN/deg. The extra weight of the Volante over the DB11 V8 coupe is 110kg but it is roughly equal to the DB11 V12 at 1870kg. Also worth noting is the DB11 Volante is overall 26kg lighter than the DB9 Volante

Powered by the Mercedes-AMG 4.0 litre twin-turbo V8 engine (as also used in the AM6 Vantage) giving 503bhp; this is attached to a ZF 8 speed automatic gearbox. Thus the top speed of the Volante is 187mph and the dash to 62mph takes only 4.1 seconds. Very impressive for a 2+2 convertible GT.

The hood, made up of eight layers operates at headwinds of upto 31mph and takes 14 seconds to open roof, 16 seconds to close roof. It’s a completely new design K-fold system that disappears totally into the body that takes up part of the boot space when retracted. But when raised, the  206 litres of boot space as 20% greater than the outgoing DB9 Volante.

The first public view of the Volante was at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show. The UK price at launch was £159,900 although most cars were spec’ed with masses of desirable optional extras and personalisation, all of which pushed the price up. Deliveries of the 2019MY cars began in the Spring of 2018. The DB11 Volante was discontinued in the summer of 2023 and the car was relaced in the range by the DB12 Volante.

The DB9 Volante shared the same mechanical specification as the coupe but was regarded as a cruiser rather than and out-and-out sportscar and thus the suspension was made softer than its coupe counterpart.Performance was very close to that of the coupe as the open car weighed in at only about 100kg more at 1815kg for the manual and  1855kg for the Touchtronic 2. The 0-60 time was a claimed to be an impressive 4.9 seconds but the top speed of the Volante was electronically limited to 165mph until the introduction of the 2006.5MY car when this was increased to 186mph.

The electrically folding roof of the DB9 Volante was of the standard mohair fabric type – the fashion for a folding steel roof wasn’t followed as it would have eaten greatly into the boot space and increased weight. Indeed the packaging of the roof allowed the Volante almost as much boot space as the coupe and a useful increase over the pervious DB7 Volante. But unlike all previous Volantes, the roof folded fully in 17 seconds and stored neatly under a hard tonneau cover. In the event of a potential roll-over, special tilt sensors detected the danger and hoops could be rapidly deployed from the rear head restraints. If the roof was erected at the time – the hoops were designed to ‘punch’ through the rear window glass. Further safety protection was offered by the windscreen A-pillars, which were able to withstand more than twice the total weight of the car.

Like the DB9 Coupe, power for the Volante was supplied by Aston Martin’s low emissions, all-alloy, 48-valve, 5.9-litre, V12 engine, manufactured by skilled Aston Martin technicians at the company’s dedicated engine plant in Germany. Also in line with the DB9 Coupe, the DB9 Volante was available with a six-speed paddle shift automatic (Touchtronic 2) or rarely, the six-speed manual transmission.

The images above were taken at the European debut of the Volante at the Geneva Salon, March 2004. This particular example previewed the unusual new Bamboo wood interior which was a great choice in the open car.

The production DB9 Volante made its European debut at the 2005 Geneva Motor Show. The AM Racing Green example featured the optional new 15 spoke diamond turned wheel, Parliament Green leather, Touchtronic 2 transmission and walnut facia.

During the production of the DB7, open versions have accounted for almost half of total production and trend continued with the DB9. Production of the Volante began in early 2005 at a rate of around 1000 examples a year with an introductory price of £112,000 (manual) and £115,000 (Touchtronic 2). The manual DB9 Volante is an extremely rare car and are highly sought after by keen enthusiasts.