2019 Aston Martin DB11 AMR - Jay Leno’s Garage

[Music] all right I see car you can drive to Vegas have a conversation not so what do you want to be when we get there you know I've got 71 it's an hour [Music] episode of jail on his garage today we're featuring the Aston Martin db9 a M are the AMR s Aston Martin Racing and this has a little more of a driver's edge perhaps than the standard car you know I'm a huge fan of this brand I always call Aston Martin the most seductive of all the car makers because that's really what it does to you extremely comfortable sort of Rolls Royce level interior with the leather and the wood and all of that because you know so many cars guys buy them and they get the racing model with the Recaro seat and your spouse doesn't want to ride in and it's loud it's it's it takes the corners hard whatever it might be this is sort of does everything at once it's a real car that you can drive really hard push it really hard but still be extremely comfortable for long trips and things of that nature I mean I I just find them to be just fantastic cars the styling is amazing this is a v12 630 horsepower I believe we have with us today a professional driver from Aston Martin his name is Terrence Jenkins Terrence come on in good to see you my friend great to see you Jay like the proper and thank you Martin guy yeah you know I love this brand they just it just makes me smile because it's it's the most English of cars but it still has the sporting pretensions and all of that you know it's it's its traditional it's got a proper trunk you can put things in it you know our boost as we're saying our boot I mean I love I love mid-engine cars I have a few of them but you can't go anywhere where you can't carry something with its limitations well tell us what we have here first of all AMR might might be new to some people they asked the Martin Racing tell us why the emphasis on this so we've introduced the a ma brand into our production vehicles obviously Aston Martin has a very successful racing team right which we win a lot of races we've won LeMond a couple of times and one of the things that we struggle to do is bring the racing knowledge or a brand into North America and infuse it with our cars as one of our instructors and I get to meet a lot of new to brand people they don't realise we have such a pedigree of racing for some reason it doesn't seem to cross over the Atlantic very well so infusing the air more branding through the deep 11 is definitely a good conversation starter and this car here is kind of enhanced that driver experience right so we have what 8-speed ZF gearbox correct it's an 8-speed ZF it's a transaxles the gearbox is actually on the rear end right okay okay so that gives it a nice balance I imagine people put a lot of emphasis on this 50/50 thing yeah so one of the things one of the plat the platform designed what our engineers do is like you said a lot of emphasis is put on weight distribution 50/50 which is great but it's very much a marketing thing in motor racing we talk about moments of inertia and what asked an engineers had done they've taken a large part of that mass being the engine and gearbox and separated it and split it between the front and rear car and if I may I've got a little exercise I'd like to show all right well exercise is my middle name exactly exercise and actually what I did mmm I brought some dumbbells for you Jake well those are the most manly looking dumbbells I've ever I grabbed these from my wife's little collection she had some pink ones I say and I wasn't sure about bringing the pink ones so if we imagine this is the mass in the vehicle okay and as I mentioned earlier they talked about 50/50 weight distribution but the reality is I can take a thousand pounds of that vehicle and hang 500 pounds of the front and rear bumper it hasn't changed the vehicles weight and hasn't changed the weight distribution but it's not going to go very well around corners because that's what we call having high moments of inertia well sure so we're dealing with moving this mask around the corner so what Aston Martin has done is they've moved that mass in closer okay to the vehicle center of gravity right so we've got we've got an engine which sits behind the front axle in the gearbox which sits in front of the rear axle so now we have a low moment of inertia sure right so we still have a 50/50 weight distribution but low moments of inertia mean basically means the car goes much easier around corners it's much easier to drive at higher speed and as I tell a lot of people it doesn't matter it's a front engine mid and your earrings right they all go around corners right but then the character the car really starts coming to play when you start reaching the limits of the tightest traction capabilities and then it's going to be either an easy car to drive fun car to drive which is very difficult so we have a very easy fun car to drive if you were taking on the track and push it it's a limited time so would you call it mid front engine correct yeah it's a mid front engine leh okay absolutely yeah obviously won't get everything called I mean the the most extreme example of this is something did in American cars in the 52 track hated more than anything was the Continental wheel kit and they would have a bumper with it which member they they have the big wheel here oh yes absolutely yellow round a corner and whoa whoa yeah exactly yeah but and that's to the point exactly you have mass behind the rear axle which can be difficult to control especially on wet roads or you know when you break traction and it's also a good safety feature I mean if you're driving down the highway you have to do an emergency lane change it's very easy to do that lane change and get back into a safe driving force so the car is not gonna do anything funny or unpredictable let's say well let's go back to the engine now v12 634 you know I can member when Aston Martin produce like seven cars a year there was a eyes I think yeah yeah with Victor gauntlet and those sort of brought it back and now that it's it's four or five thousand cars a year or whatever it is yeah it's it's impressive and it's amazing how far they've come and and and I've always sort of loved the brand it's one of those iconic brands of course the James Bond connection is the thing that people could I get this the biggest kick out of it it's probably the best marketing tool they've had but I know I mean Carroll Shelby race for you guys he did 50 1959 yeah yeah the stylists in this is what I always get it's numeric merit reitman yes my Reichmann yeah a beautiful looking car very sensual I always loved these sort of haunches and yes the rear here they've all the Aston said interrupt you have followed what Marek likes to use is the rule of thirds of the Fibonacci formula so it's found in nature mm-hm and we follow those same principles so everything in the vehicle is kind of divided into thirds it's very pleasing to the human eye right so I think that's why a lot of people you know whether they know it's an Aston Martin or not they look at the cargo they find it very beautiful and that's one of our philosophies is we build and design beautiful things whenever I see an Aston Martin on the street I always walk up and look at the mileage and it's always pretty high yeah because people drive you know I got a lot of friends of Ferraris and I tease them all the time this only has 900 miles and it's 12 years old good for you can you drive I'm gonna loss isn't it really yeah you know Porsche is another one Porsche owners brag about how many miles they have versus have a few miles yeah a lot of other exotic people and this thing with Aston Martin people like to drive them because they are truly comfortable cars you can you can take a long trip in this and it isn't you know the exhaust isn't drumming your head out but you know as much as I like those kind of cars I like him for an hour at a time sure you know this you know we walk a very fine line of building a luxury GT car that is very comfortable and quiet to drive as you say on a day-to-day basis but then we also have one foot in the world of sports cars right so you know and that's the line that we've walked for many many years and and we do it very well I actually met one customer who wanted launched the DB 11 in North America he came out to see it and he's like this would be my last Aston Martin he was like 70 or something like that and I'm like what do you mean you last he goes well I bought the db9 when it came out in 2006 I have a hundred and ten thousand one hundred and ten thousand miles you goes that's why this is gonna be my last one he goes I'm probably probably gonna another hundred and seven thousand miles on that so yeah to your point people do buy these cars and they do drive see I like a proper GT car I mean when Gordon Murray does up the design the f1 it was designed to be a road car that's not a race car correct and that's why I bother it's a road car that you can race versus the other way around which is you know this you know people yeah we all know if you build a rate a race car and then try and converse and draw it it doesn't work there's no sound deadening no easy and yep you know and it cost you more to take out the air conditioning yeah you know all of that this is what I love about these tell me about the brakes what do we have a break front and rear wheel you run a Brembo brake system so it's a six piston on the front and the rear runs a four piston the wheels on the AMR standard with a forged lightweight wheel and again that's all apart about reducing mass so for you can save 5 to 10 pounds in a wheel it's an unsprung mass as well which is very important so that improves the steering response the braking steering and again it all comes back to that driver feedback and then also with the AMR we've enhanced the chassis dynamics a little bit more by changing the bushings the durometer the bushings and it's a little bit firmer so it's not impeding any vibrations into the cabin but again more driver feedback that's really what the AMR is about it's it's the DB Levin's the GT car but it's enhanced the driving experience and feedback we're programming at the transmission so it's a little bit more responsive when you do the kick down and this is the most powerful road-going s except for the you know those sort of one-off models or you know a DBS Superleggera yeah that is the top of my head I think it's 700 and okay nothing check on that but yeah that's the most that's the most powerful I don't care that we have well let's open the hood or the bonnet the bonnet it's exactly the bonnet thank you Vaughn it that's one of the things I try to do is teach people the correct enunciation really bonnets and boot when they're driving an Aston well you know it's so funny when I first got into England vehicles they had all the English terms like it said you should when I was cleaning it was a motorcycle it's it I wash it in paraffin I go why would you put something in melted candles all right yeah that's like 16 I'm helping candles oh no this isn't working this doesn't work and it said get us a good set of spanners wise I've got socket wrenches but I don't have any spanner but I went you have spanners Englishman now I got spammers were with you have lost in translation exactly so this is our own in-house engine right 5.2 liter v12 motor we're running two turbochargers produces 630 horsepower 516 pound-feet of torque the turbo charges run all the boost through our water to air intercooler before it goes into the intake and that you get basically full engine power that's 613 foot-pounds of torque and 1500 rpm other syllable and almost no turrets idiot pretty much imperceptible yeah very nice yeah and across the brace across here and obviously each engine is built by one man and signed by him it's not correct but you know you're absolutely right so all of our engines are built by one man but that label on there is the gentleman who did the final inspection on the entire vehicle okay so as we always say there's any problem with the car you give him a call you can't call Oh Larry there exactly yeah yeah I just like that you'd call that one guy yeah okay very nice and what do we have this is aluminum so it's aluminium yeah and it's a clamshell this is actually the largest single piece of aluminium in the automotive industry is that right it was very difficult for the engineers to find a manufacturer able to you know manipulate and press a single sheet of aluminium pizza you know that seems odd to me because it's such a common material now and yeah and it doesn't look like that complex structure to know it's not complex I think I think just it because obviously the stamping you need additional stamping over the side that you're I'm in college so I don't know exactly how big the original pieces before it gets and these are all built in England these are all hand-built in the UK yeah absolutely so we only have one robot in the factory yeah and that robot applies a very specific amount of adhesive to the chassis or the bonding process but everything else on this vehicle is all made by British people with you know chosen that so yeah that was my favorite thing well I went two years ago I went to crew and and taking around the factory and we go in they in the upholstery area there's an old woman about Danny actually she's got a needle and thread and that's where the bomb came through and what they wanted that then you don't show me the bomb came there's still a tarp over it that's amazing yeah that's incredible yeah actually another nice feature of what we do in our manufacturing inside of the interior one lady one seamstress is assigned to each customer's car is that right so one lady sewed all the leather in this and she usually signs on the back of the leather okay yeah yeah yeah and it's just a great looking car I like how the exhaust comes out here yep and then we have intakes here so air will get pulled in through here it comes to this come to the boot and it comes about reading that and I thought that was a really interesting design because they I remember Eric America he didn't like the big spoils in swing yeah and so the idea that the air comes through here correct exits here yeah and then yeah so the air gets forced up to the back here and we actually create a virtual spoiler using the air which is forced in through the car which is very clever and I like the understated elements of it the fact that the exhaustion of bright chrome yep they're just sort of a matte so you don't notice it at first and oh there you go they got a sexy sticking out there right right cool all right nice I'm glad you like it yeah I just find it to be just a fantastic brand it's just it can be whatever mood you're in yeah that's what's nice it's a car you can go out to dinner and you don't look you know sometimes I've got a Countach and women look at you like I'm sorry how old you were like 930 years a boy racer kind of you earned that though you know my 55 Buick had a great ad it's up here in the wall somewhere it says for the man who carries success with ease and they show the guy driving right and that's kind of what this is you know it's sort of a mark that you've arrived and all that all that kind of stuff it's true I mean a lot of the owners that I meet on my travels a lot of them are self-made entrepreneurs right and that's kind of like the spirit of Aston Martin we don't have the big parent company behind us supporting as cash and and using you know different parts from other platforms everything we do is pretty much you know done with very little money considering yeah I love the fact it is still a small English yeah yeah and it's not it's not part of something else than using somebody else absolutely we're punching it we're always punching above all weight yeah very nice well do we take you for a ride absolutely yeah just drop this down and push from the center you just let it go I will do it there you go oh that's the end of pull yeah it pulls it down as well that's nice so you not have to don't have to slam it no okay very nice you've got that iconic line that Aston Martin's always had from the DD cars right coming through here and this is something I really like this is actually real room here you know every car yep ripping these sports I'm sleeping all the time and I mean it's got normal Road height you have normal roads which is something you don't think about do you get one of these and you pull under the gas station you just rip the sport well and and they get very expensive and that's one of the things we improved on the approach angle with the DB Levin moving from the db9 we actually moved the front wheel forward almost three inches yeah yeah so that improves the approach angle yeah I love the fact that the wheels are as far forward as they can possibly be there's no overhang at all it makes this is actually quite a short car but it looks longer it does in pictures because the wheels are so far out correct the Citroen dead that's who the French do that they put the wheels way out here you know yeah nicely done nicely done and so your engine sits here obviously yep and your transmission so everything is the inside correct like I said we've got about 70 percent of the vehicles mass situated in the middle yeah that definitely enhances the you know the driving experience and you know capabilities in the car well let's take it for a spin let's see what she does now you smell the leather right away [Music] it feels much lighter than it is obviously yeah they said it's an additional torque that you get from that 12 cylinder it's this electric power steering or electric power steering yes you know that's come such a long way when the first came out people hated it I know but now I like it because you're not robbing power yep [Music] yeah it's a nice car to drive good visibility all around mirrors are good you can see out the rear you know I've got the 350 our Mustang which I love but they've got a rear wing though I always feel like somebody's following me with a giant wing close laughing you can't you can't see out the back of both right now it's very controllable even when it's lunging for it never feels unwieldy you know right it's important to have a well balanced car yeah I'm psyched it's a proper car inside it's comfortable its gun no you're not I'm doing the boy racer thing you can actually use it for its intended purposes that's one of the things I like about the Aston Martin is that when I take people out on the track they're always surprised yeah it's you know that the handling the performance they don't expect from a luxury car right halibut right I know they think that's referred you know more refined for your Porsches you Ferraris so it's always fun to take people this is a car you can drive to Vegas have a conversation oh yeah so what do you wanna be when we get there well that's the challenge isn't it I mean mattify just want to build fast sports cars but do that it's gonna be lightweight right so you gonna have any sound deadening material I certainly don't have any leather on it because it's heavy and you're gonna minimize everything and then then you deal with engine roar road noise yeah and as the mine is quite small a small little independent car company I'm just so glad that they're still making it you know since well since about nineteen eighteen we've lost two or three car companies every year you know they're it's a very tough business to do Aston Martin was almost lost yeah several time now for a time the Australia I wonder that story about David Brown when he bought the company guy wanted a car and again he gave a good deal on it and this is the one he said give me the coast no I want it for what it cost you and they okay you judging one thousand pounds more yeah that's such a great story ego okay it's the most English of brands and the United States is your biggest market now currently it is yeah what was it before was an England England yeah which is quite remarkable considering England is about the size of California and I think that's part of what I was talking about earlier is we struggle I mean ask them on is kind of on three pillars we got the history of the birth of the company motor racing and the James Bond removed those three pillars across the Atlantic to America and we're left with one pillar which is essentially a James Bond which is great for us but I we're still in that process of educating people about the heritage of our company and also of motor-racing connection which we've always had since the company's inception now explain that the transmission kickdown I'm gonna put it in hey okay yeah put it in eight okay then just put your foot on the throttle and pull and hold the left paddle and watch what happens and then pull and hold the left paddle dump it over in the third year but you're basically in the perfect gear relatives of vehicle speeds though in figures would speak with exact but again yeah so previously you would have had to click on this one two three so now you don't have to do so essentially where that works really well is if you are on a straightaway right and you're you know you're gonna fill throttle and then you go to break you don't have to count gears anymore yeah you put the foot on the brake hold the pedal release the brake release the pedal and you're in the right gear yeah I always tease a friend of mine he a little sorry broad but he said he had to do this to change the radio then he realized he could have just done this and I said really so that was a big labor saving thing for you I like this system I like this it just feels very great light I mean got a big tires on it and that's in Jeff this is substantial car but feels you can really throw it around when you track this - sometimes yeah we did one not so long ago I should be partnered up with kW suspension they had a truck event and reports out some customers in their car I was one of the instructors along with two others and they were amazed you know they didn't again it comes back to people even though they already bought the car they didn't know how the car was capable of doing on the track you know on tributes it's what you said it's very easy to drive its life yeah I mean there are many people who make these cars do what they're capable of doing I mean I was there were years ago there was a motorcycle race and I think with Jay Springstein and he showed up with the rocks towards the Hangout yeah everybody goes and just like an 80 83 Harley just your standard iron v-twin not sure all connections and all the guys are there in their KZ whatever come without you and he's four points yeah he took them up and he was literally banging the handlebars on the tarmac just right and just blew the door and you realize it's really all the trip all the drive it is you know quite often I get people asking me I want to do some upgrades to my car I'm going to go to the track what do I should what should i do first my responses [Music] America's been there quite reported among plz I remember I visited the factory a number of years ago and it might be like a hospital for automobiles you know it's all very white and clean yes you know and reasonably small and intimate you know if you're one of those people that likes to know one person built your car and who was that person you can kind of I mean I don't know what it means in the real world but I just like that idea that I always like I always like vehicles that are one person and it usually meant the vision of what a car should be you know garden party with the f1 wo with the Bentley yep you know you don't even found with the SMI this is what I think it should be thank you it's not all committee right now I can I quite agree with you two and you're right I mean when you go to the factory to factory tours for our owners then you walk into the factory gate and then to the left you can probably go meet the lady that's sewed the leather and you go try it was really sitting there what tires are on this one we use a Bridgestone a great time yeah missions are usually on our race cars I'll getcha Babbage yeah 20 camp for valves correct and I'm the 12 cylinders we also have a cylinder deactivation feature so when she reached optimum cruising speed and everything's operating in temperatures it'll deactivate six cylinders by with a car like this you know it depends but I'd say definitely North America they want the car now that's right you know it's so funny you say that because I I wouldn't might when were savings might introduce the Maybach you know they put of these Maybach centers where you blew in and I want this wood and this leather and this insert the seat I remember saying the guy Americans don't want to wait six or eight weeks they want it like right now you know they got right now it's like a hamburger I want to eat it right now exactly yeah I mean we do get customers that order cause and it's usually about four to six months right from the minute the orders place to the delivery of the vehicle and it's quite a long time but you know the process of building a car by hand it takes time what is asin's biggest competitor do you think well the biggest competitor asked and I mean McLaren I mean we we compete with awkward as well believe it or not an enemies McLaren openly wouldn't you Bentley end badly would be closer Ben he's probably the closest competitive yeah yeah we have two new cause and development right now which is probably going to be competing with all like the McLaren's in the floor isn't there could be off an engine cause really yeah this should be interesting yeah it should be fascinating so you might be familiar with the car that were about to release to the owners called the Valkyrie yes the Valkyrie so and then after that we're going into development is the Valkyrie streetcar its streetcar yeah yeah streetcar mm car or just England global car number of cars coming to the US and then after that we have nicknamed costs and a paltry which has been recently named Valhalla which they'll go into development and then after that the vanquish which is a nameplate we've been using for a while will be a also a mid-engine car okay no build big SUV SUV coming up so that's coming out actually the end of this year I want to be unveiled a lot of people don't like it but you know to me it keeps the company going fine thank you yeah it no you're exactly right I mean we needed to increase the amount of options and I'll quote folio yeah well Terrence thank you very much you know I always enjoy Aston Martin I just liked them as cars at night I've got to get one one of these days it's wondering like I say it's the most seductive manufacturer you just don't get seduced by the car just does everything well you know there are other cars that have more horsepower obviously so you think well that's what you should get then you try this they go now this is this is what you want or what you need sure as opposed to what you think you should have one of my friends get talked into GT threes and cars that are just too wrong you know right when they really want something that's fun to drive extremely fast you know and this is this is that car it's really good thank you very much my friend pleasure meeting you tritiated I'm curious Thanks so thanks for bringing this and if you do want one I know someone yeah now you're working even though my guide knows again I accept let's see you next week [Music]

Channel: Jay Leno's Garage

Views: 558,654

Keywords: Terrence Jenkins, James Bond, Aston Martin Racing, luxury, supercar, V12, British cars, Jay Leno, Jay Leno's Garage, car reviews, compares cars, classic cars, vintage cars, sports cars, super cars, cars, car gear, McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder, Camaro Z28, jay leno garage, jay lenos garage, car collection, cnbc, episode, motorcycle, ford, corvette, tour, dodge, lexus

Id: flmEaHMLric

Length: 28min 41sec (1721 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 05 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/ThinkUp_Team]

Love that caliper color!