Needsdecaf

This video of Motor Trend testing the new Aston Martin DB 11 popped up in my YouTube feed in the last 24 hours. It's worth watching out of sheer entertainment value. Their road tester struggles to put the 600 HP down requiring a dozen runs to get it right.

Best run, uncorrected:

0-60 4.0
1/4 mile - 12.1 @ 124

The lack of linearity in the power band leads to all kinds of traction issues off the line. First bogging, then wheel spin in first and second gears. Couple that with an Automatic that doesn't want to shift in any consistent matter (he had to do the runs in manual) and no launch control, and he just mightily struggles to put the power down.



These numbers are below what a 991 will do with PDK and launch control. With nearly 200 HP less.

Of course, the trap speed in the Aston is higher, but just watching the difficulty he has launching this thing just makes me grimace. I truly believe that the 0-60 time is meaningless now that we have V6 Camcords that can break into the 5's.

mwjackson92

As an amusing sidenote- I love Forza Horizon 3 on Xbox One and they just released the Aston Martin DB11 as a downloadable car. Quite simply, it drives like a rabid dog with ZERO traction. I had to install AWD and adjust the gearing to avoid doing a 180 on half of the launches.. So atleast Forza genuinely does try to emulate these cars accurately!

kayjh

The should let James Bond try it.

jimbo1111

Magazine 0 to 60 testing always includes Roll-out. Which equates to about .3 seconds faster than what the cars are actually doing.

A Few Words About Rollout
The term "rollout" might not be familiar, but it comes from the drag strip. The arrangement of the timing beams for drag racing can be confusing, primarily because the 7-inch separation between the "pre-stage" and "stage" beams is not the source of rollout. The pre-stage beam, which has no effect on timing, is only there to help drivers creep up to the starting position. Rollout comes from the 1-foot separation (11.5 inches, actually) between the point where the leading edge of a front tire "rolls in" to the final staging beam — triggering the countdown to the green light that starts the race — and the point where the trailing edge of that tire "rolls out" of that same beam, the triggering event that starts the clock. A driver skilled at "shallow staging" can therefore get almost a free foot of untimed acceleration before the clock officially starts, effectively achieving a rolling-start velocity of 3-5 mph and shaving the 0.3 second it typically takes to cover that distance off his elapsed time (ET) in the process.

LexVan

Sounds good. You can hear a lot of the boost blow off. No heat soak....impressive. Don't like the 4 narrow and long hood vents.

Pmorritt

200k car- pathetic. 35k Mustang GT wipes the brits bottom.

STG

No thanks. Not even a good looking car.

STG

Why do they turn traction control off anyway?

kayjh

Maybe because it would immediately throttle back the engine to avoid wheel spin?

STG

What good is the power if the traction isn't able to handle it??

Needsdecaf

He ran with traction on for one run and it was in the 5's I think.

9914s

Why? Because it sells cars.

kayjh

That is where we get into the discussion of the C2S vs C4S and the Turbo/S models. The AWD cars seem to report -0.1 sec zero to 60 as compared to the same RWD models. In daily driving on wet, frosty or snow/ice surfaces, I'm sure the difference is much greater. Most people seem to like the oversteer feeling of RWD models though. I ordered a C4 to give me better traction in marginal conditions.

Needsdecaf

My point exactly.

911's have always punched above their weight because of traction. My point in posting this sorta OT video was that even in this day and age of computer controlled everything, nice to see that 911's still hold their own against bigger fish. That rear engine just really helps off the line and out of corners.

Needsdecaf

I wanted to be fair and compare this DB 11 to a RWD 911 model. Because comparing it to an AWD model just isn't fair. I'm sure the Aston, with AWD, would be much quicker. The new E63 and M5 will be AWD only...albeit with somewhat defeatable and RWD biased systems. Face it, with low town turbo torque, you are at the limit of what RWD can handle in those cars. A Corvette has so much more tire to handle it.

While I was watching it, I was thinking of this article and video where R&T just hammered on a 911 Turbo, seeing how it did over the course of 50+ launches. They ended up launching the car 61 times, varying the 0-60 run from 2.6 to 2.9 seconds. What a beast.

http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars...-65-7-roa0314/