2019 Aston Martin DB11 AMR - Jay Leno’s Garage

Okay, I see a car, you can drive to Las Vegas, have a conversation, no, what do you want to be when we get there? You know, I'm 71, it's an episode of an hour of jail in your

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, today we present the Aston Martin db9. an M is AMR's Aston Martin Racing and this one has perhaps a little more driver advantage than the standard car. You know, I'm a big fan of this brand. I always call Aston Martin the most seductive of all the car manufacturers because that's really what makes you feel extremely comfortable, a Rolls Royce level interior with leather and wood and all that because you know a lot of cars buy them and get the racing model with the Recaro seat and your spouse doesn't want it. to drive and it's loud, it corners hard, whatever it is, it does everything at once, it's a real car that you can drive very hard, you push it very hard, but it's still extremely comfortable for long trips and things like that. that nature, I mean, I just find them to be fantastic cars, the styling is incredible, this is a 630 horsepower v12.

I think we have a professional Aston Martin driver with us today, his name is Terrence Jenkins. Terrence, come see you. mate it's great to see you Jay like the right one and thanks Martin yeah you know I love this brand it just makes me smile because it's the most English car but it still has the sporting pretensions and all that you know. It's traditional, it's got a proper trunk, you can put things in it, you know, our drive, as we say our trunk, I mean, I love, I love mid-engined cars. I have a few of them, but you can't go anywhere where I can't carry something with their limitations.

Well, tell us what we have here. First of all, AMR might be new to some people. They asked Martin Racing. Tell us why the emphasis on this. For this reason, we have introduced the a ma brand in our production. Obviously, Aston Martin has a very successful racing team, we win a lot of races with, we've won LeMond a couple of times and one of the things we struggle to do is bring racing knowledge or a brand to North America and infuse I do it with our cars as one of our instructors and I know a lot of people new to the brand who don't realize we have such a racing pedigree, for some reason it doesn't seem to cross the Atlantic very well so it's infused . the more branded air through the deep 11 is definitely a good conversation starter and this car here has improved the driver experience so we have the right ZF 8 speed gearbox, it's a ZF 8 speed, It's a transaxle, the gearbox is actually on.

The right rear is fine, that gives it good balance. I imagine people put a lot of emphasis on this 50/50 thing, yeah, so one of the things that one of the platforms designed what our engineers do is like you said a lot. There's an emphasis on 50/50 weight distribution, which is great, but it's largely a marketing thing. In motor racing we talk about moments of inertia and what the engineers asked them to do, they took a big part of that mass as the engine and gearbox and I separated it and divided it between the front and rear car and if I may, I have a little bit of exercise that I would like to show you well exercise is my middle name exactly exercise and actually what I did um I brought some dumbbells.

For you, Jake, well, those are the manliest dumbbells I've ever seen. I took them from my wife's little collection, she had some roses, I mean, and I wasn't sure about bringing the roses, so if we imagine that this is the mass in the vehicle that's fine and, as I mentioned before, they talked about a distribution 50/50 weight, but the reality is that I can take a thousand pounds off that vehicle and hang 500 pounds off the front and rear bumpers, it hasn't changed the weight of the vehicle and it hasn't changed. It didn't change the weight distribution, but it won't go very well in the corners because that's what we call having high moments of inertia, so we're dealing with moving this mask around the corner, so what Aston Martin has done is move . that mass is closer to the vehicle's center of gravity, so we have an engine that sits behind the front axle in the gearbox that sits in front of the rear axle, so now we have a low moment of inertia.

Well, we still have a 50/50 weight distribution, but the low moments of inertia basically mean that the car corners much easier, it's much easier to drive at higher speeds, and as I tell a lot of people, it doesn't matter, It's a front. mid engine and your earrings right, they all corner correctly, but then the character of the car really starts to play when you start to reach the limits of the tighter traction capabilities and then it will be an easy car to drive, a fun car to drive . which is very difficult, so we have a very easy and fun car to drive.

If you were on the track and you pushed it, it's limited time, so you'd call it front-mid engine, right. Yes, it is a front mid engine. Okay, absolutely, yes, he obviously won. To call it all, I mean the most extreme example of this is something that the American cars did at Track 52 that they hated more than anything was the Continental wheel kit and they would have a bumper with that member, they have the big wheel here Oh. Yes, absolutely yellow in a corner and, wow, yes, exactly, yes, but and that's exactly, you have mass behind the rear axle that can be difficult to control, especially on wet roads, or you know when you lose traction and it's also a good safety feature.

I mean, if you're driving on the highway you have to make an emergency lane change, it's very easy to make that lane change and get back to a safe driving force so the car doesn't do anything funny or unpredictable, let's say well, come on . Going back to the engine now v12 634, you know, I can remember that when Aston Martin produced like seven cars a year, there were eyes, I think so, yes, with Victor Gauntlet and that brought it back and now that it's four or five thousand cars a year anus. year or whatever, yeah, it's impressive and it's amazing how far they've come and I've always loved the brand, it's one of those iconic brands, of course the connection with James Bond is what people would understand.

This is the biggest advantage, it's probably the best marketing tool you've ever had, but I know I'm talking about Carroll Shelby's career for you guys, he did it 50 1959, yeah, yeah, the stylists on this is what I always get. . It's numerical merit, Reitman, yes, my Reichmann. Yes, a beautiful car, very sensual. I always loved this type of haunches and yes, all the Astons have the rear here, he said interrupting, you have followed what Marek likes to use is the rule of thirds of the Fibonacci formula, so it is found in the nature. -hm and we follow those same principles, so everything in the vehicle is divided into thirds, it's very pleasing to the human eye, so I think that's why a lot of people, whether they know it's an Aston Martin or not Look, the cargo seems very beautiful to them and that is one of our philosophies is that we build and design beautiful things.

Every time 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 have a lot of Ferrari friends and I make fun of them all the time. This only has 900 miles and is 12 years old. Good for you, can you drive? I'm going to lose, aren't I? Yeah, you know, Porsche is another one that Porsche owners brag about. about how many miles they have compared to some miles yeah a lot of other exotic people and this with Aston Martin people like to drive them because they're really comfortable cars you can do a long trip in this and it's not.

You know the exhaust doesn't hit your head, but you know that as much as I like those kinds of cars, I like him for an hour straight. I'm sure you know that. You know we walk a fine line in building a luxury GT car. It's very comfortable and quiet to drive, as you say on a day-to-day basis, but we also have one foot in the world of sports cars, so you know, and that's the line we've walked for many years and and we do it very well. In fact, I met a client who wanted to launch the DB 11 in North America.

He came to see it and said this would be my last Aston Martin. I was like 70 years old or something and I said: You mean that was the last time? He's doing well. I bought the db9 when it came out in 2006. I have one hundred and ten thousand and one hundred and ten thousand miles on it. You go, that's why this will be the last one to go. I probably will. another hundred and seven thousand miles more, so yes, to your point, people buy these cars and drive them. I like a proper GT car. I mean, when Gordon Murray did the design of the F1, it was designed to be a road car which it is not. a race car, right and that's why it bothers me that it's a road car that you can race, versus the other way around, which is what you know, you know people, yeah, we all know if you build a rating for a racing car and then you try to chat and draw it. it doesn't work there's no sound deadening it's not easy and yeah you know and you had a harder time removing the air conditioning yeah you know all that this is what I love about these tell me about the brakes what do we have a break ?

The front and rear wheels use a Brembo brake system so it's six pistons at the front and the rear is four pistons, the wheels are standard AMR with a lightweight forged wheel and again that's all about reducing mass so you can save 5 to 10 pounds on a wheel it's also unsprung mass which is very important as it improves steering response, braking steering and again it all comes back to the driver feedback and then also with With the AMR we have improved the chassis dynamics a little. a little more when changing the bushings, the durometer, the bushings and it's a little firmer so it doesn't prevent any vibration in the cabin, but again, more driver feedback, that's really what the AMR is about, it's the car GT from the DB Levin, but the handling has improved.

Experience and feedback we're programming into the transmission to make it a little more responsive when you do the kick down and this is the most powerful S for road except for those kind of one off models or you know a DBS. Superleggera yeah, that's the top of my head, I think it's 700 and okay, nothing, check 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 hood, the hood, is exactly the hood. thanks Vaughn, that's one of the things I try to do is teach people proper enunciation, really bonnets and boots when they drive an Aston, well you know, it's a lot of fun when I first got into English vehicles, they had all the English terms like he said you should when he was cleaning it was a motorcycle it's like that I wash it with paraffin I go why did you put something in melted candles yeah that's like 16 I'm helping the candles oh no this doesn't work this doesn't It doesn't work and It said: Get us a good set of keys.

I have socket wrenches but I don't have any keys, but I went. You have keys. English, now I have spammers. You were with you. You lost the translation exactly. So this is ours. Own engine, 5.2-liter v12 engine, we use two turbochargers that produce 630 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque. The turbo charges run all of the boost through our water-to-air intercooler before entering the intake and basically filling up. engine power which is 613 pound-feet of torque and 1500 rpm another syllable and almost no turrets idiot quite imperceptible yes, very nice, yes and through the clamp here and obviously each engine is built by a man and signed by him, no is correct, but you I know you are absolutely right, all of our engines are made by one man, but that label is from the gentleman who did the final inspection of the entire vehicle, so as we always say, if there is any problem with the car, call it. you can't exactly call Oh Larry there, yeah, yeah, I just like that you call that guy, yeah, okay, very nice and what have we.

This is aluminum, so it's aluminum, yeah, and it's a clamshell. This is actually the largest single piece of aluminum in the automotive industry so it was very difficult for engineers to find a manufacturer capable of handling and pressing a single sheet of aluminum pizza. That seems strange to me because it is a very common material now and yes. it doesn't seem like that complex structure to know that it's not complex, I think I just think that because obviously the stamping needs an additional stamping on the side that you're on. I'm in college so I don't know exactly how big the original is. parts before they arrive and they are all built in England, they are all hand made in the UK, yes, absolutely, so we only have one robot in the factory, yes, and that robot applies a very specific amount of adhesive to the chassis or to the joining process, but everything else on this vehicle is British made, you know, they chose it, so yeah, that was what I liked the most.

I went two years ago, I went to the team and I toured the factory and we went in, in the upholstery area there is an old lady on Danny actually has a needle and thread and that's where the bomb went and what they wanted that so you don't show mejust don't be seduced by the car it just does everything right you know there are other cars that have more horsepower obviously so you think well that's what you should get so try this they go now this is this is what you want or what I need to be sure, unlike what you think, you should convince one of my friends of GT threes and cars that are too bad, you know, when they really want something that is fun to drive extremely fast, you know, and this is this car.

It's really good, thank you very much my friend, it was a pleasure meeting you, I'm curious. Thank you thank you for bringing this up and if you want one I know someone yeah you're working now although my guide knows again. I agree, see you next. week