Originally Posted by GTspirit

aston martin has confirmed that it will continue to offer both V12 engines and manual transmission on future models.

According to Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer, the V12 engine will be "completely renewed" for future aston models. This news comes as a surprise to some, as Aston recently inked a deal with Mercedes-AMG to use their twin-turbo V8 engine in future cars.

The newly revised Aston V12 will be markedly different to the current generation V12, according to palmer. This change is fuelled entirely by the need to meet emissions and environmental regulations.

Palmer went on to confirm that the V12 will be of Aston’s own design and not part of the company’s deal with Mercedes-AMG.

The next Aston Martin set to be released is the replacement for the DB9, which will be heavily influenced by the DB10 concept. While Aston has yet to confirm any details regarding the DB9 replacement, we suspect aston’s new V12 to be, at the very least, an optional engine choice.

All future Aston Martins will remain driver focused, according to palmer. As such, all new models will be offered with a manual gearbox.

Aston Martin remains only one of a handful of car manufacturers to offer a manual gearbox in their performance models.

Originally Posted by Car & Driver

The first will be the replacement for the existing DB9, which we can expect to see in about 18 months. This will use the same design language that we’ve seen on the DB10 shown above—it’s the special model made for the next James Bond movie, Spectre—and the billionaire track toy Vulcan. And the fact it will come before the new AMG engine is welcome confirmation that it will be sticking with a V-12 engine. Hooray!

"One of the reasons for having an electric car is to allow us to continue with the V-12 for longer," says Palmer. "Of course, we’ve got to make it emissions compliant, and the current V-12 has to be completely renewed. But yes, we have a twelve-cylinder engine in our future. Our customers expect that."

The twelve definitely won’t be a mercedes engine—the technical alliance includes only the V-8 for now—so although Palmer described it as "fundamentally new," we expect it will be a heavy development of the existing 5.9-liter unit and that it will stick with natural aspiration.

The new models also will feature the same construction techniques that aston has been using since 2003, meaning an aluminum structure featuring both bonded and die-cast aluminum with bodywork made from aluminum. And although the company has often been criticized for the age of its "VH" architecture, Palmer is an unapologetic fan of it. "That platform was definitely far ahead of its time," he says. "It should have been described as a modular architecture, like [VW’s] MQB or one of the other systems big manufacturers have adopted. We’re always making excuses about it being an old platform, but if you were to compare the original VH platform to today’s there’s an enormous transformation. And it’s a great way to build cars in the volumes that we do."

And there’s no chance that the next generation of Astons are going to be overwhelmed with technology. The partnership with Daimler gives the company access to Mercedes’s advanced electronic systems, including active-safety modules and potentially (once fully developed) autonomous driving. But Palmer says the cars themselves will remain driver-focused. And yes, that does mean manual gearboxes, even with the forthcoming AMG V-8 engine (which Mercedes doesn’t offer with a clutch pedal).

"I would love to be the last car manufacturer providing stick shifts in the U.S.," he said. "That’s my hope, we will keep the faith. And even as the industry moves to twin-clutch transmissions, at the heart of each of those you still have a manual transmission. It’s only a matter of breaking it into its parts, and that’s where I started my career, as a transmission engineer."

Originally Posted by spinecho

God, I hope he can deliver on these promises. Last bastion of the driver's car???