Aston Martin debuts DB11 V8 Shadow Edition

ASTON Martin’s DB11 V8 has temporarily fallen to the dark side, with new bespoke styling features blacked out to create the Shadow Edition, in a limited run of 300 V8s designed to stand apart from its regular counterpart.

Kitted out with Gloss Black bonnet blades, gloss-black 20-inch directional alloy wheels, polished black chrome wings and script badges, black anodised Shadow Edition sill plaques and a black Alcantara and Obsidian leather sports steering wheel with just 300 DB11 V8s to be produced globally, comprising both of the familiar Coupe and Volante body types.

Priced from £162,095 ($A321,743) plus on-road costs in the UK, the number of units destined for Australia has not been revealed yet, nor has its estimated time of arrival though GoAuto has contacted Aston Martin for confirmation and local pricing.

According to Aston Martin Lagonda executive vice president and chief creative officer Marek Reichman, each enhanced styling cue was carefully selected to make the car “more assertive and purposeful”.

“By painstakingly packaging together key styling elements in the new Shadow Edition we have given this small group of DB11 V8-powered sportscars their own visual character that clearly marks them out as new and different,” he said.

To complement the styling changes and better live up to the Shadow Edition moniker, customers have the option of specifying a unique gloss black exterior colour scheme.

Under the skin, everything else is stock standard DB11 V8 kit, meaning the twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 still cranks out 375kW of power and 675Nm of torque, sent exclusively to the rear wheels via an eight-speed automatic transmission.

Zero to 100km/h is still dealt with in 4.0 seconds while the same front independent double-wishbone and rear multi-link suspension set-up mirrors the rest of the DB11 range.

The standard equipment also reads the same as the standard car – apart from the Alcantara and Obsidian leather sports steering wheel – and includes full-grain leather interior, electric front seats, front and rear parking sensors, tyre pressure monitoring, electronic instrument cluster, keyless entry and start, cruise control, integrated sat-nav, infotainment system with capacitive switching, Wi-Fi hub, Bluetooth audio and phone streaming.

Last year Aston Martin managed to shift 129 cars nationally, 22.8 per cent down on 2018’s sales (167), with its coupe and convertible range accounting for 8.2 per cent of the $200,000-plus sportscar segment.

So far this year ending February, the British marque has sold 18 vehicles, five more than it managed in the same period last year (+38.5 per cent).