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Car and Driver
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Car and Driver
Aston Martin DB12 Palm Beach Is a One-Off to Celebrate the Florida Sun
Aston Martin revealed a new one-of-one edition of the DB12 Volante called the Palm Beach Edition, meant to celebrate the eponymous area. The special edition is finished in an exclusive Frosted Glass Blue exterior paint that Aston Martin says requires hand-spraying to get the proper effect. The inside of the Palm Beach Edition makes repeated use of a palm-leaf motif, and the seatbacks and trim are finished in Linear Light Olive Ash wood. Toeing the line between tastefully displaying your wealth and looking like Jay Gatsby can be quite the challenging task, particularly when you're in South Florida and every other car on the block originates from Italy or Germany. There's a simple solution to avoiding any nouveau riche accusations—buy an Aston Martin. If it's classy enough for Bond, it's probably classy enough for you. To that end, Aston Martin just revealed the Palm Beach Edition DB12 Volante, a new one-of-one model designed to walk the tightrope between elegance and kitsch. The exterior is finished in an exclusive Frosted Glass Blue paint that mixes glass flakes in the topcoat to create a shimmer effect, which the brand says encapsulates the South Florida sun. The brand also says the effect is only possible by hand-spraying the paint onto the car. Aston Martin The cabin is made up of Aurora Blue and Ivory leather with Spicy Red contrasting stitching, but the showstopper is the Linear Light Olive Ash book-matched wood trim found on the dash, center console, doors, and seatbacks. Palm Beach's latitude and longitude coordinates are embossed onto the leather dashboard, and there's a palm-leaf motif scattered from the seats to the door sills. South Florida Celebration If the theme hasn't made itself clear yet, the one-of-one model was designed in collaboration between Aston Martin's Q division and Aston Martin Palm Beach, drawing on inspiration from the Palm Beach area. Aston Martin Aston Martin didn't mention anything about mechanical changes for the one-off car. That means the Palm Beach Edition likely comes with typical DB12 hardware. But even for South Florida, the DB12 is anything but typical, with a twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V-8 spitting out 671 horsepower and offering an estimated zero-to-60-mph time of 3.4 seconds for the Volante. As for pricing, the standard DB12 Volante starts at $271,825, but we expect the requisite cash for the Palm Beach Edition to be closer to $400K. Jack Fitzgerald Associate News Editor Jack Fitzgerald's love for cars stems from his as yet unshakable addiction to Formula 1. After a brief stint as a detailer for a local dealership group in college, he knew he needed a more permanent way to drive all the new cars he couldn't afford and decided to pursue a career in auto writing. By hounding his college professors at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, he was able to travel Wisconsin seeking out stories in the auto world before landing his dream job at Car and Driver. His new goal is to delay the inevitable demise of his 2010 Volkswagen Golf. Read full bio
Car and Driver
20-05-2025
- Automotive
- Car and Driver
BMW Gearing Up to Reveal Shooting Brake Based on the Skytop Concept
BMW teased a new shooting brake model ahead of this year's Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este. Based on Instagram posts made by BMW and the automaker's head designer, the new car looks to be based on last year's Skytop concept. Following the reception of the Skytop at last year's Villa d'Este, BMW confirmed a limited-production run of 50 Skytops, which could lead to more of the same for this model. Each year, Italy's Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este is a gathering of some of the most famous and costly vehicles around the world—and of course, the people with the ultra-deep pockets to buy them. Naturally, it's the perfect place for a luxury automaker to launch a costly concept car. That's exactly what BMW did a year ago with the Skytop concept. Now, the brand appears poised to do the same once again with a shooting brake version. BMW teased the new model with a post on its Instagram account, describing the car as "dynamic, elegant, exotic." It shows two pictures of the same swooping bodywork and minimalistic taillight design as the Skytop, now in shooting brake form. And if the Skytop is anything to go by, the new model could be headed for production. BMW has plans to build 50 examples of the Skytop convertible. It's largely based on the M8 Competition, and it sources some 617 horsepower from a twin-turbocharged 4.4-liter V-8 under the hood. Adrian van Hooydonk, BMW's head of design and the man in charge of the Skytop's look, also posted a preview of the shooting brake to Instagram. While Hooydonk's post is too blurry to gather any intricate details, it does show off the low-slung silhouette of the new car. BMW With the 2025 Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este coming up this weekend, it's entirely plausible that BMW expects to sell a further 50 Skytop models to the wealthy clientele descending on Como, Italy. Either way, we expect to see many more revealing photos of the shooting brake by the end of the weekend. Jack Fitzgerald Associate News Editor Jack Fitzgerald's love for cars stems from his as yet unshakable addiction to Formula 1. After a brief stint as a detailer for a local dealership group in college, he knew he needed a more permanent way to drive all the new cars he couldn't afford and decided to pursue a career in auto writing. By hounding his college professors at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, he was able to travel Wisconsin seeking out stories in the auto world before landing his dream job at Car and Driver. His new goal is to delay the inevitable demise of his 2010 Volkswagen Golf. Read full bio
