Viva Volante!
Although it has been employed sparingly, Volante is an important name in Aston Martin’s history.
First used in 1965, it has always referred to convertible models, and we’re listing the full range (as of 2025, the year of its 60th anniversary) in chronological order here.
It’s important to remember that although all Aston Martin Volantes are convertibles – with one very unusual exception – not all Aston Martin convertibles are Volantes, a point we’ll be making again later for the sake of context.
Aston Martin ‘Coal Scuttle’
Aston Martin was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford, and named after Martin and the Aston Hill hillclimb course near Aston Clinton in Buckinghamshire.
In the company’s early days, there was no reason to describe any particular model as a convertible, and certainly not as a Volante, since none of them had roofs and they were therefore not converted from anything that did.
The 1914 prototype pictured here, nicknamed the Coal Scuttle, is just one of several examples.
Built on behalf of Bamford and Martin by the Coventry Simplex company, it had a 1389cc, four-cylinder, sidevalve engine, two seats and a bare minimum of weather protection.
Aston Martin 2-Litre Sports
In perhaps the most famous of Aston Martin’s various changes of ownership, the company was acquired in 1947 by David Brown, who had made his fortune by building tractors and gearboxes.
The first Aston Martin sold to the public during his reign is known retrospectively as the DB1 but officially as the 2-Litre Sports, a reference to the capacity of its four-cylinder engine and the fact that it was a sporting model.
Compared with the pre-war cars, the 2-Litre Sports had very curvy styling, but one carry-over from those days was that all 15 examples built were convertibles, a company policy which would soon change.
Aston Martin DB MkIII Drophead Coupé
With the DB2 of 1950, Aston Martin established itself as a car manufacturer of grand tourers with fixed roofs.
These were sometimes produced as convertibles, one example being the 1958 Tickford-bodied DB MkIII Drophead Coupé pictured here, which had a 2.9-litre version of the originally 2.6-litre Lagonda straight-six engine created by Willie Watson and later reworked by Tadek Marek.
While this was unquestionably an Aston Martin convertible, it was not a Volante, because that name would not be used for another seven years.
Aston Martin Short Chassis Volante
All of which brings us to the heart of this piece.
The Italian word volante can be translated as ‘wheel’, ‘steering wheel’, ‘flying’ or ‘moveable’ or, according to Aston Martin, ‘moving with light rapidity’.
Which one is most appropriate in this context is up to you, but there is no argument that Aston Martin first used Volante in 1965 for a convertible version of the DB5.
The other part of the name is more confusing, because the chassis was the same one used for the outgoing DB5 and had not, despite what you might think, been shortened.
However, the Short Chassis Volante was introduced at the same time as the DB6, and had similar styling. The DB6 had a longer chassis, so the shortness implied by the title is relative to that car, not to the DB5.
Aston Martin DB6 Volante
Only 37 Short Chassis Volantes were built before Aston Martin replaced that model with a drop-top derivative of the DB6.
Powered, as the DB5 had been, by a 4-litre, straight-six engine, the DB6 was longer than its predecessor, and available only in grand-tourer form on its introduction in 1965.
The Volante was officially unveiled at the London Motor Show the following year, and both versions were updated in 1969.
In November of that year, the then Prince Charles (now King Charles III) received a Mk2 DB6 Volante as a 21st-birthday present from his mother, and in 2008 he had it converted to run on bioethanol.
Aston Martin AMV8 Volante
Although the two models were produced concurrently for a few years, the DB6 was technically replaced by the DBS, which was powered initially by the existing 4-litre straight six and later by a new 5.3-litre V8.
After an upgrade in 1972, the ‘six’ was dropped and the model became known as the AMV8.
Only a solid-roof body was available until 1978, when Aston Martin introduced a convertible which became the third Volante and remained in production until 1986.
A Volante of this generation appeared in the 1987 James Bond film The Living Daylights.
Aston Martin V8 Vantage Volante
The V8 Vantage was essentially a regular AMV8 with a more powerful version of the 5.3-litre engine.
Some AMV8 Volantes were fitted with this unit, but the model did not become officially available until 1986.
When it did, Aston Martin added a large front air dam, a rear spoiler and flared wheelarches, as pictured here, but when Prince Charles ordered one he asked for these to be removed, while also requesting a space in the centre console for a jar to hold the sugar lumps he would feed to his polo ponies.
Other customers preferred the more subdued look, too, if not necessarily the provision for sugar-lump storage, and several V8 Vantage Volantes were built to what became known as PoW, or Prince of Wales, specification.
Aston Martin V8 Zagato Volante
One in a long line of Aston Martins with bodywork designed by Zagato, this car was manufactured in small numbers from 1986, initially only as a coupé.
A Volante derivative was announced at the Geneva show in 1987 with the caveat that only 25 would be built, but because all of them had already been sold before production began the following year the run was extended to 37.
The Volante looked significantly different from the regular Zagato at the front, thanks to its concealed headlights and lack of a radiator grille.
In standard form, it had no bonnet bulge either, because the Zagato’s quadruple downdraught carburettors were replaced by a fuel-injection system, but the resulting c100bhp drop in power inspired some owners to have the carburettor engine fitted, and in some cases they asked for the whole of the coupé’s front end to be used on the Volante.
Aston Martin Virage Volante
The Volante version of the 1989 Virage coupé was unveiled at the 1990 London show as a two-seater.
However, owing to what Aston Martin describes as ‘customer pressure’ (politely expressed, no doubt) it reappeared at Geneva the following year as a 2+2, and subsequently went into production in that form.
As might be expected, it was mechanically very similar to the Virage, with the by now quite elderly 5.3-litre V8 engine mated to either a three-speed automatic transmission or, in rare case, a five-speed ZF manual.
Aston Martin DB7 Volante
The DB7 was the first Aston Martin for several years to be named after former owner David Brown, who accepted an invitation to become the company’s Honorary Life President but died before the car entered production in 1994.
It was powered by a supercharged, 3.2-litre version of the Jaguar AJ6 straight-six engine, a situation made possible by the fact that both Jaguar and Aston Martin were owned by Ford at the time.
In what had become a familiar chain of events, the coupé was joined by a Volante convertible in 1996, but neither model made it to the end of the century in their original forms.
Aston Martin Long Wheelbase Volante
In 1996, the Virage coupé was replaced by a car known simply as the V8 Coupé, which looked similar to the high-performance Vantage but was powered by the naturally aspirated 5.3 V8, rather than the Vantage’s supercharged version.
A year later, Aston Martin followed this with its latest Volante – more or less the same car with a folding roof, but not quite.
In this case, the Volante was 200mm (just under 8in) longer than its close relative, hence the term Long Wheelbase Volante.
The reason for this was to provide more room for rear passengers, though Aston Martin describes the car as being a ‘proper 2+2’ without going quite so far as to call it a four-seater.
Aston Martin DB7 V12 Vantage Volante
The DB7’s supercharged, straight-six engine was replaced in 1999 by a new, naturally aspirated, 5.9-litre V12 not entirely unrelated to Ford’s 3-litre Duratec V6.
More than 4000 examples were built (a new record for Aston Martin), and various detail styling changes make it relatively easy to tell these cars apart from the earlier six-cylinder cars.
There were, of course, coupé and convertible body styles to choose from, and Vantages of the latter type were the first V12 Volantes in the marque’s history.
Zagato designed its own bodies for the DB7 V12, again with coupé and convertibles options, but the convertibles were called DB AR1 and are therefore not strictly part of the Volante line.
Aston Martin Vantage Volante
At around the same time as the launch of the DB7 V12, Aston Martin built a very small run of another Vantage Volante based on an earlier model.
This was a convertible derivative of the Virage-based Vantage with the outgoing, supercharged, 5.3-litre V8, but in most cases shorter than the Long Wheelbase Volante.
Eight of the nine cars built could be described that way, but to add some confusion to the story, the ninth was created using the longer platform, and was therefore in effect (though not in name) the only supercharged Long Wheelbase Volante.
After this, Aston Martin stopped using the Volante name for Vantage convertibles, which are now known as Roadsters.
Aston Martin DB9 Volante
The DB9 coupé of 2004 was the first Aston Martin of any kind to be based on the company’s new VH (vertical-horizontal) platform, and the first built at the new factory near the Warwickshire village of Gaydon.
It followed that the Volante introduced a year later led the way for Aston convertibles in both cases.
Both cars were powered by the 5.9-litre V12 carried over from the later DB7, but the Volante had softer suspension and was promoted as an ‘elegant fast tourer’ rather than a sports car.
Its roof could be electronically raised or lowered in 17 secs, and when stowed away in its own compartment it did not affect the space available for luggage or rear passengers.
Aston Martin DBS Volante
The second Aston Martin to be named DBS is described by the company as ‘explosive power in a black tie’.
Powered by the now familiar, 5.9-litre V12, it was launched in 2007, and joined two years later by the inevitable Volante.
Aston has called the latter a car which appeals to drivers who wish ‘to combine the excitement of a finely tuned sports car with the invigorating feeling of being open to the elements’, a phrase that could also be used for more or less all previous and subsequent Volantes.
Both models were discontinued in 2012 to make way for the second-generation Vanquish.
Aston Martin Virage Volante
Unusually, the Virage coupé and its Volante equivalent were both launched in 2011, and they shared a drivetrain consisting of the 5.2-litre V12 engine and a six-speed automatic gearbox known as Touchtronic 2.
Positioned in Aston Martin’s line-up between the DB9 and the DBS, the cars received muted praise in the automotive media.
Perhaps because it represented one Aston Martin too many in the then-current line-up, the Virage – in both forms – was discontinued in 2012.
Its production run was therefore even shorter than that of the notorious Toyota iQ-based Aston Martin Cygnet, a luxury city car which was introduced at around the same time and was still staggering along in 2013.
Aston Martin Vanquish Volante
The Vanquish Volante introduced in 2013 was the first Aston Martin to bear that name, since the previous Vanquish had been available only as a coupé.
Like its solid-roofed, second-generation equivalent, the Volante had prominent side strikes, along with blade-style rear lights similar to those used on the earlier One-77 hypercar.
The 5.9-litre V12 made yet another appearance, this time in updated form, and produced enough power to allow the Volante to accelerate from 0-60mph in just over 4 secs, despite being heavier than the coupé.
For the later Vanquish Volante S, the V12 was upgraded further, raising its maximum power output from 565bhp to 595bhp.
Aston Martin Vanquish Zagato Volante
The long-standing relationship between Aston Martin and Zagato was extended in 2016 when the Italian design company created a four-car family of models based on the Vanquish S.
The Volante was the second to appear, after the Coupé but before the Speedster and the Shooting Brake.
In total, 325 cars were built (28 Speedsters and 99 each of the others), and Aston Martin took care to give each version its own adaptive damper settings.
The idea behind this was to make sure every model would appeal to a different type of driver, but as Aston’s chief creative officer Marek Reichman was quoted as saying in August 2017: “Yes, some of them have ordered one example of each.”
Aston Martin DB11 Volante
Relatively mainstream (at least by Aston Martin standards) compared with the Zagato Volante introduced at about the same time, the DB11 Volante of 2017 was of course a convertible derivative of the DB11 coupé introduced the previous year, and shared its bonded-aluminium structure.
It was by no means the first V8-engined Volante, but it was the first to be powered by a 503bhp, 4-litre, twin-turbo unit supplied by Mercedes-Benz.
A special version of the DB11 Volante revealed in July 2018 (pictured), and featuring White Stone paintwork and Red Oxide Caithness leather upholstery among other details, was the first ‘Q by Aston Martin – Commission’ car, marking the company’s Official Automotive Partnership with the Henley Royal Regatta.
Aston Martin Volante Vision Concept
Of the many ways the word volante can be translated into English, there’s no doubt that ‘flying’ is the most appropriate for 2018’s Volante Vision Concept.
Very much an outlier in this list, it wasn’t a convertible, or even a car at all, nor entirely an Aston Martin.
Instead, it was an autonomous luxury hybrid VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) aircraft co-designed by Aston Martin, Cranfield University, Cranfield Aerospace Solutions and Rolls-Royce plc, the last of these being the aerospace and defence company rather than the car manufacturer from which it was separated in 1973.
As of 2025, no plans to put the Volante Vision Concept into production have yet been announced.
Aston Martin DBS Superleggera Volante
The DBS Superleggera Volante marked a new high point for performance in Aston Martin convertibles.
Introduced in 2019, it was powered by the expected V12 engine, though in this case the capacity had been reduced to 5.2 litres and twin turbochargers had been added, the latter being largely responsible for a power output of 715bhp.
According to Aston Martin’s own figures, 0-62mph and 0-100mph could be achieved in just 3.6 and 6.7 secs respectively, and if driven on a long enough straight the car could reach 211mph.
At this speed, rear downforce was said to be 177kg (390lb), close to the 180kg (397lb) achieved by the coupé launched the previous year, despite the inherent aerodynamic disadvantages of the convertible bodywork.
Aston Martin DB12 Volante
The Aston Martin DB12 Volante was deliberately closer in character to its coupé counterpart than previous Volantes had been.
“No longer the ‘soft option’,” said chief technical officer Roberto Fedeli on the car’s introduction in 2023, “DB12 Volante offers the stimulation of a true sports car with the unique pleasure and satisfaction that only a convertible Aston Martin can deliver.”
Though billed as ‘the ultimate open-top Super Tourer’, the DB12 Volante was less powerful than the DBS Superleggera Volante, but the output of its updated, 4-litre, twin-turbo, V8 engine was 671bhp, a figure well beyond the reach of any Aston Martin produced in the 20th century.
Aston Martin Vanquish Volante
‘New flagship convertible brings unprecedented drama, power and speed to the category’ was the first line of Aston Martin’s press release announcing the Vanquish Volante in March 2025, and it was difficult to argue with any of it.
The 5.2-litre, twin-turbo V12 of the DBS Superleggera Volante was back, but this time it produced a maximum of 824bhp, with 737lb ft of torque available all the way from 2500-5000rpm.
As Aston Martin pointed out, the V12 was now blessed with a power output nearly double the 420bhp it had when it was first used a quarter of a century earlier, in naturally aspirated, 5.9-litre form, in the DB7.
60th anniversary Aston Martin Volantes
Always keen to emphasise its long history, Aston Martin naturally took the opportunity to celebrate 60 years of the Volante with two special editions scheduled to go on sale in late 2025.
Based on the DB12 (pictured) and the Vanquish, they were created by the marque’s bespoke division, Q by Aston Martin, and featured Q Pentland Green paintwork, Q Westminster green hoods and various anodised bronze accents.
Production was limited to exactly 60 of each model, a number which could hardly be more appropriate in the circumstances.
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