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Aston Martin tests new Lagonda super-sedan in Oman

Aston Martin has been on a long road towards reviving the Lagonda name. The last Lagonda – that famously wedgy sedan – ended production in 1990. The name came back on a crossover concept in 2009, but for better or worse, never reached production. Then about a month ago, Aston teased a new super sedan to revive the marque, and shipped it off to Oman for hot weather testing under the baking Arabian sun. And now it's released a full batch of photos giving us our best look at the exclusive new four-door yet. This first verification prototype is taking part in a four-week testing cycle in the Sultanate, running some 500 miles per day with the aim of logging 14,000 test miles in temperatures as high as 120 degree Fahrenheit. The British automaker (known in full as Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd.) purposely chose a black paintjob to further punish its prototype, including an hours-long heat soak test that will bring the surface temperature of the cabin trim up to around 175 degrees. Aston isn't telling us much about the sedan itself, but we figure it's more likely to be powered by the company's ubiquitous 6.0-liter V12 engine and based on the aging VH architecture, though for all we know at this point, it could packing the upcoming AMG-sourced turbo eight and new platform. What we can see is that the styling is a radical departure from the design language to which Aston adhered rather rigidly over the past couple of decades, potentially previewing a new styling direction for the British marque. Unfortunately you shouldn't expect to see one in your neighborhood, because production will be strictly limited and exclusive to the Middle East.

2018 Aston Martin DB11 V8 First Drive | Longing for 4 more cylinders

Undeterred by implications of penance or irony, the Germans have emerged as stewards of the high-end British automotive industry. At the end of the 20th century, venerable brands such as Rolls-Royce and Bentley were producing stately, outmoded and haphazardly assembled vehicles in quantities more befitting a Paraguayan shipyard than a car company. Since their acquisition by BMW and Volkswagen, respectively, those storied marques have seen investment and product diversification that have transformed their offerings, their sales figures and their bottom lines. You may long for the anachronistic glory of a Silver Spur, but the new Phantom VIII makes it look like the condemned manor home of your black-sheep relations who subsist on cat food and family castoffs. Aston Martin is the latest manufacturer to reap the benefits of Teutonic largesse. Though Aston remains independent, with its major investor being an Italian private equity firm, Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, also owns about a 5 percent stake. While we witnessed the first tasty fruit of this union when the DB11 launched last year, it was mainly deep in the underpinnings, the Benzes having granted Aston the right to implement their electronic architecture. This resulted in surprisingly (for Aston) functional and legible dash, ventilation, safety and infotainment controls. Now, with the release of the DB11 V8, we are meeting the true Aston/Benz offspring. And we like this kid, though he may not win the title of favorite nephew. The heart of this baby is Mercedes-AMG's 4.0-liter, twin-turbocharged V8, which, in this application, produces 503 hp and 513 lb-ft of torque. This is fiesty enough to rocket this DB to 62 mph in 4.0 seconds, barely discernible from the 3.9 seconds in which it's dispatched by the 600-hp V12. Continuing with the markdowns, the V8 deducts a $17,500 premium from the V12's list for a sub-$200,000 starting price. It also trims about 250 pounds from the DB's overall mass, which brings its fighting weight into the sub-two-ton category. Also changed are a few cosmetic features.

Are supercars becoming less special?

There's little doubt that we are currently enjoying the golden age of automotive performance. Dozens of different models on sale today make over 500 horsepower, and seven boast output in excess of 700 hp. Not long ago, that kind of capability was exclusive to supercars – vehicles whose rarity, performance focus, and requisite expense made them aspirational objects of desire to us mortals. But more than that, supercars have historically offered a unique driving experience, one which was bespoke to a particular model and could not be replicated elsewhere. But in recent years, even the low-volume players have been forced to find the efficiencies and economies of scale that formerly hadn't been a concern for them, and in turn the concept of the supercar as a unique entity unto itself is fading fast. The blame doesn't fall on one particular manufacturer nor a specific production technique. Instead, it's a confluence of different factors that are chipping away at the distinction of these vehicles. It's not all bad news – Lamborghini's platform sharing with Audi for the Gallardo and the R8 yielded a raging bull that was more reliable and easier to live with on a day-to-day basis, and as a result it went on to become the best-selling Lambo in the company's history. But it also came at the cost of some of the Italian's exclusivity when eerily familiar sights and sounds suddenly became available wearing an Audi badge. Even low-volume players have been forced to find economies of scale. Much of this comes out of necessity, of course. Aston Martin's recent deal with Mercedes-AMG points toward German hardware going under the hood and into the cabin of the upcoming DB11, and it's safe to assume that this was not a decision made lightly by the Brits, as the brand has built a reputation for the bespoke craftsmanship of its vehicles. There's little doubt that the DB11 will be a fine automobile, but the move does jeopardize some of the characteristic "specialness" that Astons are known for. Yet the world is certainly better off with new Aston Martins spliced with DNA from Mercedes-AMG rather than no new Astons at all, and the costs of developing cutting-edge drivetrains and user interfaces is a burden that's becoming increasingly difficult for smaller manufacturers to bear. Even Ferrari is poised to make some dramatic changes in the way it designs cars.