Luxury sports car maker Aston Martin has announced a series of upgrades on its DB9 model for the 2013 model year, as well as a streamlining of the range.

With the recently-announced Vanquish sitting at the top of the range, the Virage model is discontinued while the DB9 benefits from some key elements of that car alongside significant changes.

Visually the DB9 has the ‘light catcher’ feature running along the sills and a wider front grille, plus bi-xenon headlights with LED side repeaters mounted in the side strakes. Careful configuration of the grille and bumper arrangement has also improved the DB9’s pedestrian impact performance without affecting its appearance.

On the inside there are new trim options including the leather ‘welt’ feature and a leather headliner, optional lightweight sports seats and features like automatic lights and wipers and satellite navigation are all standard.

Mechanically the changes are even more significant with the DB9 gaining the latest generation 6.0-litre V12 engine that appears in the Vanquish, here tuned to deliver 510 bhp, 40 bhp more than the outgoing version. As a part of the pedestrian impact changes the engine is also mounted lower in the car which should benefit its centre of gravity.

To reign in the extra power all DB9s have carbon ceramic brakes, which saves 12.5 kg in weight and also improves stopping power.

The Adaptive Damping System has been enhanced too, with Normal, Sport and Track modes to suit all conditions.