The DB7 Volante was unveiled a little while after the Coupe at both the Los Angeles and Detroit motor shows in early 1996. This was no accident as the main market for this car was to be in the States. Performance is slightly down on the coupe due to increased weight and aerodynamic drag. Sixty miles per hour comes up in six seconds and top speed is 155 mph for the manual transmission, as claimed by Aston Martin.

Designed by Ian Callum at the same time as he designed the Coupe, the Volante looks elegant both hood up or down, much like the earlier Aston Martin drop head cars. Underneath the sleek and perfectly proportioned thoroughbred, lies additional strengthening to offset the lack of the roof, especially around the windscreen, to provide a degree of rollover protection. Another invisible change to the Volante was softer suspension settings, more suited to to the touring image but also to compensate for the reduction in rigidity over the coupe. Less well known was that the series 2 coupe also adopted the softer Volante suspension. Thus, to driving enthusiasts, the later non-air bagged coupes are the most desirable of the six cylinder DB7's.