2009 Aston Martin Dbs Review

Not since Aston Martin’s glory days of the 50s and 60s has the old firm built a dual-purpose sports car in the style of the famous DB4GT. Aston’s DBR9 is certainly made from the road car’s race-capable HV (horizontal-vertical) bonded, aluminum-box structure with an integral rollcage added, but as impressive as a DB9 is on the road, it is as different from its racing version as your local gym jock is from Mr. Universe. As the supercar performance bar rises in this century, the demand for racecar speed and chassis dynamics, combined with a level of civility, of which David Brown customers could not have dreamed, has tempted Aston’s new team to take on the challenge.

Aston Martin Chief Executive Officer Dr. Ulrich Bez describes the results with his heart rate at max revs, “The DBS is the ultimate expression of Aston Martin’s engineering and technical ability. It offers pure performance without compromise.”

Well, yes, but today that last phrase must include a level of luxury never before expected, to say nothing of demanded. And that combination of luxury appointments includes hundreds of pounds of electronic gadgets, climate control and comfort that have to be flung down the public highway at a rate only a tick below the racecar’s expectations.

We got a late start. The author was unpacking in a French chateau monitoring his watch that was still in the London Heathrow time zone when the first afternoon drive got underway. The route for Tuesday evening would take a bit more than two hours and I climbed in the last car an hour behind schedule. A young technician named Steve Gray slid in beside me for the run to make a few memories—and dinner. We did our best to make up time on the beautiful French country roads, but we both could smell dinner when we decided to take an alternate route back to le chateau. The address was already programmed into the navigation system; Steve switched it on and together we tried to stay current as the map swept across the screen. The new route was direct as the crow flies, but the crow would have been above the forest trails we had to negotiate; a fine test of the practical nature of a very high-performance machine.

On the V8 Vantage roadster drive a few months before, we were confined to a narrow strip of beautiful pavement edged by deep, stone-lined gutters. Now, in this nearly-200-mph supercar, we were driving on broken bits of pavement encroached on by brush and trees. The normal damper setting managed to keep the ride more civilized than we deserved, and with 510 horsepower available at 6,500 revs, the 6-liter V12 never complained about creeping through the forest at under 2,000—and periodically idling along below 1,000. We were not making time, only cutting distance. Our DBS was 81 inches wide with the auto-fold mirrors deployed. Passing oncoming traffic required judicious maneuvering by both parties, as we skirted between the trees on damp mulch—all done without leaving the fabulous Aston paint finish scarred by our off-road adventure. The massive 245/35R20 front and 295/30R19 rear Pirelli P Zero tires gave neither complaint nor slippage thanks to our careful application of the 420 lb-ft of torque, much of which is available through most of the engine’s range.

Steve and I found ourselves in continual discussion of the car’s ability during our sojourn in the boondocks, so our expectations were high for the second day’s long drive over seamless blacktop, on carefully engineered radii with intelligent banking. On the Normal setting, the five-valve, automatic damping system is always in search of the softest set. With Sport selected it searches for the stiffest set with the computer demanding the best grip by using inputs about steering, wheel-speed differentials and omni-directional loads. Even on that firmer setting, where many competitors become more racer than roadster, the DBS retains its place as an effective supercar with luxurious lining—as Lionel Martin described it, “the performance of a Bugatti with the finish of a Rolls-Royce.”

The next morning the opportunity to use the entire car arrived. Finger-activated up-shifts at full throttle were as good as any in the world, but the sound of that mighty V12—all intakes wide open and the exhaust pressure finding the more direct route through the muffler box—was mesmerizing. It had to be done again and again, like hearing a favorite piece of music until you could anticipate the feel of the sound waves. And it all happened so quickly the paddle could only stay idle for a couple of seconds before the redline was reached again. We did find the rev limiter a couple of times in the beginning, when we simply could not believe a car of that size and luxurious accommodation could clear its torque curve and explode to peak revs so suddenly.

So where does this powerplant fit into the Aston Martin universe? The same 6-liter V12 produces 450 horsepower at 6,000 revs in the DB9 and 600 hp at survivable race revs in the DBR9. For the DBS it is tuned for 510 hp at 6,500 with a broad range of torque delivery, which will launch the lightened coupe from standing to 62 mph in 4.3 seconds. That is only 0.6 seconds quicker than the standard coupe and the new car’s aero package will only reach 5 more mph than its sibling at 191 mph. As a package, though, it raises the level of fun. Every dynamic input feels quicker. The fact of the matter is that it’s all in the engine management, final drive (3.71:1 in the DBS versus 3.54 for DB9), and chassis setup. There is actually only a 135-pound difference between the two, even with a number of new panels in aluminum, magnesium alloy and carbon fiber. Thus, the sporting quickness is carefully engineered to a useful balance for the experienced enthusiast driver.

During dinner discussions, Dr. Bez enjoyed elaborating, “The DBS delivers the complete driving experience and bridges the gap between our road and track cars—the DB9 and DBR9.” We then took a tangent into motoring nomenclature. Someone called the DBS a big fast GT car, while the light and lively V8 Vantage—both open and closed—would be a sports car. Betz’s eyes lit up and his voice found a couple more dB, “The difference between a sports car and a GT car is a personal distinction.” To him, it seems, his company only builds sports cars in a variety of sizes and levels of performance. The problem is clear when the numbers are compared. The DBS is both quicker and faster than the V8, and one would have to be extremely good to have the V8 Vantage turn quicker racing-circuit laps than the DBS. Perception, as we all know, is nine points of the laudets. If your V8 Vantage Roadster feels like a sports car as you make your way down the morning freeway, so be it. If the guy in the DBS thinks he has a sports car, too, just because it is the fastest, quickest and nearly the most entertaining Aston in the area, then the argument is moot. “Sport” is in your head.