Photos by the Author
What better way to travel to the Bond in Motion exhibition at Beaulieu’s National Motor Museum than in an Aston Martin? To be precise a flame orange Carbon Fiber limited edition that, at just over £186,000 or nearly $302,000 is the marque’s most expensive production car if you ignore the $1.9 million limited-edition One-77.
Don’t let the Carbon Fiber moniker lull you into thinking this is some pared down, stripped out lightweight version of the DBS, it isn’t. Carbon fiber is restricted to trim elements such as the vents and grilles, mirror housings and taillight clusters, plus some interior items like the paddle shifts.
Apart from that, the 510-bhp V-12-powered supercar is pretty much unchanged and that’s part of its problem: the chassis can feel wooden at times and nowhere near as deft as say the new 911 at half the price.
Admittedly when you plant your foot on the loud pedal, it really feels as if you’ve just hit the afterburner as the car thunders down the road with NASA-like rates of acceleration. But, be ready to flip the paddles, as the ZF 6-speeder’s upshifts can be harsh and are nowhere near as subtle as its latest 8-speed gearbox which, presumably, the refreshed DBS will get later this year.
Sitting behind the wheel with a cabin swathed in leather, the DBS is a fine car to be in, but cast your eyes round the fascia and there’s a touch of yesterday about it, especially the Bang & Olufsen sound system’s graphics and, to a lesser extent, the instruments themselves.
No doubt all will be rectified later this year with the replacement car. One thing you can’t criticize the DBS for is its ability to turn heads wherever it goes and wherever you park it: if it’s not the dazzling seven coats of paint that takes 25 hours to polish, or the stunning exhaust as it fires up, it will draw attention and, mostly, admiring glances.
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- Aston Martin Announces New Customer Race Car
- Aston Martin Dragon 88 – 2012 Beijing Auto Show
- Q by Aston Martin
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