FULLBORE
THE GRAND TOURER THE DRIVER’S VIEW By Peter Tomalin So, which to choose, manual or Touchtronic? I’m at Nicholas Mee & Co on a gloriously sunny June day to sample examples of both – and it’s a wonderful chance to get reacquainted with this hugely charismatic Aston. Manual first, and even before you open the door you’re seduced by the DBS’s chiselled good looks. This is one handsome beast, with just enough of the road-racer about it to quicken the pulse. Inside, the impression is reinforced by part-Alcantara sports seats and flashes of carbonfibre trim. The facia is classic Bez-era Aston, with the familiar ‘waterfall’ central console and the cluster of analogue dials directly ahead, their subtle markings like those of an expensive chronograph. And on top of the transmission tunnel is that increasingly rare sight in modern performance cars – a manual gearstick.
The DBS was the first Aston penned by Marek Reichman, who had taken over from Henrik Fisker as design director in 2005. Sheffield-born Reichman transformed the Callum/Fisker DB9 into something altogether more aggressive, with a deep, sculpted chin and carbon winglets, extended sills, extra bonnet vents and a dramatic rear diffuser. To help reduce weight, the bonnet, bootlid, front wings, door opening surrounds and the boot compartment were all made from carbonfibre.
It’s a particularly chunky one, but it shifts around the six-speed gate with pleasing ease and precision, well-matched to a clutch that’s lighter and more progressive than I was expecting (certainly considerably lighter than the one in my early Gaydon-era V8 Vantage). The star of the show, though, is that magnificent 5.9-litre V12 engine.
Visually, it was the missing link between the DB9 and the awesome Le Mans class-winning DBR9 race-car. And even if it couldn’t quite live up to the road-racer looks – it was always more super-GT than out-and-out sports car – no-one was going to mistake it for a DB9. Underneath that vented bonnet, the 5.9-litre V12 benefited from a higher compression ratio, a ‘bypass’ air intake port that opened above 5500rpm to allow more air into the engine, and reprofiled inlet ports to further improve airflow into the combustion chamber. The net result was 510bhp at 6500rpm, a whole 60bhp more than in the DB9. It was enough to cut the 0-60mph time from 4.9 to 4.2sec and lift the top speed from 186 to 191mph. There were new adaptive dampers developed with Bilstein, and beefier springs, suspension bushes and anti-roll bars. The DBS was the first Aston road car with 20in wheels, wrapped in bespoke Pirelli P Zero rubber, and behind them sat vast carbon-ceramic discs as standard, another first for an Aston. The DBS also saw the return of a traditional manual gearbox, a six-speed ZF unit, in place of the Vanquish’s improved but never universally loved paddle-shift automated manual.
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A contemporary V8 Vantage is brisk enough, but this is a clear league above, propelling the DBS’s substantial mass with real urgency and pushing you firmly back in the seat as the power swells and the orchestral soundtrack fills the cabin. The latest breed of super-GTs have astronomic outputs of 700bhp and more, but I promise you, no-one has ever felt the full force of the DBS’s 510bhp and thought “what this car really needs is another two hundred horsepower”. The ride has a welcome degree of suppleness in the standard setting – Sport mode brings an extra degree of body control at speed – refinement is generally good and the carbon-ceramic brakes are simply mighty. But you’re always aware of the DBS’s size and mass (both considerable), which count against it in pure sports-car terms. Think of it as a massively fast and accomplished GT car and you’ll not be disappointed. Which is where the Touchtronic 2 transmission option enters the picture. Being a traditional torque-converter automatic at heart, it flicks seamlessly through its six ratios in auto mode, or you can take control of the shifts through the paddles. It’s not quite as instantly reactive as recent dual-clutch transmissions, but it gets pretty damn close and it certainly plays to the DBS’s GT strengths. Of course, if you do a lot of driving in stop-start traffic, then it makes even more sense. Personally, if given a straight choice, I’d take the manual for the extra layer of interaction, but I certainly wouldn’t feel short-changed with the Touchtronic and there would be plenty of times when I would be very glad of it. Either way, the DBS remains an immensely capable and desirable GT car, one of the best of the modern era. The perfect Aston for that European tour you’ve always promised yourself? Could well be… 23