BUY, LEASE OR FINANCE AN ASTON MARTIN DBS SUPERLEGGERA FROM OSV: shorturl.at/rtuxF
What might the ultimate Aston Martin be like? The answer, we're told, lies right here with this car, the DBS Superleggera. Jonathan Crouch drives it.
Ten Second Review
Immaculately styled, obsessively engineered and outrageously potent, the DBS Superleggera claims to be every inch the Aston Martin flagship. We're here to decide whether it's a truly credible expression of everything an ultimate Aston Martin sportscar should stand for. At launch in 2018, it was billed as the fastest and most powerful road car the brand had ever built. And we're going to test it.
Background
This, the flagship sportscar in Aston Martin's mainstream range, is a thoroughbred large-capacity front-engined V12 Super GT with badging that marks the return of two illustrious names. The 'Superleggera' (or 'Super lightweight') tag apparently pays homage to the innovative lightweight construction methods pioneered by Italian coachbuilder Touring with classic DB models of the Sixties. As for DBS, well that nameplate's been around since 1967 and was last used on the 2007-era model that Daniel Craig barrel-rolled in his 'Casino Royale' James Bond debut.
Driving Experience
Building a track-focused Super Sportscar is one thing. Building a super-powerful Grand Touring GT sports coupe is another. Can the two genres really be combined? Super GT sportscars like this one reckon they can. Aston Martin's take on the concept may not be 'super-light' as its Italian-derived badging promises, but this DBS model's pulling power surpasses anything that rivals can muster.
Ostensibly, it shares much with its lesser DB11 stablemate. There's a special feel here that no other model from the brand manages to quite replicate, creating the kind of GT the old Vanquish always should have been. The result is a car you have to try to understand everything an Aston Martin can be.
Design and Build
Bulging in all the right places, this car is extreme, intimidating, pugnacious and aggressive. Which the kind of people who buy cars like this will probably like very much. A word about body styles: it's easy to see why you might also be tempted by the charms of the open-topped Volante variant, which features a fabric roof retractable in just 14 seconds. To our eyes though, the coupe version's swept-back silhouette is difficult to better. In profile, it delivers a dramatically honed physique, with emphasised lower side sills and drawn-in flanks that are sculpted to accentuate the muscularity of the broad front shoulders and powerful rear haunches.
And inside? Well essentially, what's delivered here is an upgraded DB11 - which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Market and Model
You'll need £225,000 to get yourself this DBS Superleggera Coupe. The alternative Volante version of this car costs a cool £247,500 but, as with this Coupe, you'll be up to and beyond the quarter of a million mark once you've added in various essential extras.
Cost of Ownership
We normally start this section with a review of economy and emissions, but of course anyone comfortable with blowing a quarter of a million on a super sportscar is unlikely to be overly concerned with trifling issues of that sort. The big ticket cost with cars at this kind of exalted price point isn't frugality but depreciation, so if you like the idea of a Superleggera, you'll be pleased to hear that this Aston Martin fares reasonably here.
If for some reason you are interested in the fuel and emissions stats, we'll tell you that in Coupe form, this car manages a 22.9mpg combined cycle WLTP figure, with NEDC-rated emissions of 285g/km. For the Volante version, the equivalent figures are 20.1mpg and 295g/km. The fixed-top variant's showing is a little down on the readings you'd get from basically the same Aston V12 engine in a DB11 AMR (which are 24.8mpg and 265g/km).
Summary
By almost every measurement, the DBS Superleggera is a very special sportscar. And in almost every way, it's worthy of its positioning as a flagship Aston Martin model. Though on paper, comparisons to the Ferrari 812 Superfast seem evident, in practice, the Superleggera is a rather different car, less track-focused to be sure but also more road-orientated and easier to live with.
Ultimately, what's important here is that the DBS formula is a traditionally Aston Martin one, which is rather reassuring in an era in which the brand is diversifying into uncharted territory like hybrid technology, mid-engined motoring and SUVs. Engineering like that is needed if the company's future is to be sustainable, but the marque can't afford to forget its heritage in producing the kind of classic Super GT that small boys can dream about and wealthy enthusiasts can aspire to. So we welcome the Superleggera. There's nothing quite like it.
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