Hey, if you don’t dream big, how will your reality ever have anything to catch up on down the home straight?
That’s why when the Aston Martin DBS Superleggera sneaked onto the old worldwide a day before the official reveal, Bobby saw the opportunity for some great day dreaming and a bit of a history lesson thrown in.
First, the car, or shall we say supercar. The marque’s new flagship model replaces the Vanquish and is an extreme evolution of the DB11, but way less of a tourer. It’s an adrenaline-inspiring 533kW-punching 5.2 litre twin-turbocharged V12. Nobody has spared the horses here.
Then there’s the history bit. Both ‘DBS’ and ‘Superleggera’ are resurrections. DBS of the superb Aston Martin touring sports cars, while the Superleggera badge has it’s own story.
BUILD FEATURES: Marvel at its honeycomb grille. Photo: SUPPLIED
Superleggera in Italian means ‘super light’, and is a construction techno- logy developed by Italian coachbuilder Carozzeria Touring and patented in 1936. It consists of small-diameter steel tubes covered with thin alloy body panels. Besides being light, it allowed for greater design flexibility, so manufacturers could tweak body shapes far quicker and more easily than before.
The Superleggera nameplate was first licensed to Aston Martin for the DB4, DB5 and DB6 and was also seen on some Ferraris, Lambo 350GT and Alfa Romeos.
Nobody builds on a spate chassis anymore so the Superleggera moniker is kwaai advertising. The new DBS lives up to this Superleggera heritage by using a lightweight bonded aluminium structure featuring forged double wishbones in front, multi-link system at rear and carbon fibre body panels for a dry weight of 1 693kg. But you could never call it a lightweight, rocking the zero to hero in 3.4 seconds flat and topping out at 338km/h .
BEAST: Produces 533kW with its 5.2 litre twin-turbocharged V12 engine . Photo: SUPPLIED
Other build features are the dominating honeycomb grille, aggressive splitters and rear double-diffusers that create a combined 180kg of downforce, the highest ever for a production Aston. A new quad exhaust arrangement adds the required sense of command and assertion one would expect from this much sophisticated power.
The interior, again, is beautiful. Aston Martin brings Sports Plus performance seats, keyless entry, a 360 degree camera and all the other must-haves without any needless fluff. This is sheer sophistication with real muscle.
The DBS Superleggera is available for order in SA at around R5.5 to R6 million. Apparently there are already some takers. Look out for one in Cape Town before year-end.