ASTON MARTIN DBS 770 ULTIMATE - TESTED 26.4.23, GLOUCESTERSHIRE ON SALE SOLD OUT

Last-of-the-line DBS paves way for DB11 replacement and sets tone for all next-generation Astons. How excited should we be?

- RICHARD LANE 

On an improvised test route through the Cotswolds, time and again up crops the sort of corner that illustrates how surprisingly evolved Aston Martin's new DBS 770 Ultimate is from the regular DBS. 

Said corner lurks on snaking, quick, fairly narrow B-roads and is taken in second or third gear. It's smooth on the inside but corrugated on the hedge-lined outside - especially on the exit, where you also find dust, mud or, just for fun, standing water.

We have all taken this corner a million times, and it's one the regular DBS would get through without much difficulty but also, it must be said, without much panache. On the way in, you would lack the confidence needed to fully run the car's endless nose up against the edge of the road. Blame that hint of imprecision in the steering and general lack of transparency in the GT-flavoured chassis. Mid-corner, the most imperious Aston of the modern era would then take just a fraction too long to settle down and ready itself for the exit, during which the back axle would squat and bob chaotically as the V12 flared up, unapologetic while doling out all too generous slabs of its 664lb ft torque potential.

The limited-edition DBS 770 Ultimate (there will be 300 coupés and 199 Volantes, although they are sold out) is different; so subtly but meaningfully that it feels a bit miraculous. It cuts into these tricky kinds of corners cleanly, settles almost immediately, then on the way out its revised chassis essentially pulls the wrinkles out of the road, inspiring you to get very greedy indeed with the throttle pedal. And it does all of this while in general riding more effortlessly and gently than the regular car everywhere you go.

The nutshell is this: the DBS 770 Ultimate is what you would get if you fed Toyota's GR86 anabolic steroids and then packed it off to the same finishing school as the BMW M5 CS. All of which is to say that it's mind-blowingly good.