WHAT HAPPENS WHEN AN UNSTOPPABLE force meets an immovable object? It's a paradox that runs through the Iain Banks novel Walking on Glass, and it's got into my head as I drive the DBS 770 Ultimate across Wales. The DBS is an unmistakably heavy car. The steering efforts reflect this and you sense it when you scythe into a corner. And yet when the twin-turbo V12 comes on boost on just a modest throttle opening, the 770 Ultimate seems to weigh nothing... until you want it to stop or change direction again, and on these dip and dive, nip and tuck Welsh B-roads, you want it to do that a lot.
This last-of-the-line DBS ticks a lot of boxes on the list of 'Things a car can do to intimidate you': it's very expensive, it's very wide, you sit so low you can't see the bonnet, and it's obviously heavy yet ludicrously accelerative. Sounds like the perfect recipe for a nervy, sweaty-palm drive, especially given the rain-slick roads, and yet I'm relishing the challenge, absorbed in the process, engaged with the car and exploiting its considerable strengths to make prodigious progress. This is a DBS like no other before it.
If you polled everyone who's driven what we can now call the standard DBS, asking them what the car needs, the answer 'more power' would come way down the list below a carbon fibre carriage clock and an Alcantara umbrella stand. But more power is what the DBS 770 Ultimate has, the uplift from 715 to 759bhp (770 PS) making it the most powerful series production Aston Martin of all time. It even pips the limited-run One-77 and its 750bhp, 7.3-litre, naturally aspirated V12.
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Esta historia es de la edición July 2023 de Evo UK.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
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BEST BUYS BMW M CARS
THE PERFORMANCE CAR LANDSCAPE WOULD HAVE looked very different over the last five decades without BMW. Its M division, founded in 1972, has produced some of the best driver’s cars ever to hit the road, and in the process has provided a stream of benchmark models for its rivals to chase. In recent years, stricter emissions regulations, downsizing and electrification have seen some of those rival cars falter, yet by and large BMW’s M machines have remained strong. In fact, some rank among the greatest the department has made think of the eCoty-winning M2 CS and M5 CS while others are the only options worth recommending in their respective segments. Price tags have risen with performance, however, putting those latest offerings out of reach for many, but the marque’s popularity means there are numerous earlier M models available on the second-hand market for far more attainable figures. Here are four of our favourites.
TYRE 2024 TEST
Want to fit the very best tyres to your performance car? The annual evo Tyre Test identifies the cream of the current crop
HONDA ACCORD TYPE R
A liberal sprinkling of Honda Type R fairy dust on the late-'90s Accord produced an unlikely evo icon and a genuine performance bargain
TOY STORY
Where best to store some of Toyota’s most prized and valuable racing superstars? Under the wind tunnel at its Cologne HO, of course...
POWER PLAY
It develops 819bhp. It has no turbochargers, no hybrid assistance. Ferrari describes it as the most complete GT it's ever made. And it’s so proud of its mighty V12 engine it’s named the whole car after it. This is the 12 Cilindri
THE FIRST SAMURAIS
Japan has been responsible for many of our favourite driver's cars of recent decades, but their ancestors are often much less well known. We take a look at where the big manufacturers began their performance car journeys
DEFINITELY. NO MAYBE
Three Japanese performance icons - Lexus LFA, Subaru Impreza 22B and Nissan GT-R. Over three days on some of our favourite roads we explore what makes each uniquely thrilling, but also the car culture that unites them
1V3.0
F1, P1... and now W1. The next chapter in McLaren's Ultimate Series is the British firm's challenger to the forthcoming new Ferrari hypercar and a £2million, 1257bhp, hybrid-powered, technical tour de force
Thornley Kelham European RS
One man’s dream to build the perfect Porsche 911 has resulted inthis aaticMously restored and enhanced classic. We delve into the details and take it for a drive
Bentley Continental GT Speed
The new Continental GT is the most powerful Bentley ever, and the beginning of anew plug-in hybrid era for Crewe. But is it still a benchmark grand tourer?
