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.
Bu hikaye Evo UK dergisinin July 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Bu hikaye Evo UK dergisinin July 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
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.
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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
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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
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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
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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?
