For the 2008 model year,
Aston Martin was looking to refresh their supercar lineup. The outgoing Vanquish S had been a great success, and the company knew that they would have to make quite an effort to replace that vehicle in the hearts and minds of buyers and automotive journalists alike. Sensing an opportunity with the release of the next James Bond film, a franchise that the car company had always been associated with,
Aston Martin hastily put together a mockup of their replacement. In 2006, theatre-goers got their first taste of what would become the 2008
Aston Martin DBS.
The DBS is an absolute monster of a car, with a hand-built V12 engine making 510 horsepower. This 6.0 liter engine can propel the two-seat
Aston Martin to 60 miles per hour in only 4.3 seconds, and pulls hard all the way up to an aerodynamically limited 191 miles per hour. This is particularly impressive given the fact that the hefty DBS tips the scales at 3750 pounds – not gargantuan, but certainly no lightweight.
Aston Martin claims that the V12 is similar in many ways to the models found in their DBR9
race cars, only slightly detuned.
Engineers at
Aston Martin did the best to keep the weight down by using aluminum to form the chassis and a combination of magnesium alloy and carbon fiber while building the car’s body. The 48-valve engine is also made of a lightweight alloy, helping to preserve weight balance, and it is mounted behind the front wheels. The only transmission option is a 6-speed manual gearbox, giving the DBS a more visceral feel than some of its competitors who choose to use paddle-shifted automatics. In terms of electronic drivers aids, stability control and anti-lock brakes are present, as are enormous 6-piston calipers in the front and 4 piston units in the back that squeeze down on carbon-ceramic brakes.
Furthering the link to the race track, the entire structure of the chassis is built according to Aston Martin’s ‘VH’ concept, which translates into vertical/horizontal strengthening. The aim of this design is to preserve strength and rigidity without adding excessive weight to the overall structure. It also allows 85 percent of the vehicle’s mass to be set within its wheelbase, ensuring that very little weight hangs off the front or the rear of the car where it could disrupt cornering dynamics. Refreshingly, the aerodynamic treatment of the car has not followed the aggressive and outrageous treatment of most race-derived street vehicles, and subtle shaping of the body panels was enough to direct the wind where it was most needed to generate down force without contributing to drag.
The suspension system of the 2008
Aston Martin DBS allows for 5 different firmness settings. The Adaptive Damping System computer is in complete control of the vehicle’s suspension when set to normal driving mode, and it uses inputs from the throttle position sensor, brakes, vehicle speed and the rotation of the steering wheel to decided how responsive the suspension should be. If desired, the ADS system can be set to ‘Track’ which freezes the suspension in its most firm setting. Electronic stability control functions in much the same way, but while it too has a ‘Track’ setting, it does not completely disengage the electronic nannies. In order to fully escape their powers the driver must hold the DSC button for 4 seconds – twice as long as the standard disengagement. After all,
Aston Martin wants to make sure that drivers are really sure that they want to increase the chances of their DBS flipping end over end, as ended up happening to an unfortunate James Bond.
Images were reprinted with permissions from original author Rod Brito! Content was written by Benjamin Hunting for www.sport-cars.org only and you MAY NOT copy, distribute or use this page's content for any commercial or non-commerical purpose without written permission of this site owner and photos authors!
June 8, 2008, 9:18 am
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