Quantum of Polish

Even James Bond would drool over Aston Martin's new range-topping supercar, reports Steve Colquhoun.

Aston Martin's latest offering is so expensive, so exclusive, that not even James Bond gets to drive it.

With a sticker price of $2.3 million, the Aston Martin One-77 easily gazzumps the $470,000 Aston Martin DBS driven by Daniel Craig in the Quantum of Solace and Casino Royale Bond films, and joins a supercar club that already includes the $3 million Bugatti Veyron and $2.9 million Ferrari FXX.

But in case you're getting excited about the super-sexy Aston, Australian buyers will need to kick in an additional $1.6 million in import duty, luxury car tax, GST and stamp duty. The result for affluent Australian Aston fans is a cool $4 million to own a One-77, now the most expensive new car.

That sticker shock hasn't been enough to deter at least one local buyer, who has reportedly lodged a $200,000 deposit to secure one of the 77 (hence the name) examples that will be built at Aston Martin's Warwickshire headquarters in Britain and delivered here in early 2010.

The One-77 will have a 7.0-litre V12 engine, the next generation of the 6.0-litre engine fitted to other Aston Martins, the DBS and the DB9. Its 522 kW and 700 Nm - thought to be capable of nailing 0-100km/h in 3.5 seconds and a top speed of about 350 km/h - doesn't quite stack up to the Veyron's awesome 736k W W16 engine and its 407 km/h performance but, says One-77 program manager Chris Porritt, it won't fail to put a smile on the face of the lucky few who get to drive them.

"The noise that comes through the exhaust when it starts up will be fantastic," he says. "It will sound like nothing you've ever imagined before.

"The big thing on this particular car is effortless ability to be able to get to speed, so you can imagine being able to accelerate in any gear faster than anything else on the road.

"It is beyond feeling fast, it's almost to the point of feeling a little bit, 'Should I be doing this?'"

And yes, unlike the Ferrari Scuderia Spider 16M in Drive last week, the One-77 will have full local certification including some seriously expensive crash testing at Volvo's crash lab in Sweden and can be registered and driven on Australian roads.

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