A usable supercar
For the price of a well-appointed house, you too could be driving in the lap of luxury, the wind blowing in your hair and the sound of a thundering herd of horses in your ears.
I spent some time recently at the wheel of what is best described as a symphony in aluminum and carbon fibre, the 2010 Aston Martin DBS Volante.
It’s an unusual vehicle in the “supercar” realm in that it is an eminently usable automobile, as at home burbling along at 30 km/h as it is at velocities beyond, well, never mind. (I’m not writing a confession ...).
It even has room for golf clubs in the smallish trunk.
Slipping into the cockpit, the driver is welcomed by form-hugging soft leather sport seats. A glass key inserts into a slot on the dash…push it and the 6.0-litre V12 engine rumbles to life - a sound that promises excitement, if you just press the gas pedal a little.
Mode selection for the optional sport shift automatic transmission is via buttons on the instrument panel. You have the option of letting the electronics handle the shifting or you can move through six shift points with paddle shifters mounted on the steering column—upshift with the right hand, down with the left. And that’s one of only two complaints I have: shifting while turning, requires the driver to slip a hand down the steering wheel to reach the paddle shifter and I hate shuffling paws while turning a steering wheel.
The other objection? The so-called 2+2 seating…if there are legs involved, there’s no space in back.
To heck with that. Who’s having the fun here anyway? Me!
Aston Martin’s 16th convertible has a layer of Thinsulate material added to the fabric top to insulate against sound and weather. Top up to top down takes just 14 seconds.
That’s the longest it takes to do most anything in this car. It is quick off the line and quick to pass. It turns heads and turns an appropriately quick quarter-mile as 420 lb.-ft. of torque put spurs to the V12’s 510 horses.
And what a joyful noise it makes while all this is going on – it’s a joyful sound of a happy engine going to work at a job it loves: going quickly.
It’s such a lovely sound; I was never tempted to turn on the specially-designed 13-speaker Bang & Olufsen audio system.
Getting into the twisty bits is an adventure of its own. The Volante transmission is rear-mounted, contributing to a near ideal weight distribution. The car corners like its on rails. Body roll doesn’t exist and the rear end stays where it’s supposed to be.
Stepping on the stop-pedal activates Carbon Ceramic Matrix (CCM) brakes in an astounding example of “whoa.”
Despite its sheer power, the Volante provides a smooth, sophisticated ride thanks to an adaptive damping system that comes into action at the precise moment it’s needed.
Go for ice cream; go for groceries; go for a blast on the track…the DBS Volante is at home with any of those tasks. Put a proper set of snow tires on it and I suspect it would be at home on the snowy range as well.
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