English Class

Except Brown wasn't kidding. From its founding in 1913 until 2005, Aston Martin never once made a profit and passed through a variety of owners characterized by current CEO Ulrich Bez as "nice people but never businesspeople." And there were numerous bankruptcies. "I think six, maybe seven," says Bez, the German former Porsche exec and race-car driver who had a major hand in finally making Aston profitable.

His partner was Ford, which bought a majority stake in Aston Martin in 1987, when the company couldn't even afford to develop a new model. Indeed, Aston Martin had been reduced to slapping fender flares, ugly front clips, and rejiggered grilles onto the ancient DB6 design, further burdened by a clunky V-8. Ford set its best designer, Ian Callum, to styling what became the DB9, the first of the Ford-era Astons. Although Ford sold Aston Martin in 2007, the design language Callum created remains in the line: the entry-level V-8 Vantage ($119,500), the hard-core DB9 V-12 ($182,450), and the luxe DBS V-12 ($269,000).

The newest standard-bearer, the DBS Volante ($282,500), is a convertible version of the DBS coupe. It would be presumptuous to say it's worth every penny, but it is a car without competition in its category--though Ferrari is rumored to be developing a drop-top version of its 599 V-12 coupe, currently the only other car a buyer might cross-shop based on price.

The DBS Volante has two features that traditionalists like me appreciate. There's the superb cloth top--not one of those pretzeling metal ones--that makes the car really look like a convertible when it's up, particularly if it's in a contrasting color. And you are offered the classic choice between a fully automatic six-speed transmission or a six-speed manual clutch rather than the à la mode paddle-shifters.

Whether you clutch or not, the DBS Volante is a high-performance monster--the solidest open car that I've ever driven. (Cutting off a coupe's roof typically weakens the structure.) With 420 foot-pounds of torque from its 510-horsepower engine, the car accelerates instantly, a charge-of-the-light-brigade bugling coming from the exhaust. Loping along at 140 mph on an English motorway with the top down, I found the Volante's unruffled cockpit the perfect place to be on a sunny day in the Cotswolds. The car would be equally at home on a Riviera Corniche or the Amalfi Drive, though you might not ever get it out of third.