Motoring News
Aston Martin DB9
By
Sep 9, 2004, 14:06

 2004 promises to be a significant year for one of the most celebrated British marques of all. Aston Martin has had more brushes with bankruptcy than James Bond has had shaken vodka Martinis, but the company is steeling itself for a veritable product avalanche. In six weeks’ time, it launches its hot new DB9 model, the replacement for Aston’s most successful car, the DB7. A gorgeous convertible Volante will follow six months later.

And this time next year, Aston will be poised to go Porsche 911-chasing with its new “small” Vantage model. Together with the thunderous Vanquish, of which Aston has sold more than 1,000 since 2001, this three-pronged product assault should take the company into profitability by 2006. Its total sales target by then will be about 5,000 cars.

This is a remarkable reversal of fortune, given that as recently as 1993 the company produced a mere 43 cars. Its renaissance has its roots in the Ford buyout of 1994 and the introduction of the DB7 that same year. But it is only since the arrival of Dr Ulrich Bez as chief executive three years ago that a sustained product development plan has been put in place.

Bez, fresh from saving Daewoo from financial meltdown and after long stints at BMW and Porsche, immediately and controversially shredded Aston’s existing strategy. This brought him into direct conflict with the ebullient Jac Nasser, Ford’s then president. But it was Bez who prevailed.

Plans for a mid-engined car were shelved, Aston pushing ahead instead with Bez’s big idea, the versatile “V-H” aluminium structure at the heart of the DB9 and Vantage. Vastly stiffer and much lighter than the old car’s underpinnings, it also gives Aston a crucial competitive advantage as it limbers up for the fight against Ferrari and Porsche, the industry heavyweights.

“The DB9 is the backbone of the range, as the DB7 was,” Bez said, “but with our new platform we have the chance to make variants and tailor volumes. We could make 300 bespoke models or 30 and we can be very fast. Faster than Ferrari, for example. We can lead the market rather than just following it.” Nor are these nods to tailoring merely a purist-pleasing affectation. Indeed, the limited edition DB7 Zagato — in effect, a DB7 testimonial — was launched recently at Gieves & Hawkes, the Savile Row gentlemen’s outfitter. Only 99 will be made and, even at £160,000 apiece, the order book is heavily oversubscribed.

But if Aston’s ambitions are to be realised, it is the performance of the DB9 that really counts and, after an exclusive two-hour preview drive on some of Britain’s toughest roads, I would say that success is guaranteed.

The DB9 is a stunningly graceful car at a time when designers seem to be over-egging the pudding. A honed, toned evolution of the Ian Callum-designed DB7, the new car bristles with clever detailing and its body has a tightness that confirms Bez’s reputation as a perfectionist.

Better still is its interior, an area in which the old car was disappointing. State-of-the-art equipment sits with the traditional wood and leather accoutrements — although bamboo is one of the many trim options. There is a 950-watt Linn hi-fi, bespoke (there’s that word again) to the DB9, while Aston describes the car’s information read-outs as “organic electroluminiscent”. I’m not sure what this means, but the graphics are beautifully resolved and tiny perforations in the aluminium-faced instrument binnacle give the whole thing an expensive glow. It looks modern, too, and there are no Ford handme-downs; the geriatric Granada bits in the DB7 rather took the edge off the experience.

One flex of the throttle pedal later and the only read-out you will be interested in is the one registering your speed. The DB9 hurls you so quickly towards illegality, it is genuinely breathtaking. The engine might be a detuned 450 brake horsepower version of the 6.0-litre V12 found in the Vanquish, but there is nothing detuned about its performance. Bez says that the car has a more “senior feel” compared with its siblings, which is a bit like saying that Reggie Kray was less aggressive than Ronnie.

The DB9 still blasts its way to 60mph in under five seconds — and makes a beautiful noise while doing so — before hitting a 186mph maximum. Software refinements in its paddle-shift automatic gearbox ensure that up and down shifts are swift and smooth. There are plenty of cars just as fast, but where the Aston scores is in the way it blends its huge performance with a sublime set of manners, cossetting its passengers while still slicing its way through difficult roads with confidence. It is more comfortable than a Porsche 911 and its handling is almost as good. Now that’s a serious combination.

Aston Martin might be American-owned and presided over by a German, but it is still a great British name — and after 89 turbulent years, it has never been in better shape. No need for the rose-tinted specs here, then.