2013 Aston Martin DB9 Review

Tweaked for more power and boasting an edgier range of technology, the 2013 Aston Martin DB9marks more of an evolution of the car’s soul rather than its beautiful body.

From the front the new DB9 is the spitting image of the now discontinued Aston Martin Virage – adopting the same elongated headlamp assembly with LED daytime running lamps.

Aston says it’s made subtle improvements to the front splitter for improved airflow to the carbon-ceramic brakes, but seriously, you’ll be hard pressed spotting those.

The similarities extend to the rear of the car too, except the latest Aston Martin DB9 gets a new ‘flipped up’ boot spoiler for reduced lift, along with more muscular rear haunches for slightly stronger differentiation between the two models.

Inside, we were hoping for Vanquish-grade ergonomics with its lowered centre console and new centre stack, but the layout remains largely unchanged from the outgoing DB9, except for the proper polished glass switchgear.

You can smell the leather-infused aroma oozing out of the Bridge of Weir hides, as you sink into the most perfectly cocooning sports pews – only this time there’s a hand-stitched welt running down either side of the console, which requires a 1.8-metre continuous piece of leather.

The low-slung seats and small-ish diameter steering wheel in the DB9 combine to provide the prefect driving position, ensuring the driver feels at one with the car.

Everything is special inside here. It’s all real metal, real glass and real carbonfibre – several levels above luxury.

The real surprise, perhaps, is that it actually costs less than the outgoing DB9. Priced from $349,500 for the Coupe and $380,500 for the Volante (tested) the latest iteration of Aston Martin’s grand tourer offers savings of $12,455 and $12,463, respectively.

Mechanically, there’s more of the same under the DB9’s alloy bonnet, with Aston’s 6.0-litre V12 that’s powered it since launch.

The difference is this time there’s a revised block, new head and various other tweaks that bump power and torque up to 380kW and 620Nm – increases of 30kW and 19Nm respectively.

That’s enough to propel the Aston Martin DB9 from 0-100km/h in 4.6 seconds and onto a top speed of 295km/h.

But even with the engine upgrades, the DB9 Volante is outgunned by several lower-priced rivals – at least from a standing start. The BMW M6 Convertible is priced from $308,500 and can reach 100km/h in 4.4 seconds, as can the $363,500 Jaguar XKR-S Convertible.

The brakes have also been uprated to massive cross-drilled, carbon-ceramic rotors with six-pot Brembo calipers up front, and four down back, for proper fade-free stopping, all day long.

The DB9 boasts the same ‘Gen4’ VH architecture as the more expensive Vanquish, which is not only stiffer than the previous car, but also includes Aston’s next-generation adaptive damping and all-round double wishbone suspension.

Push the crystal-tipped glass key fob into its spring-loaded slot and hold firm until the V12 lets out its signature bark. While we love the aural component, it all feels a bit too theatrical in this age of keyless entry and push button start.

Like all current Astons with the electronically controlled Touchtronic2 six-speed transmission, drive modes are engaged by a series of glass buttons at the top of the centre console (P, R, N and D), rather than a conventional shifter.

Below these are three more glass buttons that control the suspension damping (Normal, Sport and Track modes) along with a sport button.

There aren’t many corners along Miami’s South Beach strip, so we set off with the suspension locked in its most comfortable setting.

As far as we can make out, potholes and busted-up roads don’t exist in the Miami Dade County, but those insignificant-looking expansion joints are properly felt in the DB9, even in the normal suspension setting.

They’re not enough to unsettle the chassis (that’s rock solid stable), but it’s a very firm setting to be classed as ‘Normal’.

We tried the other two settings and frankly, they may as well have been labelled Firmer and Firmest. It’s not quite in the bone-shattering category, but still way too stiff for anything other than billiard-ball-smooth US highways.

The upside is that body roll is simply non-existent in the DB9 allowing for high-speed cornering while remaining utterly composed and planted.

Tap the Sport button, load up the throttle and start throwing the big Aston into a few corners and the DB9 suddenly morphs from a capable GT to bona-fide sports car.

The DB9’s hydraulic steering is extraordinarily good – Astons are like that. Perfectly weighted, very quick and with scalpel-like precision for racecar-like directness and feedback, which only serve to enhance the driving experience.

You’ll need more than twisty canyon roads to get anywhere near the handling limits of the DB9 – it’s a tremendously well balanced machine that urges you to keep piling on the power for more of that deeply emotive V12 howl.

Wind it up to 5000-plus-rpm on the dial and you’ve got 620Nm of twist for all the overtaking grunt you could ever need. Its all the more enjoyable in the soft-top Volante.

It feels properly quick from anywhere in the rev range and there’s a tonne of grip, but dial up a moderate dose of over-zealous throttle and the DB9 will light up the P Zeros down back.

Better still, pull the magnesium-fashioned right paddleshifter and you’ve got full control of the transmission.

There are no electronics to shift gears for you in this mode (definitely a good thing) – hold any ratio long enough, and you’ll be bouncing off the rev limiter until you shift up – manually.

The DB9’s Touchtronic transmission is certainly smooth-shifting, but it can’t match the more common (in this class) dual-clutch transmissions for sheer gearbox response and driver involvement.

But these irks don’t spoil what is essentially a class-leading GT-slash-sports car that has been bolstered for even better performance.

Aston Martin has really nailed it with the latest DB9. This is a much improved and more focused car than its predecessor, a figurehead of English automotive styling with a bit of added grunt.

Throw in the cut-down pricing and it’s all the motivation cashed-up punters will need to stake their claim on a classic.

Source : http://www.caradvice.com.au/218925/2013-aston-martin-db9-review/

Categories: Aston Martin

2013 Aston Martin Rapide Review

The Aston Martin Rapide is one of seven fast four-doors available for buyers with about $380,000 crammed in their back pocket, so it’s fair to say that it needs to make a convincing case for itself beyond being a sex synonym and sharing space on a Daniel Craig pin-up.

Made in Austria since its launch in 2010, Rapide production has as of last year moved to the UK. It’s built on a stretched and upgraded version of the company’s rear-wheel-drive platform, codenamed ‘VH’, which debuted in the 2004 DB9.

At 5.02 metres long, the Aston Martin stretches beyond a Commodore, yet it seats only two in the back seat, offering as much rear legroom as a BMW 1 Series coupe, and packs a 317-litre boot – smaller than that in a VW Golf.

So the $371,300 Aston Martin Rapide isn’t exactly the practical choice, and it certainly isn’t a limousine, even if the metal-for-the-money equation is there. Weighing in at 1950kg, however, only theJaguar XJ Supersports is lighter (at 1915kg), not coincidentally because both cars are constructed out of aluminium. Most steel-constructed rivals wind the scales past two tonnes – including the 2525kgBentley Continental Flying Spur, 2175kg BMW 760Li, and 2120kg Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG – while the 1970kg Porsche Panamera Turbo and 1990kg Maserati Quattroporte are not far off.

Nothing succeeds in shifting weight like excess power, however. The Rapide has plenty from its 5.9-litre V12, the full 350kW and 600Nm filtering through a six-speed automatic to the rear wheels to achieve a 5.2 second 0-100km/h. Admittedly, those numbers aren’t particularly efficient considering the size of the engine, nor is the performance number as scorching as some in the class – an S63 AMG will get to 100km/h in 4.5 seconds; the Panamera Turbo in 3.9sec.

The Rapide’s 14.9L/100km claimed economy also pales alongside those rivals – Merc’s 10.6L/100km, Porsche’s 12.2L/100km – and blew out even further on test, to 20L/100km.

Despite the long front overhang with its aggressive shark-like nose, most of the engine sits behind the front axle line, which is good for dynamics. It also brings the glorious-sounding V12 a little closer to occupants. This is one of the world’s best-sounding engines, and more decibels are to be discovered when the sports exhaust button is pressed.

Beyond the sound, the Rapide connects to its driver via a brilliant speed-sensitive power steering system that boasts just 2.75 turns lock to lock. As light and effortless as most small cars around town, the steering reveals true precision and alacrity during hard driving.

The Aston also feels smaller than it is, and is wonderfully light on its feet, despite its SUV-like girth. The six-speed automatic is fluent and intuitive, melding into the background when commuting and then stepping up to deliver crisp downshifts when using the steering wheel-mounted paddle shifters in manual mode. A single gripe is that in auto-Sport mode, the gearbox is reluctant to hold lower gears, upshifting early and at inopportune moments.

To steer on flowing Australian country roads, the Aston Martin Rapide feels fantastically balanced and intimately rewarding, yet always safe and composed. When the road tightens, the extra-large 20-inch Bridgestone Potenza tyres provide prodigous amounts of grip, and the chassis shows off a remarkable resistance to understeer.

Despite the grip, the superbly calibrated stability control works in concert with the standard mechanical limited-slip differential to permit just a fraction of rear-end movement, which easily occurs when working in the top half of the tachometer and using the throttle – all 600Nm are chanelled to the rear wheels at 5000rpm, and the peak 350kW arrives just 1000 revs higher.

Standard adaptive dampers do a superb job of quelling impacts whatever the surface, ironing out all of the jarring and crashing that often occurs on cars that wear large, low-profile tyres. Around town the Rapide is comfortably compliant, yet on rougher roads also delivers remarkably tight body control.

The Sport mode tightens the suspension, yet it is an only marginally firmer derivation of what is a terrific standard setting. The tighter damping is most noticeable on rougher roads at speed, introducing a bounceiness that means the Sport setting is best left for ultra-smooth roads and racetracks.

When cruising on smooth tar, the level of road noise is minimal, although coarse chip surfaces kick up an awful roar common to many mainstream hatchbacks and almost entirely eliminated in a Mercedes S-Class. Best, then, to turn up the crisp 1000-watt Bang & Olufsen stereo system, which also helps to drown out the complaints from rear passengers.

Although the rear legroom issue is affected further by narrow rear doors that hinder entry and egress, the stitched-leather dashboard and velour headlining continues the (literally) feel-good factor inside. The dash design of the Rapide is borrowed from the now nine-year-old DB9, and some of the Brit brand’s old connection with Ford, Jaguar and Volvo is evident in the blinker stalks and power window switchgear (from a Jag XF) and green dot-matrix display (shared with a Volvo C30).

Large yet cramped, not particularly quick and very thirsty, the Aston Martin Rapide sidesteps all sense of pragmatism to truly appeal to the senses. To look at inside and out, hear its epic engine and audio system, and feel the excellence of its steering, ride and handling, it delivers more vivid overall rewards than any of its competitors…

Source : http://www.caradvice.com.au/206616/aston-martin-rapide-review-3/

Categories: Aston Martin