ASTON DBX · CAYMAN GTS · LAMBO RATROD
An Aston Martin off-roader? Yup, and six driving modes, five ride heights and Oman for us to play with
We drive Aston’s SUV and have some exciting Porsche news. Also, Toyota’s building a city and Sony’s building a car. Because 2020
Normally in an Aston Martin, off-road equals end of the road. But not now. This is the DBX, and it’s just getting started. There are six driving modes and five ride heights to choose from, 95mm of total suspension rise and fall. But it’s early in Oman and I haven’t woken up, so I don’t feel the DBX lift 15mm when I engage Terrain mode. Not sure I needed it anyway. The DBX is assured as it gains altitude – no sudden lurch or crash, firmer than a Range Rover, but traction is good, it clambers calmly.
This is not the finished article. You knew that by the litter of sponsor decals, more a distraction than a disguise. But with a low roof, 22s and short, plunging bonnet, it’s surprising how big it doesn’t look. Inside, the dash is a glare of error lights. Yep, this is a development car. Its origins are interesting. Usually, the exterior design team gets first crack of the whip, but chief engineer Matt Becker tells me that “based on our experience from the Rapide we knew the occupants were the most important thing, so when we started the concept for this car we fitted the people in first and then designed everything else around them”. It’s big inside. Genuinely, surprisingly big.
The 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 and nine-speed auto drivetrain is from Mercedes, the platform is Aston’s own, a unique bonded extruded aluminium chassis, with chunky aluminium cast nodes at the corners to support the suspension. The rear wheels can handle all the torque if necessary, the fronts up to 47 per cent. The centre differential is from an E63, but there’s no drift mode. Hardly a necessity.
Despite 542bhp, it’s not the fire-breather here it is in the Vantage or various hot AMGs. Power arrives progressively, ramping up through the mid-range, the noise is lighter, less thumping. Fast, but in a sophisticated way. But above all, on Oman’s early morning roads the DBX feels... well, playful describes it best. It’s confidence inspiring, alert and eager. Comfortable, too. While the Lamborghini Urus is all-out, waging war on the physics, the DBX has a softer core. Despite having the most powerful 48V active anti-roll on the market, able to add 1400Nm of twist to the front and rear roll bars in 0.2secs, the DBX isn’t scared of a little roll. The steering isn’t artificially sharp or sudden, its responses are more deliberate, but also faithful and accurate. The body feels stiff, the suspension placid.
I try to think of others in the luxury SUV class I enjoy driving more and the answer that comes to me over the course of the day is… none. But I sort of expected that. This, like the DBS Superleggera, is a natural Aston
Martin. It carries itself well. Aston has over 1,800 advance orders. That’s a start, but they’ll need to get customers into dealerships – it’s only in the flesh that you pick up the subtleties in the bodywork and, perhaps more importantly, realise how genuinely capacious it is. Visually, it’s less of a blunderbuss than others, so slips past the eco-sensors that bit more easily. But for the time being V8 is it – no hybrid, no electric version has yet been announced.
And that’s before we get to the real sticking point: build quality. The tie-up with Merc has improved things enormously, but the challenges of this car being built on a brand new line, by a brand new workforce, in a brand new factory at St Athan in Wales, can’t be under-estimated. They need to get it right from the word go. If they do, the DBX deserves to do well.
“THE DBX HAS A SOFTER CORE... IT ISN’T SCARED OF A LITTLE ROLL”