Aston Martin DBX707

Our DBX laps Silverstone alongside rare and expensive company at the British Grand Prix weekend

BOND WAS CAUTIOUS AFTER THE camera cars had peeled off the circuit. At the front of the field the pair of Valkyries – a road car and a track-only Pro – had bolted, their vulnerable V12s in need of some fast cooling air after a 40mph lap of filming. Yet for all their downforce and searing speed they couldn’t compete with the riotous pair behind them: a DB3S and DB4 GT Zagato. The former’s disdain for rear tyres could put Jethro’s antics to shame, the latter’s soundtrack was, I’d wager, the best the Silverstone crowd heard throughout the Grand Prix weekend.

But BMT 216A was playing it safe. Along the Hamilton Straight its straight-six was stretched, yet through turn one and the fiddly sequence that follows it took it easy, as you would if you found yourself behind the wheel of a £3.3m asset.

Into Luffield the 2023 Formula 1 Vantage Safety Car was anxty. Its eight-speed ZF was in second, its twin-turbo V8 hovering around the red line. As it entered the old pit straight the revs dropped as third was selected. Now a decision had to be made: stick behind Bond or pass? He went for it, giving the Silver Birch DB5 enough room to avoid its body-tearing wheel spinners, and bolted for Copse. I did the same in the evo DBX707 that had found itself at the pointy end of Aston Martin’s 110th anniversary parade lap.

The Vantage pulled only a small gap on the 707, MVD’S torrent of grunt from its more powerful Amg-sourced V8 not prepared to embarrass itself in front of the Friday-evening crowd. Although I nearly did when forgetting the Safety Car runs a set of sticky Michelin Cup 2 tyres and our Fast Fleeter doesn’t. It meant the entry to Copse was a little brisk, the middle a bit of a mess and the clean(ish) exit a welcome relief. No amount of bribery was going to stop my daughter telling her mother how much fun that was. I’m glad someone enjoyed that particular moment.

Maggotts is fierce from an SUV’S perch, Becketts another opportunity for embarrassment, but with a little more self-control the 707 completed the task before thundering along the Hangar Straight at 130-plus mph.

Stowe is a brake-eater, Vale ready to catch out those who consider it a simple 90-left, and the long right onto the start-finish straight feels the most important corner of the circuit if you want a good lap time. Aston Martin, and certainly not Silverstone, didn’t want any lap records setting though, and before the fun became an insurance claim MVD was heaving for breath and trying to keep cool in the 30-degree ambient temperatures back at AM’S new F1 team campus (not a factory). I think it enjoyed it more than the lap of the M25 it had completed the day before.

Embarrassingly, that lap and a bit of Silverstone was the most exciting thing the DBX and I have done this month. The miles pile on, the glances – the vast majority admiring/ positive – continue, and fuel continues to be drunk at a near-unacceptable rate.

Date acquired April 2023 Total mileage 6718 Mileage this month 1821 Costs this month £0 mpg this month 21.6