Aston Martin DBS Superleggera 2018 review

New flagship super-GT has world-class fast grand touring capability, handling and driver involvement. Stunning, searingly rapid and yet deliciously cultured Imagine a car market without a Volkswagen Golf in it; or a Mercedes-Benz S-Class, Porsche 911, BMW 3 Series or Range Rover, for that matter. A vastly poorer place, isn’t it?Some cars have such stature within, and defining influence on, the segments they inhabit that their creators might feel duty–bound to keep on making them until the waters rise and the sky falls in.These cars have defining, emblematic influence, too, on the character of the companies that make them — to the point that to fail to renew these cars would look like an act of wilful self-harm. These are cars that the industry responsible for them genuinely needs, I reckon — as archetypes, standard bearers and beacons by which to navigate.So, is 'the big Aston' — the large, fast, beautiful, desirable, soulful and sporting GT coupé, made as only Aston knows how — part of that rarefied group? Perhaps not quite; not yet, anyway. But it could be. Should be, I’d venture, after we all get to know Gaydon’s latest 12-cylinder flagship ‘Super-GT’, the new DBS Superleggera — because I’m not sure I’ve ever driven a better example of this singularly wonderful breed.Aston has flip-fopped between model identities for its biggest, fastest and most powerful coupé since 2001, when the original Vanquish was introduced. There was a DBS before the one that came along in 2007, causing a hiatus in the Vanquish lineage, and it filled the gap between the demise of the DB6 and the introduction of the V8.The reasoning behind this latest shift in nomenclature feels more permanent than Aston’s old naming mood swings, however. And that’s because there is room for both a new Vanquish and a new DBS in Aston’s life-giving new ‘second century’ business plan — the former name due to be moved to the company’s first mid-engined, series-production supercar due to enter production in 2021 as an alternative to the Ferrari 488 and McLaren 720S.The DBS nameplate, meanwhile, returns to describe the big-hitting grand touring coupé that the outgoing Vanquish S so evocatively and indulgently played. As for the ‘Superleggera’ part? "Why not,” explained Aston design director Marek Reichman. “If Ferrari can adopt English-language descriptors for its V12 coupés, we can certainly help ourselves to Italian ones.”

via Autobuzz ^Today