Even launch management is easy. Put the 2022 Aston Martin DBX707 into Sport+, jam the brake, jam the gasoline, maintain till the cluster flashes purple, then explode. 

Aston’s strongest manufacturing model of the Mercedes-AMG twin-turbo 4.0-liter V-8 is excellent. Within the daybreak of electrification, it’s additionally endangered, which makes this swan track one bittersweet symphony. 

With a lot of the 664 lb-ft of torque shifting to the rear axle and the DBX707’s extensive haunches, the SUV pulls passengers again with sufficient power to imagine, if just for a second, they is likely to be left behind. The manic howl of the V-8 facilities it, and although a few of the engine be aware is piped in by means of the audio system, it roars with all of the precision promised by peak industrial revolution. The threatened beast belies its 5,109-lb curb weight to launch from 0-60 mph in 3.1 seconds, and I’ve simply begun to flirt with third gear. 

The efficiency variant of Aston’s bestselling DBX SUV carries a number of superlatives but to be confirmed, however the beautiful engine’s 707 metric horsepower interprets to 697 hp, making it extra highly effective than its aggressive ultra-luxury set, together with the Bentley Bentayga, Lamborghini Urus, and Aston’s benchmark, the 631-hp Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT that additionally has a 60 mph mark of three.1 seconds. Take it to the ’Ring. 

The DBX707 is much more highly effective than the model’s V12 Vantage, which is powered by a twin-turbocharged V-12 that makes a measly 690 hp. 

Together with that coupe, the DBX707 squarely places Aston the place it desires to be on the pinnacle of efficiency. For greater than a century, the bespoke British model was referred to as a lot for dropping cash as for its beautiful touring automobiles popularized by the James Bond franchise. 

“That is the place we’re going to place the model from now,” CEO Tobias Moers defined on the press drive I attended final week in Italy. “The 707 and V12 Vantage are a special interpretation of the model.”

Moers is aware of a factor or many about efficiency. Earlier than he started righting the ship on the helm of Aston Martin in 2020, he was CEO of Mercedes-AMG and instrumental within the partnership between Aston and the AMG V-8. The previous mechanical engineer carries himself like a gearhead fanatic, particularly when giving sizzling laps within the DBX707 in Aston’s proving grounds in England in March. 

“It’s good to see the boss having fun with his new toy,” Angus MacKenzie wrote in MotorTrend. 

His enthusiasm was as evident weeks later on the first drive program in Sardinia, a mountainous island rising out of Italy’s a part of the Mediterranean Sea. The DBX707 units the course as the brand new flagship.

It comes at a vital time in an business shifting to electrification, each to fulfill emissions rules and to squeeze extra efficiency out of 4 wheels. That swan track is intoxicating, burbling from quad stainless-steel exhaust pipes nestled in a fats rear diffuser that stands out like envy from the usual DBX and its 542-hp twin-turbo V-8. The additional output is available in half from revised gas and valve mapping, and from an up to date exhaust system flowing from ball-bearing turbochargers.

The chunky twin rear diffuser takes inspiration from Aston’s Valhalla hypercar. Different adjustments to the low-slung physique of the five-seat SUV embody a bigger and wider entrance grille, the six horizontal bars of that are two-tiered to visually separate it from the usual DBX. The entrance sports activities a revised splitter for added downforce, whereas grille and extra air intakes on the facet and decrease grille assist cool the beast underneath the hood. Out again, a break up roof spoiler creates downforce over the raked rear window. A single rear gentle bar rises like a mustache throughout the extensive and muscular rear finish. 

On the perimeters, fender vents entrance and rear assist cool off the 6-piston calipers and large carbon-ceramic brakes, at 16.5 inches in diameter up entrance and 15.4 inches in again. My take a look at automobile had the carbon-fiber bundle, in addition to the out there 23-inch wheels (22s are commonplace) wrapped in Pirelli P Zero tires. Sure, they’re equally huge and the dual five-spoke wheels push the celebrities to this point to the sting of night time on such low profile tires that the physique appears to drift on them. Solely in Terrain mode, which raises the three-chamber air suspension from a regular floor clearance of seven.9 inches to eight.7 inches, does a wheel properly hole seem.

In contrast to the usual DBX, there’s no Terrain+ mode and drivers ought to test their heads earlier than off-roading with this beautiful efficiency machine, however $240,000, together with a $3,086 vacation spot price, enables you to do what you need. We used it on a mud highway, by means of a pair inches of standing water, and up a farm highway, and the milling sheep didn’t query it.

In Sport mode, it lowers 0.8 inch to about 7.1 inches, after which there’s an off-load setting that lowers it much more to about 6.9 inches. I saved it largely in Sport and Sport+ modes, as a result of that’s what the roads of Sardinia demanded.

Think about the Angeles Crest freeway rising exterior of L.A., however snaking by means of slender Italian villages the place the velocity drops from about 90 mph all the way down to 25 mph. With the azure sea glinting within the distance, the highway clings like goats to the ridgetop as dropoffs disappear into the valley beneath. Washouts are frequent, and new concrete and guardrails lighten lengthy stretches of serpentining tarmac. On the opposite facet of the height, the Sardinians constructed partial tunnels to carry the mountain overhead, with picturesque columns supporting the descending facet. The views are as beautiful because the automobile, and dangerously distracting.

Stiffer suspension mounts for the double wishbone suspension up entrance and multilink rear suspension assist the DBX take in the contours of the uneven highway, and the upgraded damper valving of the 707 retains the physique tight and the lean to a minimal. The load is evenly balanced at 52/48 entrance/rear, and the AWD system sends 100% of the torque to the rear axle at launch. An digital locking rear differential shifts the grip naturally on the winding roads, so you possibly can keep each velocity and lateral steadiness even because it ping pongs between curves. All that weight pushes ahead when braking, and Aston’s digital lively roll management sends 50% of the torque to the entrance axle to raised handle it. From Sport to Sport+ mode, the e-ARC alters the air spring charges for a tenser, extra spirited trip. However the steering really feel doesn’t change between these modes, and the steering doesn’t appear to agency up at larger speeds, but it pinpoints the driving force’s inputs. 

After one bend, I virtually hit a goat. Luckily, the brakes do their job and little buddy descends down the hill facet unphased. Regardless of the scale of the brakes, they don’t have the preliminary laborious chunk of another efficiency automobiles. It feels extra linear, much less progressive, which may very well be good or dangerous, relying on the roadway and the kind of driving. On a monitor, you may want extra chunk. On the highway, much less chunk means passengers don’t jerk ahead.

One other large distinction from the DBX is that Aston swaps the 9-speed computerized transmission’s torque converter for a moist multi-plate clutch. Not solely does it assist handle all the additional torque, it additionally delivers shifts in a snap that Aston says are 40% faster. A drive mode button within the middle console homes a handbook mode that may maintain the transmission in handbook till the driving force decides in any other case. Or, there are paddle shifters with a trick or two up their column-mounted sleeves. On steep uphill passes, after I must downshift from eighth to 4th or decrease, I maintain the downshift paddle for an additional beat and it downshifts to the bottom allowable gear for the throttle enter. In auto mode, it shifts faster and extra effectively than me, but it surely’s good to have enter regardless of how far off I could also be, like in a marital spat.  

Essentially the most stunning factor concerning the DBX707 isn’t its efficiency chops, as blistering as they’re. It’s how quiet and composed it rides round city and on the highways. Even on 23s. Acoustic laminated glass and tons of sound deadener maintain the highway from the cabin, and the engine solutions solely when known as upon. 

This fulfills the ultra-luxury a part of its mission, as do soft-close doorways and luxurious Bridge of Weir leather-based constituted of Scottish highland bulls unfettered by barbed wire and bugs. There’s some missed alternatives with the gauges: a hp and torque meter could be discovered within the middle display, however Aston supplies no show of lively axle load or a g-force meter. A touchscreen is coming for the mid-cycle refresh, and possibly then it should get extra efficiency gauges. 

The DBX707 upholds the promise of the SUV kind, with straightforward ingress and egress, and luxury for my 6-foot-5 drive associate in each the entrance and rear seats. It has all of the roominess and adaptability you need out of an SUV, together with energy folding rear seats from the second-row seat belt harness or from the cargo space.

The ultra-lux efficiency SUV is a really slender area of interest, but it surely’s one Aston Martin exploits with the DBX707. Moers expects it to account for 60-65% of all DBX gross sales, which already account for greater than half of all Aston gross sales. Because the launch of the DBX, Aston’s losses have ebbed, and the $180,000 DBX will proceed to circulate. The monetary climb to the $240,000 707 is a small one for purchasers who anticipate the perfect. 

It’s a riot.   

Aston Martin paid for airfare and lodging for Motor Authority to deliver you this firsthand report.