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Aston Martin DBX707 review

2 years ago

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Writer:

Andrew Frankel | Ti co-founder

Date:

25 July 2022

It seems a ridiculous thing to say about a 700 horsepower, two and a bit tonne SUV, but the overwhelming sense I had after driving this Aston Martin DBX707 (there’s no space between the letters and numbers at Boeing’s command) was what a thoughtfully executed car it was.

Yes, thoughtful. It is the most powerful SUV on sale in the UK and none is faster to 62mph. It has a top speed of 193mph which, knowing how conservative manufacturers have to be with such claims, means there are almost certainly conditions in which it would do 200mph. A 200mph SUV. The ultimate blunt instrument you might think.

Me too, until I drove it. It certainly looks brutal, the new front grille trading pulchritude for purpose in its mission to blow 30 per cent more air into the engine bay. New sills and a big rear wing visually lower the car, while the rims are 22in as standard, with a 23in option.

A bigger grille aids cooling and lends a more aggressive look

The engine is the same AMG 4-litre twin-turbo V8 found in the standard DBX and requires no internal modification whatsoever to raise its power from 542bhp to 697bhp, just some larger turbos. What can we divine from that? Simply that the engine was always designed for the higher output and has been artificially held back until now. A new wet clutch replaces the nine-speed auto’s torque converter for faster, snappier changes. It comes with its own tune for the suspension, rear e-diff, torque split and steering.

All of which suggests very strongly that this is a DBX turned up so far the dial’s starting a second lap and, objectively, that’s entirely true. Subjectively this is a far more nuanced machine than its appearance, bare facts and bald statistics might ever suggest.

It is, for instance, no heavier than a standard DBX, which is entirely counter-intuitive. But the weight added is offset entirely by the 40kg saving brought by standard carbon ceramic brakes, so it still weighs ‘just’ 2245kg. That makes it a quarter of a tonne lighter than a Bentley Bentayga Speed and only 25kg heavier than the smaller, less practical Porsche Cayenne Coupe Turbo GT, the only other SUV capable of keeping up with the Aston.

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"There’s no massive bang in the back, no scrabbling for grip, no pawing at the sky nor howling at the moon. It just steadily, inexorably, magnificently slingshots you into the next braking area"

And you might expect such a V8 to explode into action when fired up, full of AMG rumble. But it doesn’t. I doubt it’s any louder than the base DBX. Set off and you realise at once that just because the suspension has been retuned, that doesn’t mean compressed vertebrae before bedtime. It rides really well, which is a great surprise because when you have this much weight to control so far off the ground the temptation to tie it to ground by its springs is considerable.

Really, apart from the now standard sports seats, a sports steering wheel and some Alcantara trimmings, there’s not much to tell between this DBX and the standard car as you go about your daily business. Gearchanges are not quite so slurred, the ride is perhaps a little firmer without being any more harsh and cabin noise levels are admirably muted.

Until, that is, you unclip the leash and let it go. Yet even now, as it flings you to the end of straights like few if any other SUV in history, it keeps its composure. You think from the numbers that this must be some wild monster merely wearing a plausible disguise, ready to be discarded the moment you put your foot down. But no. There’s no massive bang in the back, no scrabbling for grip, no pawing at the sky nor howling at the moon. It just steadily, inexorably, magnificently slingshots you into the next braking area.

"So where does this car slip up save for being, like every other car of its kind, too heavy, too wasteful of the world’s resources and nothing like as good to drive as a high performance estate? Just the interior: it’s not that of a near £200,000 car"

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It doesn’t even sound like an AMG motor, work on the acoustics meaning its voice is more baritone than bass, more blue-blooded European supercar than blue collar Detroit thunder. The modified gearbox works well too: gears don’t slam through as they might were this a dual-clutch transmission, but they’re still far quicker and slicker than a conventional auto. And actually, for this kind of car, it is better suited than either.

You find yourself waiting for the catch, because there has to be one, right? Surely that smooth ride means the DBX will simply fall over in the corners; but it doesn’t. Some perspective here: my comments apply to what can reasonably be expected of a two plus tonne SUV, not a sports car, but I’ll tell you this: the only other car like it that handles close to this well is the Cayenne. Not the Bentley and not the Lambo either.

It has the best steering for a start. The rack is quite slow and delightfully linear. Confidence is important when there’s so much momentum that must be persuaded to change direction and it comes easily. At its most essential, handling is simply a measure of the accuracy with which a car interprets and executes the instructions of its driver, and here the DBX is outstanding. It doesn’t flick onto each new line because there’s too much mass for that, but its aim is always true, its demeanour always reassuring. Body roll is controlled both in its amount and, far more important, its rate. For all that mass, despite that ride, there’s no lurch here at all.

Pile on the power away from the exit in one of the sportier drive modes and you can sense torque being shuttled to one end of the car, but it’s not the front to maximise traction and save you from your stupid self, but the rear where up to 663lb ft of the stuff can be set to the task of neutralising the DBX’s inherently mildly understeering stance. And it does it magnificently. Also, and if you’re interested, you can turn everything off unlike the base DBX which always maintains a background amount of stability control. For the 707, off means off.

 

So where does this car slip up save for being, like every other car of its kind, too heavy, too wasteful of the world’s resources and nothing like as good to drive as a high performance estate? Just the interior: it’s not that of a near £200,000 car. The design is clean but not sufficiently special unless you avail yourself of the services of the ‘Q’ commissioning department and the infotainment system is antediluvian by modern standards.

Seen as a whole, however, this car is some achievement, and perhaps the greater surprise concerning the price is that it’s ‘only’ £26,500 more than the DBX. Given that Aston Martin would charge the thick end of half that for the ceramic brakes alone, it seems something of a bargain relative to its stablemate, which was already my favourite full-size SUV. Simply put the DBX was always the best looking car of its type, and now it is also the best to drive too. You might not like this class of car much, and neither might I, but if you do and if you can, this is where you should be looking first.

Aston Martin DBX707 review

Engine: 3982cc, V8, twin-turbo
Transmission: 9-speed automatic, 4WD
Power: 697bhp @ 6000rpm
Torque: 664b ft @ 4500rpm
Weight: 2245kg
Power-to-weight: 310bhp/tonne
0-62mph: 3.3 seconds
Top speed: 193mph
Price: £189,000

Ti RATING 9/10