Aston wants to be credited with producing the ultimate performance SUV. Has it?
It's not just the numbers it conjures, there’s the way it looks, too. The standard DBX is a very elegant SUV, but the DBX707 has burst that bubble with all sorts of sticky-outie protuberances. Talk about shouty – it’s an automotive wolf whistle with an “Oi, luv, get a load of this” tacked on. There are shouty 23-inch wheels, which you sense are only available because that’s what you can have the on the Lamborghini Urus.
The turn-in response has also been improved with more bracing to increase the body stiffness by 9 per cent, and now with standard-fit carbon ceramic brakes 40.5kg has been sliced from the 707's unsprung mass. This reduces the rotational inertia and, in turn, the effort need to shift the steering wheel off centre. Another tweak to aid agility is giving the e-diff more locking potential than the standard car's.
The standard DBX torque-converter gearbox wasn’t up to the job, though. This has been swapped for the nine-speed Mercedes MCT with a planetary gear set and a wet-plate clutch pack. It can supply as many full-bore launches as you wish without lunching, along with quicker gearshifts. And because the final drive is shorter – 3.27 compared with 3.07 in the regular model – the 707’s is claimed to be an altogether more responsive thing on the road.
Certain moments stick in your mind, good and bad, and in the 707 one that did just that was striking a diagonal ridge in the road. It was mid-corner and hit at pace. Now, if anything’s going to destabilise a car and cause you to flinch, it’s something that trips up each wheel separately when the car’s heavily loaded laterally. Yet this wasn’t a problem for the 707. It teetered, slightly, but not enough to tease any fluids out of me, or even an expletive.
Refinement seems to have been improved, too. It’s been a while since I drove the standard car, but I seem to remember it having more wind and road noise. Yet despite the enormous rubber the 707 was quiet and tranquil at any speed, and on pretty much any surface. Except for fleeting moments of body shake. This probably isn’t surprising given the length of the car and the fact it has a huge glass panel in the roof. Still, it’s not enough to detract from the overall air of isolation.
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