Sunday, August 16, 2009

Impressions: 2010 Aston Martin DBS Volante

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The best thing about the DBS Volante is that, top down, you can more thoroughly appreciate the sound of the Aston’s viciously powerful V12 engine.

In town for the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, Aston Martin had a selection of DBS Volante’s on hand and invited AutoGuide to test out the latest Bond car in Monterey - one of the few places in the world that can make even Monte Carlo look middle-class.

Blasting through the Northern California hills we’re happy to report that due to the DBS’s already extra-potent V12 engine, the added weight in the convertible model doesn’t effect performance… not that you can feel anyway. Making 510hp and 420 ft-lbs of torque it will hit 62 mph in 4.3 seconds… ever-so-slightly slower than the coupe.

One reason for this is that Aston kept the weight gain to a minimum, with a total curb weight of 3,990 lbs. - roughly 250 lbs more then the coupe. That might seem like quite a bit at first but many convertibles, especially hard-top ones, can weigh as much as 500 lbs more than their coupe counterparts. Aston chose the soft top to keep the weight low and retain a useable amount of trunk space. We should also point out that the sub-4,000 lb curb weight is actually very good for a full-sized grand tourer.

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