HOT WHEELS The 2023 Aston Martin DBX707 is high-performance version of the British company’s ultra-luxury SUV, sporting a more powerful 4.0-lliter, twin-turbocharged V8 paired with a wet-clutch nine-speed transmission to handle the increased output.PHOTO: ASTON MARTIN
I HAD HOPED for more sheep.
When, six years ago, the British luxury-sports carmaker Aston Martin Lagonda announced it was setting up a factory in Wales, I imagined a low, thatched-roof sort of place, with stone walls and woolly groundskeepers. Alas, no. The company has repurposed three grim-looking aircraft hangars on property next to an active military base, near Cardiff. It’s not very pastoral but it does have excellent air cover.
And there is livestock: The DBX they build there is the company’s cash cow. Saint Athan’s production of the super-swift, V8-powered ultra-luxury SUVs now represents fully half the company’s annual sales (2021). These revenues have helped stabilize the 109-year-old sports car concern—based in Gaydon, U.K.—which has been battered, first by a high-flying IPO that cratered spectacularly (2018); then, in rapid succession, a change in management led by Canadian financier Lawrence Stroll (2020); Brexit; and Covid, which briefly halted production here and in Gaydon.
AML’s shares are still pennies to the pound, but Mr. Stroll—now executive chairman—has a plan. In May, Aston Martin put two men I know to be automotive geniuses in charge: Amedeo Felisa, formerly Ferrari’s CEO; and Roberto Fedeli, the mastermind behind the hybrid-hypercar LaFerrari, who was appointed chief technical officer. These men have been tasked with leading Aston Martin into the era of electrification.
HIDE AMENDMENTS The Aston Martin DBX707’s interior comes in a choice of three design themes: Accelerate (standard), Inspire-Comfort and Inspire-Sport (seen here), with semi-aniline leather upholstery, embroidered headrests and contrasting seat stripes.PHOTO: ASTON MARTIN
Aston Martin calls the DBX707 an ultra-luxury SUV. But is it really? An SUV, I mean? As I watched the electric-blue tester being unloaded from a lorry at Heathrow, it struck me that the taxonomy was more four-door fastback perched on a raised suspension—what enthusiasts now refer to as “safari style,” like Rothmans-liveried Porsches in the old Paris-Dakar Rally.
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“We were trying to create the illusion as if the body were just hovering above the wheels,” said DBX’s head of programme, Andy Haslam, in an interview from his office last week.
The raised hemline comes courtesy of the four large, triple-chambered pneumatic springs. These are where the genies live, if you ask me. By virtue of the (height-adjustable) air suspension (located with double-wishbones in front, multi-links in the rear), the DBX707 excels as a long-distance tourer. Really. In GT mode, the ride quality is downright plush, considering the short wheelbase and the drumming, 23-inch wheel-and-tire set.
Another surprise awaits anyone who tests the cornering capacity on an approved skidpad, or even dual-carriageway roundabout: This 2.5-ton crossover simply does not do body roll. Braking hard or exiting a corner with maximum conviction, the DBX707 is nearly always locked down, tires scritching, the aluminum-monocoque superstructure held curiously above the fray of transient forces.
The ghost in the machine is a 48-volt active anti-roll bar system, earning its keep in real time. These nifty electric sway bars also permitted the chassis engineers to quicken the steering response compared to that of the standard DBX V8. I like that.
To reiterate, not an SUV. The gorgeously upholstered driver’s position offers roughly the same working area as a Porsche 911 or even a Lotus Evora. The rear seats wear about a size-4 dress. The DBX707 is kind of a body shamer, actually, looking on with well-bred dismay as you squeeze your fleshy butt into its driver’s seat.
Aston Martin calls this an ultra-luxury SUV. But is it really?
If you are wondering where all the room went, please meet the engine and transmission: a 4.0-liter V8 with new “ball bearing turbochargers.” Yee-haw. The Mercedes-AMG-built mega-motor—four-cam, four-valve, double-spark, double-fuel injection, variable valve timing, electronic wastegate control—brings the eponymous 707 PS (697 hp, in SAE net) and 900 Nm of torque (663 lb-ft) to a multi-plate, wet-clutch, nine-speed automatic transmission, downstream of which is the rear-biased all-wheel system’s active center coupling, and the electronic limited-slip rear differential, with a 3.27 ratio. Dang that’s a lot of hyphens.
The higher torque loads required something more robust than a conventional, torque-converter transmission. While silky smooth and refined, the DBX707’s wet-clutch transmission is there primarily to endure owners’ brake-torquing the hell out of their cars as they perform burnouts in front of the palace. With an enhanced “Race Start” function, 0-to-60 mph acceleration is a brisk 3.1 seconds, says the factory, and the top speed is an adequate 193 mph.
As I crossed this realm, this England, last week, I wasn’t in a burnout mood, particularly. I did discover a fully angered DBX707 will dispatch a motorway on-ramp with a brief, pagan exhortation—wha-whaaa-whaaaaa-whaaaaaaa!! At the end of which you must fully call on the carbon-ceramic disc brakes to reduce your speed by half, to 70 mph. Aston Martin clocks the DBX707 to 100 mph in 7.4 seconds.
WHEEL SIMPLE The Aston Martin DBX707’s driver’s position is intimate, deep-in-the-machine and business-like, comparable to the feel of a Porsche 911 Carrera. The leather-wrapped, three-spoke steering wheel is likewise small in diameter.PHOTO: ASTON MARTIN
If Savile Row cordwainery is your fetish, prepare to be stimulated. The welted, stitched, pinked and brogued upholstery (supplied by Bridge of Weir) is available in dozens of fun, contrasting colors; or you may choose a personalized palette of interior and exterior colors. Step into my parlor, said the spider to the fly.
If, by ultra-luxury, you mean a spectacularly appointed madhouse of selectors, switches and controls, I think the DBX707 may be without peer. The main window-switch console is under the driver’s outside elbow. The center-screen interface—a rotary selector and capacitive reader, which is also a palmrest, based on Mercedes-Benz previous UX—is just awful. Haven’t the rich suffered enough?
The human-factors hodgepodge betrays the DBX model’s age, in design years, and combines many of the past models’ least-loved interfaces (like the ancient push-button gear selector) into one, really hard-to-love package.
Mr. Stroll’s comeback plan will leverage the glamour of the Formula 1 team as well as the brand’s “ultra-luxury” status (in this context, think $250,000 price point or about). But ultra-luxury brands all have their hallowed halls, their Camelots: Ferrari in Maranello, Bentley in Crewe, Bugatti in Molsheim.
Long term, I think Aston Martin will need something a little more on-brand than aircraft hangars. They could at least hire some sheep.
Aston Martin DBX 007
FINE EXTREMITIES A large and elaborate rear diffuser emerges from the underside of the DBX707, sticking out several inches and exposing the glossy carbon-fiber element to random acts of parking-lot mayhem. The prominent carbon-fiber front splitter is similarly exposed.PHOTO: ASTON MARTIN
Base price: $236,000
Price, as tested: $287,986
Engine and powertrain: twin-turbocharged and intercooled 4.0-liter DOHC 32-valve V8, dual variable camshaft timing, variable electronic turbo wastegate control and active valve exhaust; nine-speed multi-plate wet-clutch automatic transmission; rear-biased, electronically controlled center differential; active limited-slip rear diff.
Power/torque: 697 hp at 6,000 rpm/663 lb-ft at 2,600 to 4,500
Length/wheelbase/width/height : 198.4/120.4/87.4/66.1 inches
Curb weight: 4,940 pounds
0-60 mph: 3.1 second
0-100 mph: 7.4 seconds
EPA fuel economy: 15/20/17 mpg, city/highway/combined
Cargo capacity: 54 cubic feet