First Look: 2008 Aston Martin DBS - MotorTrend Magazine
"It'll be our halo car and will have superior performance to the now-aged Vanquish," said Aston's Ulrich Bez earlier this year, before quickly countering: "It's not the Vanquish successor, but another car to raise awareness of the brand. " Adds design director Marek Reichman, "The DBS isn't replacing the Vanquish. it's a standalone product based on the DB9. " The $260,000 Vanquish goes out of production shortly. And with just 300 cars to be produced each year, the DBS will be as exclusive as, er. the Vanquish. Still, reading between the lines, Bez and Reichman are clearly leaving room for a new Aston supercar to slide in above the DBS at some point in the future. When the 450-horse DB9 was launched in 2004, it immediately matched the heavier, pricier Vanquish, which needed some nurturing-well a 51-horse boost-to stay on top. But without the need to protect the Vanquish, the DBS is edgier: lighter, louder, and faster. " Bez puts it this way: "The DBS is brutal, but dressed in black tie. " A bit like Daniel Craig's edgier, darker, more intense James Bond, then, though Reichman, who started work on the DBS in October 2005, insists the car's crash-and-burn cameo in "Casino Royale" was never on the original agenda. "Part of my brief was to make the DB9 look more edgy, like a tough guy in a dinner suit," he says. " One month into the design phase, however, the producers of the James Bond films walked into Reichman's studio, and the seeds were sown for Aston's return to the big screen. Source: www.motortrend.com
