RE: Aston Martin DB9 GT: Driven

[ORD]

smilo996 said:

Well compared to the 911 which is 50 years old and getting uglier, the DB9 is just a teenager and getting better looking with each year.

Good to see it going out with that engine and those tweeks.

Such a shame that engine is being retired it looks and sounds amazing and by the sound of it is perfectly capable of serious speed for those cars it is inserted into in the Aston Range.

Except that the current 911 is actually only 3 years old

[iloveboost]

RoverP6B said:

The Virage was supposed to be a halfway house between the DB9 and DBS. The Vanquish is the far side of the DBS from the Virage. In truth, it was a micro-niche too far, and recalled memories of possibly the worst Aston Martin.

Agreed. It's one thing to badge engineer and re-design a normal car, but why do it on a supercar? It's not like the market is very price sensitive!

[JohnG1]

markcoznottz said:

Not quite as pretty as the DBS, that car is stunning in the flesh, and has none of the slightly boring nature of the cooking models. While we are on the subject, why has Aston never pushed for its own 'amg' line?, a proper sporting Aston, like a gt3, but not quite as full on?.

That market requirement is fulfilled by a firm called Bamford Rose. Lots of ex-Aston Martin engineers opened a performance enhancement shop to push the product in a sportier direction. They'll take that 6.0 litre engine to 6.5 litres and to 650bhp. Or take a 4.3 or 4.7 V8 to 5.0 and 550bhp.

If AML had any sense they would acquire Bamford Rose and let them loose on the run out editions of the DB9 and Vantage and then allow for a substantial bump in performance with the next generation of products. Once turbocharged you have a lot more variables to play with for performance enhancements...