Aston Martin DBS Superleggera 2019 Review

Few cars make the sort of visual and aural impact that the Aston Martin DBS Superleggera does.

It's a dramatic looking car with the thumping presence of a twin-turbocharged V12 that will rev to 7000rpm and will accelerate at a pace unmatched by practically any conventional car priced below $400,000.

How much does the Aston get noticed? Well, there was the wave from the private school student with her two friends, as one example, and the swivel of the head from the previously disinterested corporate bloke at the bus stop as another. This is not a car for wallflowers.

Nor is it a car exclusively for professional race drivers. Despite its astonishing performance potential, the Aston Martin DBS Superleggera is a fairly practical device for daily driving. About the only thing to detract from its usability is the low lip at the front, grazing itself as the car was backed into the driveway at home. Otherwise, the DBS Superleggera is not especially frustrating in the urban environment. Reversing cameras and acoustic guidance help, of course.

With a reasonable hip point (relatively) and doors that open more or less conventionally, you don't have to be a gymnast to enter or leave the Superleggera.

Furthermore, the 'swan' doors swing upwards slightly as they open, ensuring you're unlikely to scrape the underside of the door on a gutter when you close it after climbing in. It's a nice touch and the doors are light as well, requiring little more thrust to open or close than the doors of a small Japanese hatch.

Once inside, the driver is greeted by the pleasant aroma of proper leather, which is quilted on the headlining and seats. The front pews are excellent, with myriad controls and instruments located all around the driver. While the seats are snug for high-g cornering, they're not overly aggressive in shape, so you could drive the Superleggera for hundreds of kilometres without feeling fidgety or restive.

The controls, including the electric parking brake release under the dash on the right, are sourced from Mercedes-Benz, so Benz owners will immediately feel quite at home in the Superleggera. To illustrate, there's the combination stalk on the left for indicators and wipers, plus an old-fashioned 'Tempomat' cruise control stalk below it. Old-fashioned it may be, but it still works and is easier to use than most cruise control switchgear from other brands.

Seat adjustment is handled by a switchgear cluster that's clearly developed by Benz, but is located on the centre console rather than the door capping.

About the only point where the switchgear diverges from the Benz model is in relation to the engine-start button and the buttons for gear selection – all arranged in a line across the centre fascia. The 'Park' button might be a stretch for drivers of smaller stature.

Surprisingly, the DBS Superleggera featured bright headlights, but they weren't adaptive and there is no high-beam assist function either.

Drivers can choose gears using the large, fixed shift paddles as well. They're easy to grasp, providing the means to effect a rapid downshift from the eight-speed ZF automatic as required, although some drivers prefer paddles that move with the steering wheel.

While the driving position otherwise earns top marks, the rear-seat accommodation is very much in the 2+2 mould. No country for old men, in other words – and especially when the old man’s 18-year old daughter found it pretty tight back there for herself.

The DBS Superleggera is a traditional-style coupe – without a liftback hatch, in other words – and has a small boot opening as a consequence, but it's still a useful volume, and lifting small cases in and out won't create any serious problems. Even though the rear glass is fixed, it would have been nice for it to be swept by a rear wiper, as is the case with more expensive coupes featuring a liftback tailgate rather than a boot lid. In the case of the Aston, the shallow-raked window collects dew and ice when the car is left in the open on colder nights. The only way to clear this – eventually – is with the demister.

Leave it in the standard 'GT' on-road setting – as opposed to the track-focused Sport or Sport+ modes – and the Superleggera rides quite well on suburban roads. Even in the hard-core sport plus mode the ride comfort is significantly more compliant than another V12-engined supercar tested recently.

Despite its weight, the roadholding of the Superleggera is right up there with the best of them. Handling, roadholding and steering feedback are outstanding, as are the massive carbon-ceramic brakes, offering good, progressive feel through the pedal and incredible stopping power.

The DBS can be a handful in a straight line at full throttle, even in the dry, and despite the Pirelli P-Zero 305/30 ZR tyres fitted to the optional 21-inch alloys at the rear. Traction cannot really cope all that well with the engine output available, although the stability and traction control systems do prevent the Superleggera from getting (literally) ahead of itself.

At almost any speed, the Superleggera is noisier due to its amazing V12 engine. The howl from the powerplant even drowns out tyre noise. It's a great, thunderous sound that's wonderful to hear, but ultimately lacks the full orchestral effect of the complex powertrain piped into the respective cabins of two high-end sports/GT cars driven previously – the Lamborghini Aventador S and the Ferrari F12 that has since been replaced by the 812 Superfast.

In the two Italian cars the engine noise at lower revs sounds busier. You'll practically detect the sounds of combustion for each individual cylinder, whereas the Aston's V12 is a little more muffled and homogenised. Still, unless you've driven something even more exotic than the Superleggera you'll be none the wiser. It's an appealing note from the Aston V12 at any point in the rev range.

In fact, because there are so many pistons at work for each turn of the crankshaft, the V12 sounds like it's ready for the automatic transmission to shift up a gear at lower revs. It's therefore a surprise to the driver initially when the ZF unit seems to hold a gear for an unexpectedly long time. In reality, however, the automatic is simply letting the engine revs build above 1500rpm for the next shift. At 1500 revs the V12 sounds more like a V8 at about 2000rpm.

But my first impression driving the car away in traffic was that the transmission was mismatched to the engine and was slow to shift up a gear. In fact, it felt like an automated manual transmission in the way it operated. Not until a later drive, using the powertrain fully, did it become clear that the transmission was working exactly to specification.

The ZF unit would slip into high gear from as low as 1400rpm (at 100km/h), but the engine remained the chief source of noise in the cabin of the DBS Superleggera – in a pleasant way. That low-rev cruising at open-road speeds did little to assuage the prodigious thirst of the V12. On a 70km test loop it posted a fuel consumption figure of 15.0L/100km. Things didn't improve any in an urban commute either.

But if you have the money for the purchase price of the car no doubt you can spare extra to keep it in fuel.

How much does the 2019 Aston Martin DBS Superleggera cost?
Price: $517,000 (plus on-road costs)
Engine: 5.2-litre 12-cylinder twin-turbo-petrol
Output: 533kW/900Nm
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Fuel: 12.4L/100km (ADR Combined), 15.0L/100km (as tested)
CO2: 285g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety Rating: TBA