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Aston Martin DB9 Gallery
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| DRIVING RATING: |
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Friendly and super-sharpFive stars again. The DB9 feels tight, sporty, friendly and understandable within 50 yards of driving off, its eagerness not sullied by a dark temperament. The driving position is multi-adjustable, the view out is surprisingly good and all the controls are ideally weighted with good feel and a progressive action. This is especially true of the steering, which is quick, precise with no lost motion or rubberiness, and transmits a believable, constantly-changing picture of the road surface. You can feel exactly what you're doing in this car. There's huge grip, which when breached can let the nose run wide in tight corners unless you pitch in to let the tail take the upper hand. On fast bends it's simply stable and responsive, never nervous, always confidence-inspiring. It rides very well, too, despite the lack of clever adaptive dampers. It's just good, conventional chassis engineering honed to a high peak.
Our test car was a six-speed automatic, but you could be forgiven for thinking it was a very well-sorted robotised manual of the Ferrari F1 variety. Dashboard buttons select Park, Neutral, Reverse or Drive; with D selected, you can either leave the 'box to its own devices or go manual with the paddle-shifters. The upshifts are quick, definite and very smooth, and unlike with a robotised manual they are best triggered without lifting the accelerator. Downshifts have the usual automatic rev-blip, which happens a tiny bit later than it would with an F1-type shift. And the automatic mode is ultra-smooth.
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