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Aston Martin DB9 Gallery
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It might be slightly difficult to tell the latest generation of Aston Martins, current or imminent, apart from each other at a glance, but this new DB9 is the key to the whole Aston Martin future. Purer, more graceful and usefully cheaper than the V12 Vanquish whose engine it broadly shares, the DB9 is the car to set Aston Martin on the road to being a 5000-cars-a-year company. It replaces the DB7 - itself a surprising success story given its opportunistic, Jaguar-derived roots - and is built in Aston Martin's new factory at the old British Leyland proving ground at Gaydon, Warwickshire.
The DB9, shortly to be joined by a Volante convertible version, is Aston Martin's realisation of its dream to be the credible British riposte to Ferrari and Porsche. Ford money, via the Premier Automotive Group, has made this possible, and Aston Martin has been able to use engineering resources and expertise from Jaguar, Volvo and Ford's own research and development facilities in the US. Land Rover and Mazda have also chipped in some help. The idea is to create a car with the quality, reliability and robustness to cope in a demanding, high-price market sector: "There can be no more excuses," says engineering chief Jeremy Main.
The DB9's skeleton is a chassis formed from aluminium stampings, extrusions and castings, most of it bonded together but with some welding and a bolt-on front end. Into this is dropped a 450bhp version of the familiar V12 engine (the harder-edged, £163,000 Vanquish, incidentally, gets a rise from 460 to 510bhp to distance it from the newcomer). A rear-mounted gearbox helps towards an ideal weight distribution; it can be a six-speed Graziano manual or a six-speed ZF automatic with paddle shifts and some very clever programming.
The whole package bears striking similarities to Ferrari's new 612 Scaglietti, except that the DB9 is smaller, cheaper, a little less powerful and has some composite outer body panels. Its cabin has much tinier rear seats, too, and is designed with a clarity, quality and freshness that's unlike anything else in the class. Objects hardly come more desirable than this.
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