Category: Exotic Sports 
Price Range: £166,872 to £175,681
Sounds magnificent, goes like it sounds, corners with verve, looks menacing, beautifully made.
Feels big, handling too floaty or ride too rigid with no half-measures.
Britain's answer to the Ferrari 599.
Aston Martin's new £160,000 DBS is the closest you'll get to a roadgoing version of the DBR9 race cars which dominated the GT1 category at the 2007 Le Mans 24 Hours. It's based on the DB9, so it has a V12 engine and a structure built from bonded and riveted aluminium. But whereas the DB9 is the modern grand touring Aston, the DBS is a hard-edged machine for the enthusiast.
It sits lower on 20" wheels wearing specially engineered Pirelli P Zero tyres. Its bonnet, boot lid and various internal panels are made from lightweight carbon fibre, as are the front and rear wings, which are widened to cover a broader track. Air vents in the bonnet, broadened sills with aerodynamic strakes, a reshaped front valance and a rear diffuser (in bare carbon fibre) alter the airflow and keep the DBS stuck to the road while its engine stays cool. The original show car looked like a bad-taste bodykitted special in its brilliant silver, but get a DBS in a better colour and it all starts to make sense. Especially if the wheels are in anthracite.
What makes it able to reach 191mph and streak to 62 in 4.3 seconds? Power is up from the DB9's 450 to 510bhp, still with the same 5,935cc capacity, with torque reaching 420lb-ft. A freer-breathing intake system is the key, with larger inlet ports and a bypass valve which opens over 5,500rpm to let in a bigger torrent of air. The exhaust system retains its own bypass valve to allow better gasflow and a richer, louder sound when the engine is worked hard.
Brembo carbon-ceramic brakes rein in the speed for the first time in a roadgoing Aston Martin, and there are new adaptive dampers from Bilstein with soft and firm modes each with five automatically controlled settings. Inside, there's more carbon fibre, ample aluminium (including the knob for the six-speed manual gearshift) and no rear seats, the spaces being used for storage instead. There's a choice of front seats: slightly sporty or semi-racing.
