Forza Racing League

First Impressions (DB9): This is an Aston Martin DB9. It's as sleek as it is heavy and as gorgeous as it is pricey. Iconically some of Britian's finest engineering, especially considering the DB series of Aston Martin's has been around since the late '40's. Since then they've gone through two logo designs, eight changes of ownership, they've produced only four different types of four-door cars, built the same generation V8 for twenty years and still the DB badge has remained in place. But don't get too excited. While it may be fancy amongst automakers, these handbuilt supposed supercars fall far short in many respects.

Test Drive (DB9): If you find yourself sitting behind the wheel of one of these chances are you've bought it, but if you haven't consider this. Even though the car tries it's best to impress you it's just not going to happen. The interior is rather plain and sticks out like a sore thumb. But getting past the wood inlays, you begin to take-in the V12's rumble. Which in all seriousness sucks.

The car performs exceptionally well for weighing in at almost four thousand pounds, and quite honestly can be quite fun to drive. To get to the middle ground where you can once again feel good about spending such a chuck of money on something that's hard pressed to be a dignified super car, can take a while and a lot of convincing. But that's only where it begins...

First Impressions (DBS): Somewhere down the line the guys at Aston Martin appearantly thought that the DB9 wasn't expensive enough. So guess what they did? They slapped on a more decorative hood and some fancy rims and made it cost, get this, more than twice the original DB9. Sure it looks great and it drives well, but this is still no super car. And what's more is that it replaced the flagship Vanquish S. It seemed to me at the time like Aston Martin was getting lazy.

Test Drive (DBS): Undoubtably, the DBS is a barrel of fun. Great to look at, it's rather nimble yet sloppy making it the right butter consistancy to have a great time with. The V12 sounds great, and unfortuately that's about where the pluses end. It weighs only 100 lbs less than the DB9, it produces only 60 hp more and it produces the same amount of torque along with a similar stat sheet for $133,000 more. Quite frankly, and to not fault of the car, this is a failure.

First Impression (One-77): So that making it 2 and 0 for the rest of the world, the Aston folks were sent yet again back to the drawing board. Where they began crafting what they once again believed would become a super car, one of the greatest of our time, one of the most iconic machines in history. I was skeptical.

Until I saw this, the all new Aston Martin One-77. It's a spacecraft alright, and insightfully beautiful. After spending five minutes alone with it, I was in love. It's stance is so natural looking, it's boasts the manipulated lights of a Vantage and the legendary grill that Aston has been playing up for generations. In fact my first reaction was that somehow Aston Martin got their hands on some blueprints of a Chrysler Firepower concept, but truthfully, it's so much more.

Test Drive (One-77): It's an Aston, so of course the V12 is there, but for the first time in a production car it has 7.3L's of it. 750 exploding horses and over 550 whopping foot-pounds. The biggest concern I have with the car itself is the seat position. For the most part you can't see over the top of the wheel and when traveling over 200 mph, it can make hitting berms dead on a rather serious issue. But beyond this minor complaint it handles great, it's fun to drive and can actually compete among other cars in it's class. But of course like all cars, it has it's downfall, and what a downfall.

If you're rich and you love spending money, then buy yourself a highly limited One-77 by all means. But for the common day supercar lover who can barely make due on spending 200K for a Lamborghini, beware. All pocketbooks aside it retails for a staggering 1.85 million dollars.

Summary: So I'll let you decide. Is the new Aston Martin 'king-of-the-hill' DB-Vantage-Firepower hybrid car worth the cash? Let me tell you something. No it's not, but I still bought one. - M1L

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