Published:
17 August 2023Even with its 510bhp motor, the DB9 isn’t all that quick. It can hit 62mph in 4.6sec, about the same as an automatic base-level Porsche 911 which cost about half the money the Aston required. But the nature of that performance? Well, that remains something else again.
There’s still nothing to match the sound of a large capacity, normally aspirated V12 engine in full flight, and whatever little the DB9 lacks in pure punch, it more than makes up for in automotive theatre.
Aston's engine is actually quite peaky. It develops maximum torque way up at 5500rpm, which is just 1000rpm below the point at which it makes peak power. However, while that might be irritating in a saloon, in an Aston Martin coupé it feels absolutely correct.
The urge builds as the revs approach the red line, creating a rising crescendo of mechanical music matched by very few cars of any price made anywhere in the world. Ageing and of humble origins though this engine may have been, it remains magnificent. Top speed is limited to 183mph.
If it was let down at all, it was by the retention of the same old XF six-speed automatic transmission. When the DB9 was new in 2003, this gearbox was state of the art, but rivals then came to offer either more ratios and a slicker shift or a proper dual-clutch transmission.
Aston Martin actually has such a gearbox and used it on the Vantage S, but it was thought not to fit the more gentle character of the DB9.
