Aston Martin DBS Superleggera ride & handling

From GT mode, you can ramp up the car’s dynamic temperament via Sport and Sport Plus now and again, as your mood takes, trading ride compliance off against tauter vertical body control and slightly keener steering response as you go – and dialling up the DBS’s dynamic character well into super-sports car territory, making it as compelling a driver’s car as most could ever want it to be. Though several testers said that they would seldom use the Sport Plus suspension settings on UK roads, most were glad of the option to.

And none had a bad word to say about the perfectly judged weight and pace of the car’s power steering, which communicates the cornering load going through the front tyres particularly well and never lets you feel anything other than intimately connected to the road.

On track could so easily have been where the DBS Superleggera came unstuck: all 700 horsepower and 1910kg of it, driving through one axle shod with fairly humble Pirelli P Zero tyres.

Although you certainly need to be aware that you’re inviting a fairly lurid driving experience if you deactivate the driver aids and seek to fully deploy its power and torque even on dry Tarmac, the DBS doesn’t ever make you feel like you’re dicing with peril. It’s not quite the big, soft, tenderly skiddable oldschool Aston, instead gripping harder and carrying Aston Martin greater speed than any Vanquish might have; but it’s also more predictable and benign when pushed beyond the limit of grip than some rivals, while also more balanced, agile and exploitable than others.