2023 Aston Martin DBX 707 review: Prototype first drive
Meet what is likely to prove itself the fastest SUV in the world…
- Dynamic security
- Huge performance
- Handsome design
- Seems as comfortable as the regular DBX
- Old-fashioned UI still grates
- Weight is obvious under hard use
- Frustration of hitting the limiter with short gearing
Prototype quick drive
SUVs don’t naturally belong on racetracks, but that’s where ultra-performance versions get sent to prove themselves. The Aston Martin DBX 707 is a faster and more expensive version of the existing DBX, but it has also been created to break at least one record.
Aston boss Tobias Moers refuses to nominate the time he thinks the new variant will manage when unleashed on the Nurburgring Nordschleife. But it’s clear from his wolfish grin when the topic is raised that he expects the 707 to go quicker than the Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT, which set a 7 minute 39 second SUV record around the 20.8km circuit last year.
No, this doesn’t reflect how real DBX 707 buyers are likely to use their cars. But however ludicrous a Nurburgring SUV time might be, it is one of the metrics that the top of the car industry is using to keep score with each other. Moers is determined to prove Aston’s world-beating credentials there, with the expectation being that the 707 is going to make up the majority of DBX sales from here on out.
I get to drive a nearly finished 707 prototype at Aston’s High Performance Test Track – the dinky little 1.6km Stowe Circuit at Silverstone. But, before having my own turn, I get a passenger ride sitting next to Moers, who is predictably keen to show off a project he has been heavily involved in since he arrived at Aston from AMG in 2020.
Much of the stint is spent travelling sideways, Moers being a handy pilot as well as a hugely experienced engineer, and a man who could never be accused of not being a hands-on leader.
But having proved the 707 is capable of drifting – ridiculously so for a 2245kg SUV – Moers soon opts to leave the track in search of some of Silverstone’s rougher access roads. He wants to prove that the revised suspension settings haven’t come at the expense of compliance, and is soon aiming for every pothole. “This car cannot be too aggressive, that would ruin it,” he says.
The 707 has been given major chassis revisions that include new top mounts at the front along with stiffer kinematics to improve steering response, although damper settings at the rear are actually softer than on the regular DBX to help with traction.
Electronic systems have been heavily retuned too – but not, Moers promises, at the expense of everyday comfort. With the DBX having standard air springs, adaptive dampers, a torque-biasing rear differential and a 48-volt active anti-roll system as standard, there were plenty of variables to play with. And a glance through the prototype’s vast 23-inch alloys shows another difference – standard-fit carbon-ceramic brakes.
Against that, engine changes are much more limited. The 707’s retuned version of the 4.0-litre AMG V8 has ball-bearing turbochargers, new induction and exhaust systems, plus a puffier ECU to supply it with fuel. But Moers says the bottom end is unchanged. As the guy who originally commissioned the V8 at AMG, he knows its capabilities as well as anybody.
The new peak of 520kW gives it bragging rights over every rival, from the Lamborghini Urus to the Bentayga W12 Speed and Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT.
In terms of driveline, the biggest change comes behind the engine, with the 707 switching to AMG’s ‘wet clutch’ nine-speed gearbox. This is still an auto using planetary gears, but with an electronically controlled multi-plate clutch instead of a torque converter to improve responses. It also gives the capability of a new launch-control mode, one that Moers returns to the Stowe Circuit to demonstrate in spectacular style, the V8 bellowing as he does so.
The G-forces of a full-bore launch are close to being uncomfortable, and they barely diminish as speeds rise. Aston claims a 3.3sec 0–100km/h time, but also a 7.4sec 0–100mph (0–161km/h) – that figure being just a single tenth behind the one managed by the Jaguar XJ220, the one-time fastest production car in the world.
Then it’s my turn to experience the 707 from the driver’s seat. “You’ll learn far more sitting on this side,” Moers promises, before leaving me alone with the pulse-spiking combination of a cold racetrack and what is probably the fastest SUV in the world.
The 707 feels just as fast with a steering wheel in front of me, with the biggest challenge quickly proving to be the rate at which it devours the tightly stacked ratios of that nine-speed gearbox.
It’s hard to keep up with the demand for new ones when the transmission is under manual control – and this is the first time I’ve found myself wanting bright change-up lights in an SUV. The regular DBX isn’t lacking in pace, but the 707 is in a different league – the muscular new exhaust note giving its aural character a similarly serious transformation.
The carbon brakes bite hard and instantly, scrubbing off the huge speeds the 707 is able to create on even Stowe’s bijou straights. But the unlikeliness of the physical forces at play become much more obvious in corners, with the need to persuade the 707’s mass to change direction.
It’s not hard to push into understeer on Stowe’s tighter turns, although this doesn’t feel excessive. But nor is there any difficulty in following Moers’s lead and dramatically reversing the front-to-rear handling balance in spectacular style.
Like the regular DBX, the 707 has GT, Sport and Sport Plus dynamic modes, with these chosen by a new rotary selector in the centre console. These progressively increase the torque-vectoring effect on the rear axle, and in Sport Plus with the stability control in its more permissive Sport mode it becomes very back-endy, the system allowing significant amounts of power oversteer before intervening.
Turning the stability fully off confirms the DBX can be hooned fully sideways, surrendering rear-end grip amazingly progressively for something so heavy and with such a raised centre of gravity – the active anti-roll system still cancels lean as the car slides.
It’s hard to imagine that many owners will be heading onto a circuit or engaging in regular drift sessions, but the 707 is certainly capable of dealing with such unlikely challenges.
Silverstone also gave the chance to experience some of the changes at a gentler pace. The front-end revisions have given the 707 impressively crisp, accurate steering, which delivers proportional responses and discernible feedback without any harshness of kickback over kerbs.
The regular DBX isn’t notably lacking on precision or feel, but the new set-up definitely feels better. And although we’ll need to wait for real roads to confirm the pliancy of the suspension, Moers’s promise it isn’t any harsher than the standard version seemed to be borne out by a couple of slow laps of Stowe in GT mode.
The ride still feels pretty plush, even as the active anti-roll system does its thing.
Despite the increase in power and performance, Aston has opted for a pretty subtle visual makeover.
The 707’s front bumper is bigger, its radiator grille toothier, and there is now a sizeable wing on top of the tailgate – plus the incongruous sight of a motorsport-style diffuser under the rear bumper. But it stops well short of the shouty theatricality of a Lamborghini Urus, and still looks sleek and elegant compared to the baroque lines of a Bentley Bentayga.
Revisions in the cabin are similarly slight, the 707 getting supportive new sports seats and that redesigned centre console, this adding shortcut buttons for damper stiffness, exhaust mode and the ESP – previously it was necessary to alter these through turn-and-click menus.
And while the 707 still doesn’t have a touchscreen interface, Moers confirms the development of an all-new Aston UI is one of the company’s top priorities – apparently we’ll be seeing it soon.
In Australia, we know that the DBX 707 will start at $374,698 before on-road costs – a premium of more than $50,000 over the regular DBX, which will continue to be sold alongside it.
That supplement doesn’t seem outrageous considering the extra performance on offer, plus the likelihood the 707 will indeed prove itself the fastest SUV in the world, with attendant bragging rights.
Based on this first drive, we can’t imagine many DBX buyers won’t be willing to dig deeper to fund the 707. There don’t seem to be any obvious reasons you wouldn’t want to.
The post 2023 Aston Martin DBX 707 review: Prototype first drive appeared first on Drive.