Aston Martin DBS arrives in New Zealand

The first two examples of Aston Martin Introduces the Ultimate Luxury Sports Car – the DBS

Aston Martin’s new DBS sports car have arrived in New Zealand with both recently delivered to their owners.

A sports car with genuine Grand Touring heritage, the 6.0-litre V12 powered DBS was officially launched in August 2007, and deliveries of the race-bred two-seater to customers in the United Kingdom and United States started earlier this year. Each DBS sold to date has a six-speed manual transmission with a six-speed Touchtronic automatic transmission option available from December this year.

Independent Prestige LMVD, the local distributor of the prestigious British marque, has already pre-sold their initial allocation of the DBS says general sales manager Greg Brinck.

“As you can imagine, this is a very highly sought-after motor car. Aston Martin has not defined the number of DBS that they will build in total, but they have said it will be a limited volume model,” says Brinck who adds that the DBS retails for around $500,000 NZD, “...depending on the specific options the customer selects. There is an approximately six month wait for delivery if you were to order one today.”

The Aston Martin DBS was revealed to New Zealand customers at an extremely well-attended function at Independent Prestige on 30 July, with the Lightning Silver-coloured DBS quickly surrounded by eager Aston Martin fans. The vehicle is in New Zealand for Independent Prestige to use for customer demonstrations and media evaluation for a short period of time.

At the global unveiling of the DBS last year, Aston Martin chief executive officer, Dr Ulrich Bez, described the car as “...the ultimate expression of Aston Martin’s engineering and technical ability. The DBS offers pure performance without compromise. It delivers the complete driving experience and bridges the gap between our road and track cars – the DB9 and DBR9.”

Equally at home on a twisting mountain circuit as on the open road, the DBS is a true thoroughbred, says Bez. “The Aston Martin DBS is a 6.0-litre V12 powered, race-bred, two-seater shaped by the aerodynamic demands of high performance, with an exquisite interior that marries beautifully hand-finished materials with the very latest in performance technology.”

A combination of elegant design, innovative manufacturing processes, race-derived materials and components and Aston Martin’s unrivalled hand-build expertise makes the DBS a luxury sports car without equal. Every line, crease and curve conveys the enormous potential of the DBS, a seductive blend of refinement and raw power, provided by the hand-built V12 producing 380 kW (510 bhp/517 PS), a top speed of 302 km/h (191 mph) and a 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) time of 4.3 seconds.

The DBS is built at Aston Martin’s global headquarters at Gaydon, near Warwickshire in the United Kingdom, joining the current Aston Martin line-up which now comprises the elegant DB9, the agile V8 Vantage Coupe and the critically acclaimed Vantage Roadster – launched earlier in 2007.

The Aston Martin DBS will again feature in the latest James Bond movie. Following its pre-launch role in “Casino Royale” the DBS features in a spectacular car chase sequence in “Quantum of Solace” due for release in New Zealand on 27 November 2008.