Aston Martin DBX707 review: Come fly with me, let’s fly away

This new Aston Martin DBX707 is the most powerful SUV on sale in the UK, and its very existence speaks volumes for the evolving nature of the relationship between the company and its ‘technical partner’ Mercedes-AMG. When Aston Martin first started putting AMG engines in the Vantage it was given entry-level specification versions of the 4-litre V8 and other than modifications required to put it in the Vantage, was told not to touch it at all. At the time AMG’s boss was one Tobias Moers who, rumour has it, had once been quite keen on running Aston Martin but had not got the job.

Then suddenly the man who got that job, Andy Palmer, was gone, to be replaced by Moers; and the first thing that happens on his watch is the Vantage gets the more powerful engine it has always deserved. That was last year and now this: as Mercedes ups its stake in Aston to owning fully 20% of the company, the most powerful version of the motor has been installed not under the bonnet of a Mercedes, but in this DBX707. And the fact that Moers has already gone out the same door as Palmer after less than two years in the role doesn’t change any of that.

The name refers to the engine’s output in PS, or pferdestärke, which here in Britain we multiply by 0.986 to give 697 brake horsepower, quite a rise from the 542bhp the same engine gives in the standard DBX V8. The same engine? Absolutely: it has bigger turbos and a different exhaust but the insides of the motor have not been touched, meaning it was always designed for this kind of power and has hitherto been artificially prevented from doing so.

But this car is so much more than a hot DBX. Visually you can see how much more purposeful it has become, looks that have changed not merely to add presence but downforce and essential cooling, too. The gearbox has lost its torque converter in favour of a wet clutch for faster, sharper changes, the suspension has been completely overhauled, the brakes are carbon-ceramic, the rear e-diff reprogrammed and so on and so on. I’m sure you get the picture.

Except that, at first, I didn’t: this car is not what I had expected it to be. I’d imagined a DBX with a Faustian pact, a car with more of everything in terms of power, performance and grip, achieved perhaps at the price of a certain subtlety, or as much as such cars are capable of generating. A DBX with horns growing from its helmet and wielding a broadsword in other words. But it’s not like that at all.

“The sheer civility of the thing is both a surprise and a delight”

I know from the rumbustiousness of many an AMG Mercedes just how noisy this engine can be when it fires up, and you’d expect it to shake the ground on which you stand in Aston Martin’s most powerful standard production car. But it doesn’t: there’s purposeful but far-off thunder, and that’s about it.

So instead of snorting and bellowing as it fires you down the road, it’s far more polite in a way that would be positively disappointing in a supercar of the same potential. But here, sat up high in a two-and-a-bit tonne SUV the sheer civility of the thing is both a surprise and a delight. This is not a car that needs to shout about its performance, because there’s more than enough of that to be entirely convincing in its own right.

Indeed, why anyone would ever want a car like this to go any faster completely defeats me. Really rev the thing out and it is preposterously rapid, and relentless too thanks to a shortened final drive and a 30% quicker shift speed.

All by itself that’s a powerful incentive to choose a DBX707 (apparently if we call it a ‘707’ Boeing’s lawyers start reaching for their fountain pens) over the base DBX, but actually the chassis has been improved by a commensurate amount too, and that’s bearing in mind the DBX was already the best-handling large SUV on the market. And again, Aston Martin has avoided the easy win of tying it down on its springs, preventing the body from moving and adding grip at the expense of ride quality. It still rides remarkably well, but now has even more composure, more accurate steering and a greater inclination to put power to the rear and neutralise the handling balance.

But perhaps the biggest surprise is the fact that, expensive though it is, it’s only £26,000 more than the ‘normal’ DBX and that includes those ceramic brakes which you’d expect to account for not much less than half that increment. It sounds like an expensive car, but both to look at and to drive I’d rank it above both key rivals, the Bentley Bentayga and Lamborghini Urus.

And I’ll tell you this: within the company Moers may have been an unpopular chief executive during his abbreviated tenure but the two cars produced so far for which he can claim responsibility – the Vantage F1 Edition and this DBX – have been two of the best that Aston Martin has produced in many years, and there will be more to come.

He may not get the credit for prescribing and then applying the medicine but he should because, for now at least, it appears to be working.

Aston Martin DBX707

● Price £189,995
● Engine 6 litres, eight cylinders, petrol, turbocharged
● Power 697bhp at 6000rpm
● Torque 664lb ft at 4500rpm
● Weight 2245kg (DIN)
● Power to weight 310bhp per tonne
● Transmission Nine-speed automatic, four-wheel drive
● 0-62mph 3.3sec
● Top speed 193mph
● Economy 19.9mpg
● CO2 323g/km
● Verdict A dazzling arrival