Review of the new Aston Martin DBS Volante

Presumably convertible cars are a big no-no for members of Her Majesty's Secret Service. Having your head exposed to the elements must be a major disadvantage when being pursued by a car load of angry Eastern Europeans with machine guns and rocket launchers, so Aston Martin's most famous customer might not be too enamoured with the DBS Volante. Fortunately, any red-blooded individual without a licence to kill and a cat stroking psychopath making regular attempts on their life, will absolutely love it. Mr Bond can stick with his coupe.

Aston Martin has quite a history when it comes to convertible cars, with the DBS Volante being its 16th open-topped effort, joining a range that already included the Vantage Roadster and the DB9 Volante. The DBS is the marque's current flagship and although it shares many common parts with the DB9, it also incorporates a number of modifications designed to provide greater sporting focus. In convertible form, it adds the attraction of open air motoring into the mix but as with the standard DBS, this kind of quality, speed and exclusivity comes at a premium.

The engine bay isn't where much of the DBS development budget was spent. The familiar 48-valve 6.0-litre V12 once found in the Vanquish resides here, though it's been enhanced with a smarter bypass system that opens at higher revs to provide additional intake air and a more aggressive exhaust note. There's also a slightly higher compression ratio and reprofiled inlet ports, all of which, Aston claims, gives the car a bit more zip at higher revs. Maximum power is identical in the Coupe and the Volante convertible with 510bhp and torque of 570Nm on tap but Volante owners will need to keep a tight hold on their hats and hair pieces before deploying it with the hood down.

The maximum torque of the DBS is produced at 5,750rpm, which sounds quite high but with 85% of that output available from 1,500rpm, the car isn't lacking in muscle. Getting to 60mph is the work of 4.3s and the top speed is 191mph, so this convertible is equipped to live with the top supercars. The standard gearbox is a six-speed manual but customers can opt for the wheel-mounted paddle shifters of the Touchtronic automatic.

".there are plenty of people who would kill to own an Aston Martin DBS Volante, and with good reason"

The DBS Volante is another effortlessly beautiful car from Aston Martin although some of the DB9's elegance has been lost in the process of making this higher performance model look sufficiently aggressive. The hood is a fabric item which can open in just 14 seconds and is engineered to give the best possible insulation from noise and the elements. It disappears beneath the sculpted rear tonneau cover which features twin humps that hide Aston's ROPS Roll-Over-Protection-System that's comprised of twin metal hoops that deploy to protect occupants in a roll situation.

Rigidity, or the loss of it, is always a major problem when removing the roof from a coupe to create a convertible but the DBS was designed with a Volante version in mind from the outset and the drop top car retains 75 per cent of the coupe's chassis stiffness. The car also inherits the neat weight distribution of the DBS by locating its gearbox in the rear to counterbalance the effects of that big V12 that's slung up front.

Equipment includes everything you would expect from a car like this: electric memory heated sports seats with ten-way electric adjustment, parking sensors, a trip computer, power-folding mirrors, some gorgeous 20-inch alloys, sat nav and a beautifully finished interior set off by an all-alloy centre console. There's a very sophisticated car alarm and a Tracking device should the worst happen. The stereo is a Bang & Olufsen BeoSound unit, the braking system uses carbon ceramic discs and the suspension is governed by Aston's Adaptive Damping system. It's nothing but the best for the DBS Volante.

Of course, a specification like the one of the DBS Volante doesn't come cheap and the £50,000 price differential between this car and the ostensibly similar DB9 Volante will raise questions. With the DBS, Aston Martin is asking customers to pay for a product that takes things a little bit further and at this top end of the automotive market, going a little further can cost a lot.

No one buys a car like this and expects it to be cheap to run. Don't expect to average better than around 20mpg even if you do a fair few motorway miles. There's also the irritation that the small fuel tank will make the car seem even thirstier than it is. Insurance of course is up at Group 20. Better news comes in terms of depreciation. Because of the car's exclusivity, expect residual values to be as high, if not higher, than an equivalent Ferrari's. Servicing costs will inevitably be high, as for any supercar of this sort.

007 might be deterred by the prospect of assassins' bullets piercing the fabric hood but there are plenty of people who would kill to own an Aston Martin DBS Volante, and with good reason. It's largely what you would expect from a car that sits at the top of the Aston Martin product range with engineering, luxury, technology and performance coming together under a predictably exclusive price tag.