Flagship (DBS) back as Bond returns

[carl stromberg]

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/stor ... d=10526145

Flagship back as Bond returns

Aston Martin has launched its flagship DBS in New Zealand. And there's a new James Bond flick on the way, called Quantum of Solace.

Conclusion: you're going to get really sick of reading Bond-themed stories about this car (it's the one Daniel Craig drove in Casino Royale and will again in the new movie).

So best I get in first. The DBS is exactly the kind of thing a secret agent needs. It's posh enough to pull up outside a casino in the south of France, yet its race-derived technology makes it a serious contender at 10/10ths on a mountain road.

The DBS looks almost exactly like a DB9, but it's not.

Yes, the DB9 was the base: but the DBS is $135,000 more expensive, and gets more power, reshaped lightweight carbon-fibre body panels (boot enclosure, boot lid, door surrounds, front guards and bonnet), special suspension with two-mode adaptive control and unique interior elements.

While the DB9 is a luxury sports car, the DBS is the sort of thing a gentleman racer might buy to use on the odd track day and do big skids on the way to work.
Aston Martin chief executive Ulrich Bez says: "The DBS delivers the ultimate driving experience and bridges the gap between our road and track cars - the DB9 and DBR9."

I got the DBS for four hours of free driving last week. So I can't really comment on how good the iPod integration is or how many sets of golf clubs you can fit in the boot, but I can tell you that it's a thing of awesome speed and chassis finesse if you're lucky enough to get it alone on your favourite back road.

Its 0-100km/h sprint time of 4.3 seconds is well and truly in the supercar league, but what's most remarkable is the sheer fluidity of the chassis. It's a car that really flatters smooth driving - it flows from bend to bend (and over big bumps) with incredible composure.

Cutting weight helps in the way it rides: Kiwi roads are famously bumpy, but the DBS was unflustered by wobbly backroads, even with the adaptive suspension set on Track mode.

The DBS doesn't tap you on the shoulder and want to play all the time like a Porsche 911 GT3 or Mercedes-Benz CLK Black Series.

But that's the essence of the car - it combines outrageous supercar performance with slick chassis dynamics. It's a class act.

DB9 or DBS, the sex appeal of this body shape is undeniable. But I'm unsure about the interior. Some of the trim reflects the racing theme, with Alcantara on the roof lining and carbon fibre door inserts.

But other bits go big on the bling, with garish switchgear and a highly polished alloy gear lever/surround. I loved the 10-way adjustable sports seats, but the optional storage "saddle" on top of our test car's transmission tunnel hindered the gear-changing arm.

James Bond rolled his DBS in Casino Royale and looks set to smash another into a quarry in the opening car-chase sequence of Quantum of Solace.

A stunt driver also managed to deposit one into Lake Garda by accident during filming of the same. But I delivered my DBS back to Independent Prestige in Auckland in one piece, unmolested by bad guys.

Ding da da da ding... you know my name (because there's a byline at the top of the story).

[Mazer Rackham]

"James Bond rolled his DBS in Casino Royale and looks set to smash another into a quarry in the opening car-chase sequence of Quantum of Solace. "
Good then we have the proper buildup for why he is riding the bus and then for how wonderful his new Ford Ka is.

Smash into a quarry? d**n that boy can not drive to save his life.

[The Sweeney]

"James Bond rolled his DBS in Casino Royale and looks set to smash another into a quarry in the opening car-chase sequence of Quantum of Solace. "
Good then we have the proper buildup for why he is riding the bus and then for how wonderful his new Ford Ka is.

Smash into a quarry? d**n that boy can not drive to save his life.

Remind me again. Did Moore ever drive a bus in LALD, and did Moore ever drive a crappy Citroen in FYEO?

No, I must have imagined it, surely.....

[stockslivevan]

"James Bond rolled his DBS in Casino Royale and looks set to smash another into a quarry in the opening car-chase sequence of Quantum of Solace. "
Good then we have the proper buildup for why he is riding the bus and then for how wonderful his new Ford Ka is.

Smash into a quarry? d**n that boy can not drive to save his life.

Remind me again. Did Moore ever drive a bus in LALD, and did Moore ever drive a crappy Citroen in FYEO?

No, I must have imagined it, surely.....

I recall Connery crashing his DB5 and Brosnan recklessly launching his BMW from a roof down to a public street... Nah, I must be imagining that too.

[Mazer Rackham]

^Here comes the tolls (du dn du du)
Here comes the trolls
And I say
Its alright

CR BDS rolled within the first 30 seconds of driving, but hey thats okey after all it'll be reused in Quark. Oh, wait it gets trashed in a quarry in the opening sequence of Quark.

Anyway driving a procured bus is different than taking it as a paying member public.


**EDITED BY ADMIN

[Goldeneye]

Some flame bate comments and posts were edited.
Please keep conversations vaguely on topic and please refrain from attacking each other.

[stockslivevan]

Anyway driving a procured bus is different than taking it as a paying member public.

[Mazer Rackham]

Anyway driving a procured bus is different than taking it as a paying member public.

Which is why it is so funny.
Photoshop that with Craig's head then add the caption "ticket please"
Now were ready for the head line Craig's wrecks DBS for second time moments after Quark starts. What is Craig's aversion to the road? Inquiring minds want to know.


(hope this wasn't being too edgy for ya boss)

[stockslivevan]

Craig's Bond didn't even wreck the DBS until an hour after it was given to him, and it wasn't because of reckless driving (unless you know a way of not running over the girl without wrecking the car), hell even in the book he crashed his car. Other than that, why does it matter that Craig's Bond wrecks another car? All of the previous Bonds aside from Lazenby wrecked their car via crash, explosion, sawed in half, ect. The only cars I can recall that weren't destroyed were in TB, TSWLM and GE.

[Mazer Rackham]

Craig's Bond didn't even wreck the DBS until an hour after it was given to him, and it wasn't because of reckless driving (unless you know a way of not running over the girl without wrecking the car), hell even in the book he crashed his car. Other than that, why does it matter that Craig's Bond wrecks another car? All of the previous Bonds aside from Lazenby wrecked their car via crash, explosion, sawed in half, ect. The only cars I can recall that weren't destroyed were in TB, TSWLM and GE.

I'm not slamming the car being distributed across the quarry I'm making light of the irony that the car got so little screen time and history will repeat itself for Quark. Which incidentally also feeds into the Craig can't drive vibe from CR

[stockslivevan]

Craig's Bond didn't even wreck the DBS until an hour after it was given to him, and it wasn't because of reckless driving (unless you know a way of not running over the girl without wrecking the car), hell even in the book he crashed his car. Other than that, why does it matter that Craig's Bond wrecks another car? All of the previous Bonds aside from Lazenby wrecked their car via crash, explosion, sawed in half, ect. The only cars I can recall that weren't destroyed were in TB, TSWLM and GE.

I'm not slamming the car being distributed across the quarry I'm making light of the irony that the car got so little screen time and history will repeat itself for Quark. Which incidentally also feeds into the Craig can't drive vibe from CR

[The Sweeney]

^Here comes the tolls (du dn du du)
Here comes the trolls
And I say
Its alright

It's bizarre that you can't debate in a civilised, intelligent manner without one of the mods having to edit your posts....and you call us trolls? Oh, the irony of it....

Trolls only pop up now and again to cause trouble. Stocks and I are regular posters here who try to contribute to the debate, not start a slagging match. But anyway, the mods have already stated that, so be it. Back on topic, every argument you have tried to throw up regarding Craig driving a bus, or taking a bus, or Craig smashing up his Aston, or Craig driving a crappy car has been counter-acted with examples of other Bonds doing the exact same thing.

You give the decent DCINB'ers on here a bad name.

[stockslivevan]

Rackham's fine when discussing other subjects, really he is decent. But I notice he really gets really riled up when the topic is Craig, belittling every aspect about him as much as he can. From his attitude you'd think Craig must have raped his friends & family then doused them in gasoline to set them ablaze.

[The Sweeney]

Rackham's fine when discussing other subjects, really he is decent. But I notice he really gets really riled up when the topic is Craig, belittling every aspect about him as much as he can. From his attitude you'd think Craig must have raped his friends & family then doused them in gasoline to set them ablaze.

Maybe he did....

[Mazer Rackham]

Humm, didn't he delete your post entirely? Besides the part he deleted went into the rest of the song.

You're not countering anything you are trying to obfuscate and misdirect the conversation. If someone says they don't one aspect of something you try to downplay it as all the Bond do it or then you belittle the participant in the conversation. Like now.

TND Bond dives the car safely back to Avis, after extensive use of the car. (not a bad placement, actually made some sense as a cover.)
GF Bond does a crash test dummy into an obviously shoddily constructed wall, again after extensive use of the car.
TLD Bond gets on a trolley to follow a suspect, car is fine except for the Czech hoodrats rolling the tires away.

Nothing to do with the FACT that the DBS gets fleeting moments of screen time and then sent to kingdomcome. Happened before and is happening again
Nobody mentioned anything about Bond's wear and tear on vehicles. GE alone he pissed through a fleet of transportation. They only thing mentioned was the DBS and the shamefully misuse of car that should have been more prominently featured. Ask a car buff how they feel about it and they'll tell how cheated they feel.

You must be completely obtuse to so blindly miss the humor intended. I can't believe such a impeded person could figure out email let alone successful register here, so it must be on purpose, which brings us back to your trolling, long term trolling at that.
Trolling post q & a that is deliberately offensive, insulting, or hurtful to other people


Besides one of you two narc'd on me Nobody gets their post edited here, somebody had to complain at least you got your s**t deleted

[The Sweeney]

Humm, didn't he delete your post entirely? Besides the part he deleted went into the rest of the song.

You're not countering anything you are trying to obfuscate and misdirect the conversation. If someone says they don't one aspect of something you try to downplay it as all the Bond do it or then you belittle the participant in the conversation. Like now.

TND Bond dives the car safely back to Avis, after extensive use of the car. (not a bad placement, actually made some sense as a cover.)
GF Bond does a crash test dummy into an obviously shoddily constructed wall, again after extensive use of the car.
TLD Bond gets on a trolley to follow a suspect, car is fine except for the Czech hoodrats rolling the tires away.

Nothing to do with the FACT that the DBS gets fleeting moments of screen time and then sent to kingdomcome. Happened before and is happening again
Nobody mentioned anything about Bond's wear and tear on vehicles. GE alone he pissed through a fleet of transportation. They only thing mentioned was the DBS and the shamefully misuse of car that should have been more prominently featured. Ask a car buff how they feel about it and they'll tell how cheated they feel.

You must be completely obtuse to so blindly miss the humor intended. I can't believe such a impeded person could figure out email let alone successful register here, so it must be on purpose, which brings us back to your trolling, long term trolling at that.
Trolling post q & a that is deliberately offensive, insulting, or hurtful to other people


Besides one of you two narc'd on me Nobody gets their post edited here, somebody had to complain at least you got your s**t deleted

I never grassed on you. I can't speak for Stocks. And I've never had a post deleted (none that I'm aware of). Care to point out one that did?

With regards your `humour'. This is your `get-out' claus now. `I...I...was only joking. It was just humour. Surely everyone can see that' (of course, that's why your post was edited by a mod. He must have had a by-pass humour operation too). If you were only jesting, just larking about, just messing around, having a laaarf with your posts about all things Craig, then I must have missed the humour entirely.

So yes, I must be very obtuse indeed.

And with regards the examples of the cars been driven safely in the examples above, who really gives a toss. I love Aston Martin's, but I don't really jump up and down in a wild, rabid frenzy at watching CR, yelling at the screen `That Daniel Craig cannot drive! I knew he shouldn't be Bond'.

Ohhh wait! I guess you were being humourous again with that. Doh! Missed it again completely!

[stockslivevan]

The only user on this site I ever reported to the mods was Katied, so count me out. I don't see how it's not possible that an admin could simply view a post and take action simply because he believed it is what it was. Isn't that what an admin's job is?

[Mazer Rackham]

Humm, didn't he delete your post entirely? Besides the part he deleted went into the rest of the song.

You're not countering anything you are trying to obfuscate and misdirect the conversation. If someone says they don't one aspect of something you try to downplay it as all the Bond do it or then you belittle the participant in the conversation. Like now.

TND Bond dives the car safely back to Avis, after extensive use of the car. (not a bad placement, actually made some sense as a cover.)
GF Bond does a crash test dummy into an obviously shoddily constructed wall, again after extensive use of the car.
TLD Bond gets on a trolley to follow a suspect, car is fine except for the Czech hoodrats rolling the tires away.

Nothing to do with the FACT that the DBS gets fleeting moments of screen time and then sent to kingdomcome. Happened before and is happening again
Nobody mentioned anything about Bond's wear and tear on vehicles. GE alone he pissed through a fleet of transportation. They only thing mentioned was the DBS and the shamefully misuse of car that should have been more prominently featured. Ask a car buff how they feel about it and they'll tell how cheated they feel.

You must be completely obtuse to so blindly miss the humor intended. I can't believe such a impeded person could figure out email let alone successful register here, so it must be on purpose, which brings us back to your trolling, long term trolling at that.
Trolling post q & a that is deliberately offensive, insulting, or hurtful to other people


Besides one of you two narc'd on me Nobody gets their post edited here, somebody had to complain at least you got your s**t deleted

I never grassed on you. I can't speak for Stocks. And I've never had a post deleted (none that I'm aware of). Care to point out one that did?

There was one I was responding to. By the time I went back to the thread it was gone and there was a note in my permanent record.

With regards your `humour'. This is your `get-out' claus now. `I...I...was only joking. It was just humour. Surely everyone can see that' (of course, that's why your post was edited by a mod. He must have had a by-pass humour operation too). If you were only jesting, just larking about, just messing around, having a laaarf with your posts about all things Craig, then I must have missed the humour entirely.

So yes, I must be very obtuse indeed.

You thought this was serious?
"Photoshop that with Craig's head then add the caption "ticket please"
Now were ready for the head line Craig's wrecks DBS for second time moments after Quark starts. What is Craig's aversion to the road? Inquiring minds want to know."
You take Craig way too seriously. I make a joke about him riding the bus to work, all of the its sudden blasphemy? It's humor

And with regards the examples of the cars been driven safely in the examples above, who really gives a toss. I love Aston Martin's, but I don't really jump up and down in a wild, rabid frenzy at watching CR, yelling at the screen `That Daniel Craig cannot drive! I knew he shouldn't be Bond'.

Ohhh wait! I guess you were being humourous again with that. Doh! Missed it again completely!

And you're saying I was yelling at the screen?
Think about it like a car nut, DBS super car, you want to see hear and feel it. The GE DB6 chase with Onatopp, the Fergie looking girl evaluating from passengers ejector seat.
GF the alps and Miss Masterson.
That is the kind of action car nuts like to see.

[stockslivevan]

To be fair Mazer Rackham, humor doesn't come off easy as simple text. Carl's humor is similar however he throws in a smiley like this to let people in on the joke and know you can't take his words literally.

[The Sweeney]

You thought this was serious?
"Photoshop that with Craig's head then add the caption "ticket please"
Now were ready for the head line Craig's wrecks DBS for second time moments after Quark starts. What is Craig's aversion to the road? Inquiring minds want to know."
You take Craig way too seriously. I make a joke about him riding the bus to work, all of the its sudden blasphemy? It's humor

Guess I just don't find it funny. I find some posters on here funny who are DCINB'ers (007's harsh comments sometimes make me chuckle. Carl can be quite funny, so can Skywalker. Kris is just a general all-round nice guy). It's just that the tone of many of your posts are not coming across as someone having a laugh, but as someone seriously bitter and twisted about the whole Craig affair, and is looking desperately for any angle to bash him, even if it contradicts what has gone before in a Bond film. And the fact that myself and Stocks responded to you in a debate, you resorted immediately in calling us trolls.

With regards my deleted post, I'd be interested to know which post it was. Do you still have the reference anywhere?