Pristine doesn’t begin to describe Wanaka’s Snow Farm and Automotive Proving Ground. Nestled 500 metres above the Cardrona Valley, the Pisa mountain range is an exquisite backdrop to hundreds of swishing Gore-Tex jackets that migrate here each winter for automotive testing amongst the expanse of pure white surrounding the facility.
Lavishly, I’m being choppered in at the start of a big day where I’ll drive two very special cars in very special circumstances.
My morning will consist of skidding the new Aston Martin Vantage around – on ice mind you – before I get to experience the brand’s all-new V12 DBS Superleggera. The latter is literally being launched to the world’s automotive media for their first drive impressions in Germany as I zip up my Icebreaker to do the same right here in New Zealand. As an added bonus I’ll have one of the world’s first opportunities to sample it on track.
This, I should point out, never happens. Car companies never have product to drive in the lower half of the globe at the same time as they’re being launched in Europe. So today is an unusually good day.
All this is thanks to Aston’s Art of Living customer experience programme.
Art of Living taps into the heritage and cache of the Aston brand and offers several exclusive octane-infused events around the world for their most passionate clientele, from ice driving in New Zealand, to crossing Xinjiang province in China, to hospitality packages at Le Mans.
There’s a selection of vehicles here, including the beautiful DB11 and its Aston Martin Racing (AMR) variant. But stepping onto the snow, I’m magnetically drawn to the Vantage. From every angle, it is indisputably handsome. The stark whiteness of the surrounds here accentuates every subtly of the car; the proportions and body surfaces seem even more impressive.
It’s a big deal strategically for Aston. In its sights is Porsche’s 911; to say the new Vantage is a cornerstone for the British car maker is like saying Richie McCaw was relatively important to the All Blacks.
From behind the wheel, driving the Vantage on ice requires finesse. Remember, this is no all-wheel drive, torque-vectoring, techno-showcase. There are three driving modes: standard, sport and track, but Aston Martin assumes Vantage drivers are fairly capable (clearly not met me, then) and prefer dynamics unsullied by an excess of electronic wizardry.
For optimum ‘driving fun’ we have the stability control system deactivated and applying the 4.0-litre twin turbo V8’s 375kW and 695Nm of torque through the rear wheels only. Keeping it pointing in the right direction takes all my concentration as I thread my first slalom, a satisfying rooster tail of snow in my wake.
Not that the car is unwieldy, even in these nominal grip circumstances you easily get the sensation of the car’s ideal 50:50 weight distribution. That balance coupled with the Vantage’s short 2705mm wheelbase and lightweight aluminium underpinnings, is all you want from a car when making rapid directional changes. Before long I’m hammer down, feeding the Aston full lock.
The sound is epic. A mix of studded tyres scratching violently at the sub-zero surface below, ice and snow peppering the Vantage’s sculptured bodywork and the gruff, forced-induction growl of that V8. Think the bear scene from The Revenant and you’re getting close.
The Vantage’s cockpit really is ideal for this type of thing. It’s a more driver-orientated cabin than the GT variants the marque is well known for. The hunkered-down seating position skewed to sports driving; I’m snugly secured into the seat with press-fit tolerance. The focussed ergonomics let me simply point the car with the steering wheel, rather than brace myself with it during every pendulum motion initiated.
After a few increasingly-challenging cone exercises the morning culminates with the drift circle, a 50-metre diameter of solid ice. The aim here is to steer the vehicle almost exclusively with the throttle, keeping steering input to a minimum and, ultimately, finding the sweet spot where you can balance the vehicle at a consistent angle.
It takes some getting used to and I instinctively saw at the wheel too much, over rotating the car. My instructor reminds me to be more delicate with my actions and I relax into it. Less throttle with a more consistent application holds that V8 in the thick of its torque range, you can feel the chassis respond with impressive accuracy and steering is now minimal; almost pointing straight ahead. A few attempts and the Vantage is gliding effortlessly in a beautiful, sustained drift.
I could return home quite satisfied with that, but the chopper and the DBS await. Onward, then, to Highlands Motorsport Park.
While the recently-unveiled V8 Vantage is the switchblade all-attack Aston, the DBS, as the nameplate suggests, takes the DB11 broadsword template and adds to it. Or subtracts from it actually; the name Superleggera translates as “super light”, after all. And yes, the DBS is lighter than the DB11 by 72kg.
It is the very latest addition to Aston Martin’s impressive contemporary roster of sports cars and it’s brilliant to have one here.
First off, the DBS looks stunning. The nose has been shortened by 34mm over the DB11’s snout, while the rear is much more upright; a purposeful move that has the result of giving it the ready-to-pounce edginess of a dragster over the more relaxed svelteness of the DB11. The DBS is also 10mm wider at the front; 20mm wider at the rear. It arrives on 21” rims.
Those signature side strakes – such a lovely component of the DB11’s flanks – are redrawn here with extra aero fins doing tricksy science stuff to the air as the DBS punches through it. The rear haunches of the DBS are lower than those of the DB11 to help suck the car to the ground, while a carbon double diffuser – sitting somewhere between the subtle slipperiness of the DB11’s valance and the multi-layered jagged edges of the V8 Vantage’s – also helps stick the car to the tarmac at speed. Speaking of carbon, the DBS’s roof is also made of the stuff in order to reduce weight. And look cool.
Hit the starter button and you’re met with a burst of noise from the big all-alloy quad overhead cam V12. If you’re interested, the V12 features cylinder deactivation when cruising to conserve fuel and emissions. Today, I’m not interested in that at all though. Why would I be? Ahead of me is some 4.0km of the country’s best motorsport facility and the DBS is the most powerful production car Aston has made.
Yep, the DBS Superleggera boasts peak power of 533kW and – wait for it – 900Nm of torque from 1800rpm all the way up to 5000rpm. That’s about 200Nm more than a Ferrari 812 Superfast.
Floor the throttle and the alpine surrounds of the Highlands circuit blur in an instant. I’m pressed to the back of my seat and barely have time to appreciate the brutality of the acceleration before I’m diving aggressively into a replica of the Nurburgring’s famous Karussell under violent braking.
Thankfully, the brakes are deeply impressive; carbon discs (410mm front, 360mm rear) gripped by six pistons up front and four at the back. The rapid deacceleration is as reassuring as all the safety systems in the DBS too. Not that any of them were required to deploy, I hasten to add. This is a half-million-dollar Aston (give or take); handing it back with perhaps just a smidge of road grime covering its aggressive flanks will be as joyful a moment as hurtling around Highlands in the first place.
I settle in and with each lap become increasingly more comfortable at speed. I’m surprised at the agility; the faster you go, the smaller this car feels.
Yes, the Vantage offers a sharper turn in, but the DBS Superleggera’s mid-corner stability and post-apex acceleration is like no other Aston I’ve driven. Great GT sportscars rarely translate so well on the track as this new DBS. It transfers its weight beautifully, is extremely stable and puts the power down with an exciting, controlled linear aggression that you just don’t tire of.
Ice driving was immensely good fun, but the speed and ferocity of the DBS Superleggera are the two big takeaways for me as my time in the company of Aston Martin concludes.
A very Bond film-esque few hours, finished with not a Martini, but a beer to reflect on a rewarding way to showcase two brilliant new cars as well as our own world-class scenery. A rather perfect day indeed.