Automotive

Aston Martin's DBX 707 wants to race your luxury SUV to soccer practice

Aston Martin's DBX 707 wants to race your luxury SUV to soccer practice
Aston Martin says the DBX 707 will be the fastest, most powerful, best handling luxury SUV ever built
Aston Martin says the DBX 707 will be the fastest, most powerful, best handling luxury SUV ever built
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Aston Martin says the DBX 707 will be the fastest, most powerful, best handling luxury SUV ever built
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Aston Martin says the DBX 707 will be the fastest, most powerful, best handling luxury SUV ever built
New splitters, skirts and optional 23-inch rims
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New splitters, skirts and optional 23-inch rims
The little rear spoiler has been tweaked for a touch of extra downforce
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The little rear spoiler has been tweaked for a touch of extra downforce
When you and the kids absolutely need to get there on time
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When you and the kids absolutely need to get there on time
The DBX's V8 engine gets hefty power and torque injections
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The DBX's V8 engine gets hefty power and torque injections
Aston Martin
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The enormous rear diffuser almost looks like it got left behind when somebody accelerated too hard
Aston gets serious about its grille game: the DBX 707 has a mustache Tom Selleck would run away from
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Aston gets serious about its grille game: the DBX 707 has a mustache Tom Selleck would run away from
0-100 km/h in 3.3 seconds
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0-100 km/h in 3.3 seconds
A new, stronger and more responsive 9-speed auto transmission
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A new, stronger and more responsive 9-speed auto transmission
Spacious and racious
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Spacious and racious
A little extra detail on the roof
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A little extra detail on the roof
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Aston Martin is relatively new to the world of SUVs, but it's swinging for the fences with its latest: a juiced-up, 697-horsepower DBX 707 designed to be the "fastest, most powerful, best handling and most engaging" SUV in the luxury segment.

To be clear, that luxury segment doesn't include things like the 1,020-horsepower Tesla Model X, the 710-horsepower Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat, or the 707-horsepower Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk. I guess those guys must serve sparkling white instead of champagne in their showrooms, or use leather from cows that aren't hairy enough to avoid mosquito bites.

Still, the new DBX 707 comfortably hands a spec-sheet smackdown to the beefiest family chariots from Porsche, Lamborghini, Bentley, Maserati, Rolls-Royce and Mercedes-AMG, which are presumably luxurious enough to qualify.

The same 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 that made 542 horsepower and 700 Nm (516 lb-ft) of torque in the original 2019 DBX has been juiced up with a fresh tune and ball bearings in its turbos to achieve the 697 hp and 900 Nm (664 lb-ft) we'll see in the DBX 707 – which is named for the 707 pferdestärke, or metric horsepower, it'll make on paper.

The DBX's V8 engine gets hefty power and torque injections
The DBX's V8 engine gets hefty power and torque injections

I know, it's confusing. Why would the metric system go bringing farm animals into the discussion? Europe made a big mistake when it went to the pferdestärke (the power required to raise 75 kg at 1m/sec against the Earth's gravity) instead of the Poncelet (the power required to raise 100 kg at 1 m/sec against the Earth's gravity). Round numbers you can count on your fingers or toes, that's what this metric business is supposed to be all about. I'd love to be telling you the new Aston will pump out 530 Poncelets, but sadly I don't run the world yet.

The DBX 707 will get a new, more responsive nine-speed wet-clutch auto transmission capable of dealing with the motor's fatter torque curve. Aston says it's also tossed in a beefier electronic limited slip differential for better low-speed acceleration, contributing to a 3.3-second sprint from 0-62 mph (0-100 km/h).

0-100 km/h in 3.3 seconds
0-100 km/h in 3.3 seconds

That would wallop the standard DBX by an impressive 1.2 seconds, so feel free to whack it into the new "race start" mode and entertain your children by dragging one of those off at the lights. Keep your head down and try not to make eye contact with Model X Plaid drivers, though – indeed, that's good advice no matter what combustion-powered car you're driving. The acceleration wars are over, and gasoline has lost.

New carbon-ceramic brakes will help the 707 pull up quicker, and they also rip an impressive 40 kg (88 lb) out of the car's unsprung weight. That'll help out the revised air suspension system, too, which is designed to reduce heave over crests, pitch on the gas or brakes, and roll in the corners. The steering has been adjusted for better feel, too.

If the original DBX was already pulling sub-eight-minute Nurburgring laps in regular testing sessions, perhaps this one's got the Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT and its record (for an SUV) 7:39 lap time in its sights. It's certainly got every chance of beating the Class concept tractor's record lap for farm equipment.

Aston Martin
The enormous rear diffuser almost looks like it got left behind when somebody accelerated too hard

Visually, you can tell it's the fanciest DBX from the carbon splitters and skirts, the whopping big diffuser section at the rear, the sharper upturned tail, the optional 23-inch rims, that sort of thing. Oh, and a bigger "satin chrome" grille, a mighty mustache that nearly pushes things into the grille-o-rama territory that's rumored to tickle the fancy of the Chinese market.

It looks beaut, and time will tell if it's genuinely the raciest SUV the world has ever seen. There was once a time when luxury performance brands wouldn't be caught dead making a family wagon, but these days they certainly know which side their bread's buttered on, and the segment is exploding.

Aston says production is due to start soon, with prices reportedly starting at US$235,086, and the company genuinely hopes everyone that buys one will customize it to billy-o with the "Q by Aston Martin" bespoke service.

Check out the launch video below.

Aston Martin DBX707 | Unveiling the world’s most powerful luxury SUV

Source: Aston Martin

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6 comments
6 comments
UltimaRex
...Aannndddd since the Model X Plaid exists none of the above matters.

Yeah, I know what Aston said. It doesn't matter. Crush ICE, build EVs.
dugnology
Please, the world does not need any more SUV's. Especially ones that have enormous grills. I don't get what they are for. If you want room, look at older Rolls Royce cars that sit tall and look respectable. If you want room, get a minivan. If Aston Martin thinks it needs to make this they can make a goofy looking minivan.
lalo9797
I think the headline for this story very adroitly (though perhaps unintentionally) sums up the irony of anyone needing a nearly 700 horsepower, $235K vehicle to drive the kids to soccer practice. I mean, maybe we could all just go on pretending that anthroprogenic global warming isn't happening and that a huge V8 and 5,000 pounds of steel, glass, and rubber are the best way to transport our relatively small bodies down the road. At the same time let's also ignore the fact that more than 10,000 people around the world (most of them children) will die today due to lack of access to clean drinking water. Forget that privately owned vehicles spend better than 90% of their lifespan parked and idle. But no, good for you. You own a quarter of a million dollar Aston SUV. Sure looks pretty.
WB
yeah the Luxury SUV Tesla Model X Plaid would have this thing for lunch and twice on Sunday...
WB
oh and why not just make the grille even bigger why not make the entire outside a grill.. just so we are done with it...
Daniel Jackson
The author of this article is clueless as to the correct unit of power that should be used. The horsepooper of all versions are deprecated and obsolete and should never be used, The only true unit of power, the one used behind the scenes in the design and engineering is the watt. The watt ties in nicely with the newton-metre of torque. Torque in newton-metres time rotational sped in radians per second equals the power in watts. (N.m.rad/s=W). That simple, coherent and consistent. The correct symbol, BTW, for the unit second is not sec but s, according to the rules for the use of SI units.