Aston Martin DBX 707 review

 A headline power output can often give the biggest clue to a car’s positioning in a line-up. In the case of the Aston Martin DBX 707, that 707PS (or 697bhp) is the highest power output yielded to date from Mercedes-AMG’s superb twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 petrol engine, which quickly signifies the latest version of the SUV as the range-topper, and by some margin.

That it indeed is. Yet this is a high-performance range-topper that goes far beyond the usual ‘uprate it, lower it, stiffen it’ approach, being more akin to a facelift or a remastering. The Aston Martin DBX done better, in other words.

Not that the DBX was wanting for much. It got a four-and-a-half- star Autocar road test rating less than two years ago, after all.

Yet since then, Aston Martin has appointed a new CEO in Tobias Moers, who has already overhauled the Vantage with the Aston Martin Vantage F1 Edition (effectively the car that he thought the Vantage always should have been), and now it’s the turn of the DBX to get a similar treatment. The brief for the DBX 707, in development for only 14 months, was thus: become a performance flagship without sacrificing the DBX’s long-legged grand touring credentials.

The DBX 707, which our heart rate has only just recovered from meeting a prototype on track at Silverstone last month, is quite something visually, for starters.

Most of the styling changes are necessitated by the need to increase cooling (the front daylight-running lights have had to be redesigned, for instance) and to then improve the aerodynamics and reduce drag.

The rear spoiler is a working part in this regard (yes, we really have reached the point where SUVs have functional rear spoilers), as is the Formula 1-inspired double diffuser, within which sit four exhaust pipes.

What could be quite a brutish design with all that performance addenda still successfully stays on the right side of thuggery to these eyes. And the larger (23in) alloy wheels, behind which sit enormous 420mm front and 390mm rear carbon-ceramic brake discs, actually make the 707 seem even better proportioned than the standard DBX.

There are more changes to the bits you can’t see. The basic architecture of the suspension is retained but is completely retuned to give the DBX 707 “the cornering agility, sporting feel and dynamic character of a true sports car”. Bold claims.