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2010 Aston Martin DBS Volante: Brief encounter with magnificent drop-top is far too short
 The Aston Martin DBS Volante is made of aluminum, magnesium alloy and carbon fiber composite. SPECIAL TO THE POST-DISPATCH
I'd just finished driving a $300,000 convertible, sometimes at three-digit speeds. I should have been exhilarated. Instead, I was blue as a Chuck Berry protagonist watching Nadine drive off in her coffee-color Cadillac. How could this be? Then, on the way home, while listening to an oldies station, I got the answer from one of Chuck’s contemporaries. Smokey Robinson consoled me with the sage observation, “A taste of honey’s worse than none at all.” Bingo. I normally get a week with a test car. With the 2010 Aston Martin DBS Volante, I got 40 minutes – in truth, twice the 20 minutes I’d been allotted, simply because I wouldn’t let go. When I got back to Moore Jaguar/Aston Martin, where Aston factory officials had made available brief test drives of this magnificent exotic, I had some ’splainin’ to do to the next guy on the list. The DBS Volante (Aston-speak for “convertible”) is the drop-top edition of the DBS coupe, itself the hot-rod version of the no-slouch DB9. Although the coupe arrived first, this hand-built car from the get-go was designed for a convertible body – with a classic soft top. Bill Norman, operations manager for Aston Martin North America, said the now-in-vogue fold away hard top was rejected by Aston designers both for performance and aesthetic reasons. “We’d ruin the back of the car if we’d put all that stuff in it – it would be all humped up in back,” Norman said, referring to the space necessary to house a folded hard top. And, since the chosen top is fabric, the convertible weighs just 200 pounds more than the coupe. “Aston Martin has always been about (low) weight,” Norman said. “If you go into the plant (in Gaydon, Warwickshire, England) you’ll see a big sign on the wall: ‘Weight is the enemy of speed.’ ” That enemy has been vanquished by the DBS, whose 5.9-liter, 510-hp V-12 launches this stunning beauty to 60 mph in about 4 seconds on its way to a (governed) top speed of 185 mph. That engine, with its 420 lb.-ft. of torque, can be managed by either a six-speed manual or the razor-sharp paddle-shift six-speed automatic we had. On the road, the car drives as beautifully as it looks. Top-down wind buffeting is nicely managed, steering and throttle response make the car feel an extension of the driver’s extremities and the carbon/ceramic brakes seem capable of stopping time. And all the while, the symphonic V-12 sings an operatic aria that could entertain me all day -- for sure, a heck of a lot longer than 40 minutes. Top up, that song’s volume is lowered, thanks to a plush, multi-ply fabric top that seals snugly, but the vocal is never totally muted. My only squawk with the car – realizing going in, of course, that this 2+2’s back seat is merely an extended cargo area – was the shiny piano black trim. Rising from the top of the centerstack to the base of the windshield, it provides constant glare, top up or down, sun in or out. It can, however, be jettisoned for a variety of other materials, Norman said. A few things not standard, but available, include such now-expected luxury perks as rain-sensing wipers and automatic headlights. Tony Longhibler, Moore’s Aston specialist, said Aston drivers are engaged – they know when it’s raining, they know when it’s getting dark. “We don’t need that girly stuff,” he laughed. Among the stuff that is included is a magnificent 1,000-watt Bang & Olufsen audio system that is so advanced, “it knows if there’s two people in the car by the clicked seat belts and it centers the sound accordingly,” Norman said. “It’s amazing stuff.” Indeed, it is. Aston will produce a mere 500 copies of the DBS Volante. The U.S., where it rings the register at a base price of $287,850, will get just 200 of them. I can’t even dream of affording this exotic, but, mmmmm, maybe I can get a little more time with one. Let me figure this out . . . 200 cars, 308 million Americans, 20 minutes each . . .
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