Aston DB7: a supercar for our times
Autocar
March 3rd 1993
Giles Chapman
courtesy and copyright of Autocar
http://autocar.co.uk
We’ve pored over its specifications, ogled its looks, touched it, photographed it, badgered those who have made it.
If the Aston Martin DB7 is as impressive on the road as it is standing still in a dimly lit starting studio, it should be the exciting new British car of the year. We hesitate to repeat those fateful words, but the British could, with a bit of luck, be coming.
Aston Martin makes no secret of the Jaguar influence in it is £80,000 165mph supercar. In fact, we know it goes deeper than DB7 guiding lights Walkinshaw and Hayes will admit in Geneva today.
But take a look at the Virage, a brontosaurus of a car, and you must agree DB7 is all to the good. We revere heritage as much as the next enthusiast, but we can’t help thinking it could be the best thing that’s happened to Aston since the DB4 took its bow in 1958. After all, no car is an island: even the beautiful DB4 featured bought-in components, had an Italian-styled body and a highly strung straight–six engine designed by a Pole.
The DB7 is no less a thoroughbred than any other Aston. What it has drawn from Jaguar, TWR and Ford is the best of British enterprise, resourcefulness and design ingenuity – exactly what David Brown achieved in the far-off ’50s.