The Odd Shape Almost Square Steering Wheel of the Aston Martin DBS Superleggera

I've had the pleasure of driving several exotic cars, but one that has always caught my attention is the Aston Martin DBS Superleggera. One of the unique features of this car is its steering wheel, which I described as an "odd shape almost square". This distinctive design allows for a more intimate connection with the driver, particularly when it comes to using the paddles and indicator stalks. The driver's hands drop perfectly onto these controls, creating a sense of unity with the vehicle.

The DBS Superleggera is not only visually stunning but also produces an incredible soundtrack that rivals even the most advanced sound systems. I was impressed by the sheer power and emotion emanating from this car, which sounds like it could get an ASBO for its raucous performance. The engine's exhaust note is truly music to my ears, and I must admit that I've always been intimidated when driving expensive cars in wet and cold conditions.

However, one of the design compromises of the DBS Superleggera is its relatively wide steering wheel, which can make it difficult to maneuver through tight spaces like village streets. The car's outrageous wheels, complete with massive 305/35R21 tires, also require a delicate touch when driving at slow speeds. Despite this, I was able to enjoy the car's capabilities by driving quietly at 30 miles per hour through these areas.

One of the highlights of my drive in the DBS Superleggera was its performance on open roads. With the roof down and cruising at speeds between 30-60 mph, the car's sound is surprisingly pleasant, despite the wind fluttering through the mic. The real treat, however, came when I drove through a long and cool tunnel. Measured mile speed cameras lined the road ahead, and as I entered the tunnel, I felt a rush of excitement at the prospect of exploring its length.

The DBS Superleggera is an exhilarating experience, with the V12 engine providing immense power that requires careful handling to avoid accidents. Despite the car's incredible capabilities, it's surprisingly easy to drive on familiar roads, and the soft top mechanism only slightly compromises luggage space. In fact, the DBS Superleggera enhances driving pleasure by connecting drivers more intimately with their environment.

My experience with the DBS Superleggera was made possible by Thomas and his team at Aston Martin Chichester, who kindly invited me to drive the car just before Christmas. Unfortunately, I had a prior commitment, but they rearranged everything for today's drive, which took place in less-than-ideal weather conditions – cold, wet, and quite greasy. Despite these challenges, I was able to enjoy every minute of my time with the DBS Superleggera.

If you haven't already, please give me a thumbs up and leave comments below. If you're new here, consider subscribing to Petrol Pen for more content like this article. I'll be back soon, having enjoyed my time with the DBS Superleggera, and I look forward to sharing more driving experiences with you in the future.

And so, after a day spent driving one of the most beautiful cars on four wheels, I have to say that the DBS Superleggera is about the driving pleasure it gives – a V12 engine, soft top, and the sheer exhilaration of cruising down the highway at high speeds. It's an experience like no other, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to share it with you today.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey guys welcome to petrol pet now what could be better than driving a 750 horsepower 900 Newton meter Aston Martin DBS Superleggera well Travie won't be the roof down of course welcome to the Aston Martin DBS Superleggera Valenti I have a spare pair of pants with me but I think we head back to the bar and I tell you all about this incredible car now my story with the DBS Superleggera started way back at its launch which unbelievably was June 2018 it seems like yesterday and I remember seeing the car being unveiled in London and just thinking it was a beautiful beautiful thing I've always been a fan of Aston Martin's that is no secret but for me this car just had that amazingly difficult balance of very brutish rugged looks an absolute beauty and simplicity and elegance and I think it pulls it off really really well the coupe a what's to be said over 700 horsepower 900 Newton metres of torque truly epic performance which I found out when I then drove it on a runway at v-max 200 and got up to 193 miles an hour still the fastest I've ever driven a car it was so easy to do and then finally I got to drive it on the road again thanks to aston martin chip chester who have been super kind to me today and let me have this car for the whole day on my own to be able to share it with you so when you take a car like that and then you chop the roof off i know straight away people are going to say well that will spoil it you will make it less stiff you will mean it needs to be heavier and that is true even drops as you're driving along so this car has had the roof chopped off it's a canvas roof and that means you need to add some stiffening so this car does weigh 100 kilos more than the coupe a and it does lose out on a bit of torsional rigidity apparently it's about half as stiff as the coupe a which was massively stiff so this is still a stiff car and luckily today although I don't have a huge amount of good weather because this big storm front coming in I have reasonably good weather it is sunny and I am going to be driving this car with the roof down so let's just have a look at a couple of the standout features that make this car different too standard DBS Superleggera and we'll start off at the front now the good news is there are no changes to the front and that's good because I think the front of this car is awesome so pretty much this whole front end of the car no difference whatsoever I know for some that grill is way way too big for me I just think it looks awesome it's now no longer the largest grill in the Aston Martin lineup that has now been taken by the new dbx SUV front end then no changes whatsoever there's a lot of air needs to go into there to feed the angry beast that sits under the bonnet the side profile at first glance looks the same but there is something very interesting we need to talk about now I am a huge fan of how Aston Martin managed airflow around their cars I find the whole subject fascinating and the technique we see here on DBS was first seen in the DB 11 this huge big kind of vent out of the side wing has a couple of jobs primary role is to vent high-pressure air build-up that builds up in the front wheel arch at high speed and the idea is that the pressure escapes through here and in the coupe a it then has a second job in the coupe a what happens is these vents create basically a vortex that runs down the side of the car and feeds the air into a vent in the c-pillar that then comes out of the boot lid and produces downforce this car doesn't have a seat pillar so that secondary purpose that airflow disappears so you'll find that this car doesn't quite have the same downforce created at the back that you would find in the coupe a but you still get that super aggressive front end I like that very much and then the final thing I want to talk about in the outside of the car is boot space come this way well I want to talk about boot space or more accurately lack of boot space because it's very big in here at all now you have got because the roof is currently up I've got this kind of partition that can push up and give you a little bit more space but you compromise the boot a huge amount in this car because of the soft-top mechanism and if you think when the roofs down that's the boot you've got so you could get a couple of soft bags in there for a weekend away but you're gonna be getting any golf clubs in there that's for sure and then this back here is actually the wind deflector that can go behind the driver seats one of the great pleasures in life is getting into an Aston Martin cabin they're just beautiful in here now I'm not gonna do a great deal on the interior in here because I've done a review of this car already I may well just just awesome the most important button in here is this one so the ability to drop the roof and you can do this while you're going along as well for me makes this car right up my street it is the most beautiful sounding car not bad for a turbocharged v12 but you know a naturally aspirated v12 is a thing of great beauty this thing does a pretty good job of sounding amazing if I just put it into the Sport Plus mode because that's when you get the full auditory pleasure and so it's a nice day at the moment it's not raining at the moment the roads are a little bit damp so I think we need to tread carefully but I think we go for a bit of a drive and have a chat about this car and then one of the things I've always wanted to do in a soft-top v12 Aston Martin is find a really big tunnel I am going to do my best to keep the roof down as much as I can on this review because that's the whole point of this car but it's just started to rain which in the car with this much power isn't a good thing so let's just run down a few of the driving controls and some of the things available to me I've got a set F or two gearbox but I can't go to the paddles and I always whenever up to have in this car or any Aston Martin for that matter always trimming it on the manual paddles rather than driving you through the gearbox I've got two buttons on the steering wheel one changes the suspension setup and the other one the throttle mapping and their energy management and so on and currently I've got that one in GT mode so that would be the mode you'd use for the kind of cruising and just mutant about one kick a Badman puts me into sport mode slightly different display in front of me and a little bit more of a throttle noise and a little bit more it's a slightly different throttle mapping however the whole point in this car is bordered through pleasure and all of our auditory pleasure comes when you click that little button once more and you put it into Sport Plus mode firstly we get but far far better so now the bag lots of burgers and crackles on overrun however one of the things that I do need to have a conversation with you about today is it is cold it's only eight and a half degrees I have my heated seats on and they're heating up for whack and it's very damp and believe me very damp in a car like this translates to driving carefully so 900 Newton meters of torque this gearbox is actually taught limited to just deliver 600 Newton meters in first second and third because otherwise I'm just gonna sit there all day with a back wheel spinning round already I've had a couple of kind of just loose moments to the back of lose moments in my pants because this car aspect is over quarter of a million quid and believe me I want to take it back to Harwood's shiny side up but you just happen to be very very careful on the throttle just lead the power in gently and I know some of you might be sitting there going on briefly giving the beads gather back in now simple as ice though I'm not going to do that I'm on my very best behavior the ride comfort quality with the suspension just in the softest setting is exquisite this isn't the best of roads but it's just so it's compliant but not squishy and I like that a lot the steering is quite firm you've got these kind of odd shape almost square steering wheel I mentioned this in DBS videos before the best thing about that is when you've got your hands like I have currently your hands drop perfectly onto the paddles and onto the indicator stalks and it just gives you that connection with the car I like that very very much it's just that the 12 in front this car just sounds incredible I'll lift off it just has the most raucous soundtrack when you are gonna get an ASBO Oh in the days of opiate filters and all of the emotion being taken out of the soundtrack of a car Aston Martin and the wonders with this because he really does sample brilliant I must admit though I always am quite intimidated when I Drive expensive cars in wet and cold conditions there must be something about Oh must be something about me with a book a car although hopefully we can we can get most of this building up on a really grotty when it turns up now one of the things about this table it is a relatively wide kind does have quite a big wide feel to it so when you're driving it through little villages like this you do have to be a bit careful it has the most outrageous wheels on it there is a 305 white I mean that on a cold day like today believe me it's the very wide tire with a huge amount of a huge amount of power and twisting force going through it but when you it just idea yeah I just buy this car and drive quietly at 30 miles an hour through built-up villages and towns it sounds fantastic and it's when you get up to an open bit of road and you you get the opportunity to give it a proper bit of Yahoo then that's when you have to really really be on your game and be very careful because it does sound lovely but on a day like today it's really evolved is too bad that the power is gently because otherwise things are gonna go wrong in a spectacular way honestly don't think I've used more than about a third of throttle yet so slick trees unbelievable we all the traction control on you just have to be very very careful I've come out onto the dual carriageway two reasons one I wanted to see what the noise was like with the roof down at cruising speed so now thirty to sixty miles an hour and it's not too bad if I get any wind flutter on the mic my apologies for that but I just had to have the roof down the second reason is just a little bit alone here is a very very long and very cool tunnel and it's a 70 mile an hour let me do that tunnel so it should be good for some order trip pleasure there are measured mile speed cameras through this tunnel so all of what you're about to hear and see is all done within the legal speed limit I'm currently an eighth year as I come into the tunnel get down a few cokes Wow this is the coolest thing it's raining guests about 4000 rpm I can do this for the rest of my life this car will never ever get old we are back on familiar territory in fact we're about to turn up petrol pedal but it will be a bit breezy today and sadly this roads a little bit busy today as well is when you're driving this car through a road that has tree canopy I wasn't leaning on that at all and it was a Vince Livia at the back so don't think removing the roof compromises the driving qualities in this car really in fact for me it enhances them because you get that auditory pleasure that connection with your environment what it does compromise massively is luggage space that boosts space in this really now that you want to make room for that soft top mechanism is massively compromised to the point where you know you really probably compromises certainly how far and how long you could go away for in this car is that gonna be a problem - the average owner probably not but what an experience I have to say massive massive thank you to Thomas and all the guys are Aston Martin Chichester they invited me to drive the car just before Christmas actually but I wasn't able to because another commitment so to be able to rearrange it for today and to get a day where although it's been very cold and very greasy and quite scary I have had to been able to get the roof down the hall dry but this car is about the driving pleasure it gives you a v12 a soft top before in life is there anyway I hope you enjoyed this video guys if you haven't done so please give me a thumbs up comments below are always welcome and if you haven't done so already please subscribe to petrol pen for play more content to come and I'll see on the next film guys but I've got these car for a couple more hours and I tend to enjoy every single minute of it seal the deal guys you take care drive safehey guys welcome to petrol pet now what could be better than driving a 750 horsepower 900 Newton meter Aston Martin DBS Superleggera well Travie won't be the roof down of course welcome to the Aston Martin DBS Superleggera Valenti I have a spare pair of pants with me but I think we head back to the bar and I tell you all about this incredible car now my story with the DBS Superleggera started way back at its launch which unbelievably was June 2018 it seems like yesterday and I remember seeing the car being unveiled in London and just thinking it was a beautiful beautiful thing I've always been a fan of Aston Martin's that is no secret but for me this car just had that amazingly difficult balance of very brutish rugged looks an absolute beauty and simplicity and elegance and I think it pulls it off really really well the coupe a what's to be said over 700 horsepower 900 Newton metres of torque truly epic performance which I found out when I then drove it on a runway at v-max 200 and got up to 193 miles an hour still the fastest I've ever driven a car it was so easy to do and then finally I got to drive it on the road again thanks to aston martin chip chester who have been super kind to me today and let me have this car for the whole day on my own to be able to share it with you so when you take a car like that and then you chop the roof off i know straight away people are going to say well that will spoil it you will make it less stiff you will mean it needs to be heavier and that is true even drops as you're driving along so this car has had the roof chopped off it's a canvas roof and that means you need to add some stiffening so this car does weigh 100 kilos more than the coupe a and it does lose out on a bit of torsional rigidity apparently it's about half as stiff as the coupe a which was massively stiff so this is still a stiff car and luckily today although I don't have a huge amount of good weather because this big storm front coming in I have reasonably good weather it is sunny and I am going to be driving this car with the roof down so let's just have a look at a couple of the standout features that make this car different too standard DBS Superleggera and we'll start off at the front now the good news is there are no changes to the front and that's good because I think the front of this car is awesome so pretty much this whole front end of the car no difference whatsoever I know for some that grill is way way too big for me I just think it looks awesome it's now no longer the largest grill in the Aston Martin lineup that has now been taken by the new dbx SUV front end then no changes whatsoever there's a lot of air needs to go into there to feed the angry beast that sits under the bonnet the side profile at first glance looks the same but there is something very interesting we need to talk about now I am a huge fan of how Aston Martin managed airflow around their cars I find the whole subject fascinating and the technique we see here on DBS was first seen in the DB 11 this huge big kind of vent out of the side wing has a couple of jobs primary role is to vent high-pressure air build-up that builds up in the front wheel arch at high speed and the idea is that the pressure escapes through here and in the coupe a it then has a second job in the coupe a what happens is these vents create basically a vortex that runs down the side of the car and feeds the air into a vent in the c-pillar that then comes out of the boot lid and produces downforce this car doesn't have a seat pillar so that secondary purpose that airflow disappears so you'll find that this car doesn't quite have the same downforce created at the back that you would find in the coupe a but you still get that super aggressive front end I like that very much and then the final thing I want to talk about in the outside of the car is boot space come this way well I want to talk about boot space or more accurately lack of boot space because it's very big in here at all now you have got because the roof is currently up I've got this kind of partition that can push up and give you a little bit more space but you compromise the boot a huge amount in this car because of the soft-top mechanism and if you think when the roofs down that's the boot you've got so you could get a couple of soft bags in there for a weekend away but you're gonna be getting any golf clubs in there that's for sure and then this back here is actually the wind deflector that can go behind the driver seats one of the great pleasures in life is getting into an Aston Martin cabin they're just beautiful in here now I'm not gonna do a great deal on the interior in here because I've done a review of this car already I may well just just awesome the most important button in here is this one so the ability to drop the roof and you can do this while you're going along as well for me makes this car right up my street it is the most beautiful sounding car not bad for a turbocharged v12 but you know a naturally aspirated v12 is a thing of great beauty this thing does a pretty good job of sounding amazing if I just put it into the Sport Plus mode because that's when you get the full auditory pleasure and so it's a nice day at the moment it's not raining at the moment the roads are a little bit damp so I think we need to tread carefully but I think we go for a bit of a drive and have a chat about this car and then one of the things I've always wanted to do in a soft-top v12 Aston Martin is find a really big tunnel I am going to do my best to keep the roof down as much as I can on this review because that's the whole point of this car but it's just started to rain which in the car with this much power isn't a good thing so let's just run down a few of the driving controls and some of the things available to me I've got a set F or two gearbox but I can't go to the paddles and I always whenever up to have in this car or any Aston Martin for that matter always trimming it on the manual paddles rather than driving you through the gearbox I've got two buttons on the steering wheel one changes the suspension setup and the other one the throttle mapping and their energy management and so on and currently I've got that one in GT mode so that would be the mode you'd use for the kind of cruising and just mutant about one kick a Badman puts me into sport mode slightly different display in front of me and a little bit more of a throttle noise and a little bit more it's a slightly different throttle mapping however the whole point in this car is bordered through pleasure and all of our auditory pleasure comes when you click that little button once more and you put it into Sport Plus mode firstly we get but far far better so now the bag lots of burgers and crackles on overrun however one of the things that I do need to have a conversation with you about today is it is cold it's only eight and a half degrees I have my heated seats on and they're heating up for whack and it's very damp and believe me very damp in a car like this translates to driving carefully so 900 Newton meters of torque this gearbox is actually taught limited to just deliver 600 Newton meters in first second and third because otherwise I'm just gonna sit there all day with a back wheel spinning round already I've had a couple of kind of just loose moments to the back of lose moments in my pants because this car aspect is over quarter of a million quid and believe me I want to take it back to Harwood's shiny side up but you just happen to be very very careful on the throttle just lead the power in gently and I know some of you might be sitting there going on briefly giving the beads gather back in now simple as ice though I'm not going to do that I'm on my very best behavior the ride comfort quality with the suspension just in the softest setting is exquisite this isn't the best of roads but it's just so it's compliant but not squishy and I like that a lot the steering is quite firm you've got these kind of odd shape almost square steering wheel I mentioned this in DBS videos before the best thing about that is when you've got your hands like I have currently your hands drop perfectly onto the paddles and onto the indicator stalks and it just gives you that connection with the car I like that very very much it's just that the 12 in front this car just sounds incredible I'll lift off it just has the most raucous soundtrack when you are gonna get an ASBO Oh in the days of opiate filters and all of the emotion being taken out of the soundtrack of a car Aston Martin and the wonders with this because he really does sample brilliant I must admit though I always am quite intimidated when I Drive expensive cars in wet and cold conditions there must be something about Oh must be something about me with a book a car although hopefully we can we can get most of this building up on a really grotty when it turns up now one of the things about this table it is a relatively wide kind does have quite a big wide feel to it so when you're driving it through little villages like this you do have to be a bit careful it has the most outrageous wheels on it there is a 305 white I mean that on a cold day like today believe me it's the very wide tire with a huge amount of a huge amount of power and twisting force going through it but when you it just idea yeah I just buy this car and drive quietly at 30 miles an hour through built-up villages and towns it sounds fantastic and it's when you get up to an open bit of road and you you get the opportunity to give it a proper bit of Yahoo then that's when you have to really really be on your game and be very careful because it does sound lovely but on a day like today it's really evolved is too bad that the power is gently because otherwise things are gonna go wrong in a spectacular way honestly don't think I've used more than about a third of throttle yet so slick trees unbelievable we all the traction control on you just have to be very very careful I've come out onto the dual carriageway two reasons one I wanted to see what the noise was like with the roof down at cruising speed so now thirty to sixty miles an hour and it's not too bad if I get any wind flutter on the mic my apologies for that but I just had to have the roof down the second reason is just a little bit alone here is a very very long and very cool tunnel and it's a 70 mile an hour let me do that tunnel so it should be good for some order trip pleasure there are measured mile speed cameras through this tunnel so all of what you're about to hear and see is all done within the legal speed limit I'm currently an eighth year as I come into the tunnel get down a few cokes Wow this is the coolest thing it's raining guests about 4000 rpm I can do this for the rest of my life this car will never ever get old we are back on familiar territory in fact we're about to turn up petrol pedal but it will be a bit breezy today and sadly this roads a little bit busy today as well is when you're driving this car through a road that has tree canopy I wasn't leaning on that at all and it was a Vince Livia at the back so don't think removing the roof compromises the driving qualities in this car really in fact for me it enhances them because you get that auditory pleasure that connection with your environment what it does compromise massively is luggage space that boosts space in this really now that you want to make room for that soft top mechanism is massively compromised to the point where you know you really probably compromises certainly how far and how long you could go away for in this car is that gonna be a problem - the average owner probably not but what an experience I have to say massive massive thank you to Thomas and all the guys are Aston Martin Chichester they invited me to drive the car just before Christmas actually but I wasn't able to because another commitment so to be able to rearrange it for today and to get a day where although it's been very cold and very greasy and quite scary I have had to been able to get the roof down the hall dry but this car is about the driving pleasure it gives you a v12 a soft top before in life is there anyway I hope you enjoyed this video guys if you haven't done so please give me a thumbs up comments below are always welcome and if you haven't done so already please subscribe to petrol pen for play more content to come and I'll see on the next film guys but I've got these car for a couple more hours and I tend to enjoy every single minute of it seal the deal guys you take care drive safe\n"