While this is PistonHeads and not, er, PropellerHeads, you can’t just roll out an Aston Martin DBS Concorde and not mention the plane it so stylishly celebrates. It stands without equal in the field of aviation, and was so trailblazing it still feels like we’re catching up. Which is quite something for an aircraft that first flew in 1969. What a time to be alive that must have been - somebody, somewhere, probably drove a Lamborghini Miura to an airport and flew on Concorde. Life surely didn’t get any better after that.
See, it’s easy to veer off topic when anything associated with Concorde comes up in discussion. We could be talking about some of the famous people who flew supersonic and inevitably the conversation would circle back to the phenomenal engineering achievement they were travelling on. That’s not going to happen with modern planes, even ones as mighty as the A380. And next year will be 20 years since Concorde last took to the sky - time really does fly.
To the Aston Martin. Announced at the end of 2019 to mark 50 years since Concorde’s first flight (and BA’s centenary), the DBS Superleggera Concorde was a Q by Aston Martin creation. It joined the Vanquish S Red Arrows Edition, Vantage Blades Edition and V12 Vantage S Spitfire 80 in the Aston Martin Wings Series (yes, really), and was announced to the world with a press release saying the DBS was ‘cleared for take-off’. So we’re not the only ones doing bad puns.
Commissioned by Aston Martin Bristol (this was a common theme for Wings cars; the Spitfire 80 was done by Cambridge), there were just 10 DBS Concordes. Tweaks over a standard Superleggera were more extensive than might have been expected, with Q adding the BA-themed colours and logos, a carbon roof with Concorde logo, new side strakes milled from solid aluminium, plaques and badges galore plus an interior makeover to live out all your pilot fantasies.
This included a sonic boom graphic in Alcantara, paddle shifters for the eight-speed auto made from the titanium used in Concorde’s compressor blades (you read that right), more milled aluminium (for the seatbelt buckle badges!) and additional Concorde logos for good measure. None of the 10 buyers would ever forget what they’d bought, put it that way. And even if they did, the car left behind is a 725hp V12 Aston - you’d still be very happy indeed.
All 10 Superleggeras had their production number matched to the tail number of an actual Concorde, which is where this DBS - one of just four right-hand drive ones, apparently - gets really interesting. Because this is G-BOAC, and that plane is a special Concorde even by those exalted standards. Now on permanent display in Manchester, it holds the speed record for a commercial plane (at 1,488mph), was the first Concorde to land in the USA, and also the first airliner to complete four Atlantic crossings in a day. Pretty cool plane to pay homage to, then.
And it gets better. Whoever pays the £595,000 for this DBS (and it’ll have to be this weekend) is invited to collect their car and have dinner next Saturday (June 18th) onboard Concorde G-BOAF courtesy of Aston Martin Bristol. Which ought to be pretty memorable. G-BOAC the plane and G-BOAC the DBS Superleggera were brought together on June 5th, so hopefully there’ll be some photos of that included as well.
This looks quite some opportunity, then, for both Aston Martin and Concorde enthusiasts, of which there must be plenty out there. Even if an asking price more than twice that of any other DBS might limit their number. But the best never did come cheap, as many a Concorde passenger will surely attest to.
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