I ran across the below article a while back and just noticed it again today and thought I'd share it. The article lists all the production cars in the U.S. with 500 bhp or more, and Aston's DBS and V12V of course make the list.

The topic of what Aston needs to do to compete with its competitors comes up from time to time. Part of the competition is the horsepower war. While I don't think Aston's cars need to be at the top of the power list, I do think they need to stay in the ballpark and they can't rest on their "beauty and soul" laurels too much.

What do you guys think? There's talk of a next gen DBS. How much horsepower should it have? What about the next top of the line Vantage?

http://www.autoweek.com/article/2012...NEWS/120409988

 

All that power is great, up to a point. Even run of the mill cars now have way more performance than can be deployed responsibly on the road, under most day to day conditions. As the article points out, it's more about ego than anything else, and I suppose all of us who buy performance cars are guilty of that in one way or another. And what a great marketing tool: keep upping the hp and watch them come back for more!

IMO power to weight ratio is where it's at. Most cars are way too heavy now. A lightweight car with moderate hp is often a more rewarding drive. Weight is bad in so many ways - economy, ride, handling, braking. The trouble is, do you want to be the guy driving the lightweight car when everything around you is an SUV and weighs at least 1,000 lbs. more? Not a recipe for good crash outcomes...

Still, I'd like to see Aston come out with lighter cars rather than more powerful ones. Even a drop of several hundred lbs. in something like the Vantage would have tremendous performance benefits. That's a real engineering and marketing/profit challenge though, especially for a small company with limited resources.

 

I agree that at a point the power is wasted, but I don't think 510 bhp is that point. And while even 510 bhp can be hard to put down from a stop, lots of power is great when you're already moving, especially in a straight line when the chance of breaking traction is less.

Also agree that lighter weight is a great goal. The problem is that all the luxury that Astons come with is really heavy and while liberal use of carbon fiber would help, it would significantly increase the price of the cars. I suppose using a supercharged or turbocharged 6-cylinder engine would help, but I think most cringe at the idea. Interestingly, Lotus, which always championed the lighter weight, less power theme, seems to moving away from it a bit now.

It is true that the horsepower figures are a lot about bragging rights, but it still matters even beyond performance. Just like people compare cars by 0-60 times (for better or worse), they compare cars by bhp numbers. In order to be competitive and to be able to sell cars at pretty high prices, I still think that the number needs to be at least in the neighborhood of it's peers.

 

As you know already, I agree with you that AM needs to increase power and reduce weight to stay competitive. HP is not the reason I bought my Astons but it is still important. The new DBS will have 550 HP which is nice but nothing to sway a customer from another brand on that alone since the car costs upwards of $300. And, we all know what kind of depreciaton they have. They need to have more inovation like adding magna ride type suspensions, dual clutch trans as well as more power. Just being the best looking car on the road won't keep sales and resale values up enough. Its going to be tough. I hope they can respond as there is more and more competition every day.

 

I agree with you Viper. 600 HP, magnetic suspension and lose 250 lbs.

 

I completely agree with you. I decided to trade-in my Virage for the Italia 458. Hopefully the next gen model (plans to announce later this year) will completely kickass.

 

Okay, we have 550 bhp and 600 bhp. Where are you guys getting these numbers?

 

Anything that starts with a 5 is good enough for me.

 

I'm already in the 500+ hp club many times over w several cars in the stable...and with previous cars I've had; But not w my 480hp db9, I didn't buy an aston for that reason I think the benchmark is at 100hp per liter ... On forced induction cars that number changes though...it's staggering the power porsche makes out of their mezger 3.6l engines for example!

 

I think from a marketing perspective, 600HP would really help. I'm all about being lighter, but that is a harder sell to customers. HP sells. Though I wish my V12V was 200-300 lbs lighter. I think an adaptive suspension will be necessary to be competitive, too.

 

I get the 550 from my dealer. I don't think they have 600 in the plans. BTY Racer X, I like your gulf colors. I have the same on my GT.

 

That's perfect for the GT. The pic is not my car -- I just grabbed it from the Internet.

 

Nice, you have pretty much one of every car I aspire to own it appears