Aston Martin DBS 59 Celebrates its Le Mans Heritage
Slideshow: Aston Martin pays homage to the car which established its performance credentials with a twin-turbo V12 celebration.
Celebrating six decades of sportscar success
This year marks six decades since Aston Martin’s famous victory at the 1959 Le Mans 24 hour race. It established the British brand as a sports car builder of note. And to pay homage, Aston is doing what it does best: a special edition.
The celebration car is based on a DBS and built by the company’s in-house specialist, the Q-division. And yes, that is an ironic play on Aston’s close association with James Bond. The car which won the race for Aston way back then was the DBR1, by far the fastest Aston of its time.
Fittingly, Aston’s DBS 59 homage car, is also the brand’s fastest production road car for this year.
Golden touch
The DBS 59 series Aston Martin will be very exclusive. Unique numbering confirms the status of each car built by the Q-division.
If you want to know how special these DBS 59 cars are, just look under the rear spoiler – and you’ll be privy to the number in the series of only 24 cars they are. The series provenance is beautifully numbered on the rear of each DBS 59 in a golden hue, which contrasts elegantly with the car’s overall British Racing Green paint finish.
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A place for driving, not connecting your Smartphone media
The DBS 59 cabin is work of craft – and art. Exquisite leather craftsmanship and exotic materials create a truly special driving environment.
Aston Martin will even provide a custom luggage set to accompany each car. Each car features stowage pods for helmets, racing gloves, and driving shoes – all as an ode to the late 1950s.
Enormous paddle shifters sit on the steering column, and the tan leather seats feature ‘59’ embossing to remind you, each time to are about to be seated in one of these custom crafted Astons, that it is indeed a rare privilege. Aston Martin designers even went through to the trouble of replicating the 1959 race car’s seat fabric, as much as possible with modern techniques, in the DBS 59.
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Elegant in profile, powerful in purpose
Louvers on the front quarter panels. Gorgeous split-spoke alloy wheels spinning in front of huge golden brake calipers. And those classic front-engined GT styling proportions.
The DBS 59 uses the Aston Martin DBS Superleggera as a base, which means that it is powered by a very potent twin-turbocharged 5.2-liter V12 engine. A carbon-fiber propeller shaft helps the ZF eight-speed automatic transmission send 715hp to the rear wheels, and if you know how to launch it properly, Aston claims a 0—60mph time of only 3.4 seconds.
Stay committed to the surge of power from that front-mounted V12 and the DBS 59 edition should run a true top speed of 212mph.
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You can't fake true sportscar heritage
This is what it is all about, the DBS 59 alongside the car that inspired it – Aston’s 1959 racer.
Beyond the similarity in color, they both also represent a strong value proposition. The last time a DBR1 went on sale was at Monterrey in 2017. At that auction event, the car sold for $22.5m. The modern homage car does not have a price, but Aston expects demand to handsomely outstrip supply for its limited run of only 24 cars.
Each of those DBS 59s will be handbuilt by the Q-division and no doubt rapidly increase in value over time – just as the DBR1 which inspired the entire project.