Down South, past Busselton, Bunbury and through Margaret River, towards the dewy, verdant corner wherein Augusta like a flowering earring leans ponderously out over the shingle and crag to the adolescent tumult of two oceans convening; and further still, bearing into the curve and heading into cabin and lumberjack country, slipping in and out of Denmark, Albany and finally Esperance, before the broad ribbon finally coils out in a crisp wave towards the other side; here are skies like those bracketed with Wyoming and New Zealand, wherefrom the cogitating heads articulate some fresh tale of sorrow and glum rebirth, and where at night the stars swing from point to point, careless and promiscuous but eerily detached. Skies and seas and roads that look like a giant with a pickaxe has expended some exam stress on them. The seas and the skies make me feel intimate and connected in a way that overwhelms the petty concerns and irritations and mundane angsts; the roads make me pound the dashboard and wear my teeth down to stumps in grinding. The repressed terror is that the Aston Martin DBS Volante, being 25 per cent less stiff than its coupe cousin, will bump-steer, twist and launch itself into the nearest blue gum plantation.
But arise and claim your inheritance. It doesn’t cast me. Initially its sure-footededness on these raised, vanishing-point causeways comes as a relief, then it begins to earn nods of appreciation for its ability to track straight, soak up punishment and maintain composure. It goes without a quarter of the tautness of the DBS, they tell me? Surely a man has blundered, I retort. For the car doesn’t; there’s barely any windscreen shake and rarely any steering column shudder.

Laurels and plaudits, then, according to their due, to the hard-mounted rear understructure, wherein is interred the keystone to the solidity; it is connected at six points, greater in a causally significant way than the four that comprise the full complement of the DB9. But with a commendably beefy bonded aluminium structure clad with carbon panels comes a folding fabric roof, indicative of the pretty marriage of steel with silk encountered elsewhere in this vehicle.

First things first – does it look right? Not when it’s up. As with all convertibles, the abbreviated roofline has resulted in a longer deck and the Volante has lost the rear-end flow that makes the current Astons so beguiling to look at. Extra style-lines have been worked into the (carbon) roof cover and bootlid, but if looking good matters to you, you’ll want to keep the roof down whenever possible. Okay, so some of the DBS’s detailing is a little fussy – glorious 50cm diamond-turned wheels excepted – but viewed in isolation this is still a dramatically fine-looking machine.

The hood contains a layer of Thinsulate to reduce noise and boost insulation, which seems to have done the trick, apart from a distracting wind rustle from around the trailing edges of the rear side windows at high speeds. Lowering the roof is simple. Aston speaks of ‘improving the roof choreography’, but that’s just a pretentious way of saying it’s three seconds faster than the DB9’s. One finger and 14 seconds at up to 50km are the salient points here.

Oh, and 70kg. That’s what the complete roof weighs, contributing to a 115kg total weight gain for the Volante (which, incidentally, means moving with light rapidity. Possibly a touch ironic given the 1810kg kerbweight). Nevertheless Aston still claims the same 4.3 second 0-100km and 305km/h maximum and although the soft top doesn’t feel quite that brisk (chiefly because of its long gearing and the V12’s inertia), it’s still an immensely rapid car. And now a more sonorous one than ever before.

And then there’s the exploitable, engaging handling. Aston seems to have hit a rich vein of form recently – just read what Henry’s got to say about the V12 Vantage (page 88) – but what really impresses about the DBS Volante is the crisp, deliberate, precise way it changes direction. Yes, it drives heavily, but the weight is never intimidating, the steering never goes woolly, the damping equilibrium is never upset. It doesn’t sparkle and cause your nerves to go all tingly, but there’s a consistency to its behaviour, the way it settles so happily into a loping stride, the way it anchors itself to the road when you pick up the pace, that’s very satisfying.

We found you tend to use the firmer of the two damper modes most of the time. The comfort setting allows a little too much vertical travel from the back axle, but the sport setting is very well judged, noticeably sharpening up the car’s manners without ever becoming harsh or crashy.

The heavyweight manual shift is a touch ponderous, so we’d opt for the Touchtronic 2 transmission, which, along with the standard rear seats, brings the DBS Volante into the DB9 Volante’s firing line. But that’s what the DBS is – a DB9 for those who care about driving.
I discovered that the tendency is towards immoderate use of the firmer of the damper modes at the expense of the softer, fleshier setting. The less resilient of the two bends to the weight of popular commands upon its accommodation, introducing a consequent vertical travel from the back axle; the sport setting, however, is perfectly engineered and appointed, straightening ties and picking hairs from coat tails right across the breadth of performance velocity performance, without becoming overly grinding.
The ponderous manual clutch is a jot heavyweight for true connoisseurs, so I would stake my name on a translation to the Touchtronic 2 transmission, eagerly shepherding the slightly blithe DBS Volante into the milieu of the grand old society dame the DB9. The DB9 is a trusty, vigorous stalwart, to be sure – but the DBS is a lusty, blissfully ingenuous new arrival that will enchant true humanists and pour its heart into those vital enough themselves to perceive its true, golden worth.
Specifications:
• Engine: 6.0 litre V12
• Power: 380kW @ 6500rpm
• Torque: 570Nm @ 5750rpm
• Induction: Multipoint injected
• Transmission: Six speed automatic
• Driven Wheels: Rear
• Brakes: Carbon Ceramic, 398mm front six piston, 360mm rear four piston
• Top Speed: 307km/h
• 0-100km/h: 4.3 seconds
• Fuel Tank Capacity: 78 litres
• Fuel Type: 98 RON
• ANCAP Rating: N/A
• Airbags: Four
• Safety: ABS, EBD, EBA, TC, ESC
• Spare Wheel: None
• Suspension: Adaptive damping, independent double wishbones front and rear
• Turning Circle:
• Warranty:
• Weight: 1810kgs
• Wheels: 20-inch 10 Spoke Graphite & Diamond Turned