This hair-raising driving experience involved unlearning and relearning how to drive.
Getting to draw invisible circles in the air with your index finger, let out a luxuriant hum of indecision then choose a car from a fleet of Aston Martins—like a child picking out a dodgem—is never an onerous task. When that fleet made up of made up of DBX707s, the marque’s ultra-powerful SUV, and is parked on an expanse of thick snow close to Rovaniemi in the Lapland region of northern Finland, with several dedicated driving tracks carved into the ice close by, it’s a case of Christmas come early right in the home of that festival’s personification (the Santa Claus Village is a couple of stones’ throws away).
For those late in the room, Aston Martin—in response to burgeoning demand from China, the Middle East and the US—finally joined its stablemates Porsche, Bentley, Lamborghini and Rolls-Royce in the SUV club in 2020 (a couple of years before Ferrari). The marque’s first from-scratch new vehiclesince the Vanquish a decade previously, the DBX’s Mercedes-AMG 4.0-litre V8powerplant offered 542bhp and propelled its two tonne-plus bulk from 0-60mph in 4.3 seconds, whilst deft handling and interior refinement ensured drivers felt they could happily drive a family across the country in it (off the Tarmac, and towing a horsebox or two if necessary).
For the latest version, the DBX707—the one we’re misbehaving in adverse conditions in today—Aston have tinkered with the V8 so that it is capable of 697bhp and 900Nm of torque, with additional aerodynamics and suspension tweaks resulting in a 0-62mph time of just 3.3 seconds, and a top speed of193mph. Without casting your eye across The Pond—at Jeep’s Trackhawk, for example—you won’t see a more sprightly beast assigned with the SUV initialism. And, getting a feel for the controls in neutral while surveying An arctic landscape ahead, you get a sense that a careless twitch of the toe could send you hurtling into the snow-burdened spruces like Wile Coyote astride an ACME torpedo.
Thankfully, the day’s programme starts gently: a few practice stabs at a figure-of-eight track, with drivers—proffered nuggets of advice from one of Aston’s in-house experts via Walkie-Talkies—encouraged to toe-poke the gas as the car rounds the apexes of the eight, then control the car in a gentle, sliding arc, resisting the temptation to ‘correct’ the vehicle with brakes and steering wheel as one would on Tarmac. At this point the car is in sport-plus mode, to beef up the throttle response to the max, with the rotary dial set so that the traction control computational systems will only intervene, by redistributing power to different wheels, sparingly.
The second task is a little trickier: a circumference, carved into the Arctic terrain nearby, around which participants take it in turns to do “doughnuts”. Controlled drift, again, is the goal, this time with traction control banished to the touchline completely. Get it right, as a couple of participants manage, and you’ll hit a sweet spot where steer and acceleration conspire to make the vehicle drift in perfect circles around the track, clouds of sprayed snow adding to the theatre of the whole feat. At this point, the driver could be replaced by a lifeless mannequin holding steering wheel and accelerator precisely in place, and thedizzying spectacle would go on until the juice ran out.
For the final session, we’re let loose on a winding track, for a free driving session packed with slides and skids. It’s been instilled in participants, by this point, that mastering ice driving takes a lot of unlearning: “You need to overcome your instincts – to deliberately induce the car to slide and then keep it sliding,” as the instructor puts it. And, embracing his advice to the full – especially when one grasps the generous amount of oversteer that is manageable due to low yaw rates – involves an hour of adrenalin-pumping fun (and only two incidents involving a tow rope).
“The DBX707 has a unique character compared to its competitors,” says Andy Tokley, Senior Vehicle Engineering Manager for the DBX. “It was developed from the outset with extreme environments in mind. The intention was that DBX707 should allow customers to feel confident exploring the capabilities of the car equally in the depths of winter in northern Europe or America, or on a sunny day at the Nürburgring, and importantly DBX707 delivers the Aston Martin driving experience in all environmental extremes. This driving experience showcases one bookend of the capabilities and is a great opportunity for owners and enthusiast to experience how rigorously DBX707 has been developed.”
If an offer comes your way from Aston Martin to put Tokley’s words to the test, our advice is accept hungrily and arrange your passage north: and leave anypreconceptions about safe driving you learned on Tarmac at home.
