It was great fun speeding RAF Benson way round the perimeter of the tires of another person with another person for sure. But it was even more fun when filming had finished for the day and I came across a selection of what to take home. I'll give you an idea of the magnitude of the dilemma.
It was not a Corvette, which is much, much better than it sounds, a BMW M5, a Golf GTI, a Ferrari 612, a Maserati Quattroporte, a Ferrari F430, a 6 liters Vauxhall Monaro, a Mitsubishi Evo IX, a TVR Sagaris , an Aston Martin DB9 Volante, a Mitsubishi Evo VIII FQ-400, a Range Rover Sport, an Enzo Ferrari, a Porsche 911 Turbo and hopeless place at the end of the line, a Vauxhall Astra.
All were full of fuel. All had their keys in the ignition. All were clean, insured and ready to go. And every night for a week, I just had to choose.
For an explosion around the runway that would be the Vauxhall Monaro, no doubt. That thing is a big old softy with a heart of an elephant and the back of a small hyper dog. But along the way, when you can smoke the tires and move the tail some of the appeal is lost.
It's the same story with the Corvette. And I fear that after eight hours of shouting and blowing things up was not really in the mood for a supercar. So most of the time, I took the M5. But then one day the sun rose and I took the DB9 Volante winking at me.
Now the hard-top form the DB9 is sublime, intoxicating and irresistible mix of style, elegance, energy, noise, majesty, tradition, comfort and practicality. So you're going to assume that taking the ceiling to create the steering wheel to add more strings to his already formidable bow.
This is not always the case, of course. A Ferrari, for example, is nearly ruined by the removal of its roof. And so is a Porsche 911.
That's because these cars are designed to be the absolute last word in the pleasure of driving. If you take away the roof some of the overall strength of the body is lost and if this force is replaced with floor beams and the weight bars. So anyway the point of the car is completely lost. When I see someone in a Ferrari convertible or 911 that always point to them and laugh. Because 360 is a convertible is like going on a great pair of pants with a wet spot on the front.
The Aston Martin DB9, however, is different because it was not designed to be the last word in the joy of driving. It was designed for a comfortable, elegant and powerful long-distance cruiser, a GT car in the true sense of the word: a grand tourer.
Therefore the removal of the cover, the loss of structural integrity and adding weight is a small price to pay for all the attributes of the DB9. . . plus an outdoor helicopter hair. In fact, it should not matter. And yet, I'm sorry to report, what it does.
First, and most seriously, some of the looks of the coupe have been lost. Still a nice car, make no mistake, but do not have to bite the hand Oh, my God-ness of the coupé.
Homelessness can be seen that the A-pillars are rather too upright, and with nothing to connect the rear legs on the windshield looks like, if you can imagine such a thing, a lion amputee who had his spine. It feels that way, too.
When driving on a village street at a normal speed of normal people, you can actually feel the whole car bending and shimmying the steering wheel in your hands. This call derail movement is not as bad as it was in, say, one of the first Saab convertible, or the old Escort XR3i cabriolet. But it is nowhere near as good as modern technology allows.
There are more, too. Because Americans do not want to buy a car of this type unless there are two rear seats - no matter how small and useless it is, and the DB9 are very small and quite useless in fact - the DB9 does not have a deflector wind behind the head. So in the life of the highway in the cockpit is windy. A 186 mph, would be intolerable.
Strangely, however, the steering wheel can not make 186. The hardtop can be, but engineers were concerned that if someone was driving at a speed, with the hood in place the tissue is damaged. So the steering is electronically limited to 165.
Sorry. I thought this was the country that invented penicillin and steam power and the Spitfire. I thought this was the home of wit and grace of engineering. And yet, here's Aston Martin says that while the Germans and Italians can design a hood to support speeds above 165 mph, we can not. That's not good enough, boys, not by a long way.
This is my big problem with the steering wheel. As with the rolling chassis flex and much wind in my hair and a top speed electronically limited, you can not help but wonder if this car was rushed either in production or done on the cheap, or both things.
Having the buttons on the board as another example. They're beautiful, safe, and when shaded by a roof that work well. But with the sun shining in satin finish is impossible to see what one does what. One of the test pilots who have realized this when the car has been developed. Must have wondered if they could change. But they were not. And this in a car that costs £ 112,000, £ 9,000 more than the coupe.
Of course, smooth road all is well. You still have the wonderful gearbox, a sound that can easily compete with wind noise, and best of all, the vibration management principles affecting coupes is gone. If you are not interested in speed and engineering finesse and crisp, I suppose it is still a nice place to be.
But I, so the steering is a big disappointment. And oddly enough my co-hosts on Top Gear came to exactly the same conclusion after testing the car elsewhere. It is rare that we agree. . . and nothing, really, but all returned from a unit in the database drop his head and said the same thing. It's a great car, in poor condition.
The thing is, however, also agreed not to laugh at anyone who bought one. Especially since, despite flaws, is still so great that if their Jacksie stuck a thermometer, the reading would be-274C. One below absolute zero.
It has the same appeal as a classic car. Today's standards a Ferrari Daytona is not fast, do not feel comfortable and have the shell of the manipulation of JCB. In every measurable aspect, a modern Vauxhall Astra is better. But what do you have? And that's the thing with the steering wheel. Not the best car in the world, not by a long way, but it is an Aston Martin convertible and that sort of quite good.
That said, when the final session on DVD and I found the choice of which car to take home for the weekend, I still went for the amazing M5.
Unfortunately, when I left the runway burst transmission, the rear wheels stuck and the onboard computer off the V10 engine in a big hurry. It ended up returning to his creator in a tow truck. I ended up going home in a rented house diesel Mondeo.
