2023 Aston Martin DBX707 First Look Review: Eat This, Lambo Urus
Meet the 2023 Aston Martin DBX707, the world's fastest, most powerful gas-fed SUV. What you need to know up front is that when Tobias Moers left AMG to take the top job at Aston, he almost immediately set the company's sights on Lamborghini. Not, as you might expect, by announcing a new supercar. No, Moers instead figured Lamborghini's first ever SUV, the Urus, presented a juicier target.
Moers had liked what he'd seen of Aston's own SUV debutante, the DBX, during his due diligence prior to making the jump from AMG. The DBX's fundamentals were good, he thought—all it needed were some powertrain and suspension upgrades, plus a couple of other changes, and Lamborghini's snarling, extrovert Urus could be knocked from its perch as the world's fastest, most powerful SUV.
The suffix in "DBX707" refers to the number of European ponies under the shapely Aston's hood. In America, that's 697 hp, 56 more horses than the Urus musters. (Though shy of the Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat's 707 hp, remember: That SUV was a one-and-done 2021 model that lacks a 2022-or-beyond followup. Also, we specify "gas-fed" because Tesla's Model X Plaid and Rivian's upcoming R1S pack much more hp.) And Aston Martin claims this DBX707 has a top speed of 193 mph, making it 4 mph faster than the Urus (and far faster than a Model X Plaid, which tops out at 163) at full throttle on an empty autobahn. Take that, Lamborghini.
With its 697 hp and 664 lb-ft of torque, the 2023 Aston Martin DBX707 packs a significantly bigger punch than the regular DBX. The extra power and performance come courtesy of a revised spec of the M177 4.0-liter V-8 used in the exhilaratingly rapid Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S 4-Door Coupé. The GT 63 S version of the engine, which has twin-scroll ball-bearing turbochargers for faster response, makes "only" 630 hp, but its torque output is identical.
The Aston Martin DBX707 engine drives through the same Speedshift MCT wet-clutch nine-speed automatic transmission used in high-power, high-torque Mercedes-AMG cars. The transmission includes a Sport+ mode with launch control and a full manual control mode. A new e-diff has been fitted to the rear axle to handle the high torque loads and deliver a quicker locking rate. The final drive ratio is shortened by 7 percent compared with the regular DBX to help get the DBX707 to 60 mph in less than 3.5 seconds.
Suspension upgrades include compression and rebound damping that is increased by 20 percent and 10 percent, respectively, on the front shocks, and 15 percent and 5 percent on the rears. The electronic active roll system is recalibrated to deliver 50 percent more torque on low body motions, and the roll control is now more rear-biased at higher cornering speeds to reduce understeer.
To ensure the stiffer suspension works effectively, the stiffness of the front shock top mounts is upped by 55 percent with the addition of a cross brace, and the front control arms are fitted with hydraulic bushings to improve ride comfort and bump isolation without compromising dynamic performance. A 0.16-inch-thick underbody panel improves torsional stiffness by 1.3 percent for better steering response and impact control.
As you'd expect in a 5,000-pound-plus SUV capable of 193 mph, the standard brake setup features carbon-ceramic rotors: 16.1-inch units clamped by six-piston calipers up front, 15.0-inch items at the rear. Standard wheels measure 22 inches and are shod with Pirelli P Zero tires. You can order all-season tires if you want, but that means the Aston Martin DBX707's stop speed is restricted to a mere 186 mph. Exclusive to the DBX707 is a new and optional 23-inch wheel, though you can't get all-season tires for it.
Grafting iconic sports car graphics onto a big two-box SUV is a challenge—just ask Lamborghini—but Aston Martin chief creative officer Marek Reichmann's team of designers has, by and large, succeeded in making the regular DBX look as glamorous as the rest of the Aston Martin family.
The new DBX707 adds muscle to the glamour. The roof spoiler is bigger. A new front fascia features a bolder grille, larger cooling intakes for the brakes, and a more aggressive front splitter. The rear fascia is new, too, with quarter-panel vents integrated into the bumper, and a large diffuser underneath flanked on either side by dual exhaust outlets. The sportier styling details don't compromise practicality, though: Front and rear departure angles remain the same as the standard DBX, and the 707 can be ordered in Europe with a retractable tow hitch.
Inside, the 2023 Aston Martin DBX707 can be had with either sport or comfort front seats, the former offered with a unique herringbone perforation pattern on the backrest and squab. A vertically mounted rotary controller is added to the center console to allow rapid selection of drive modes.
The 2023 Aston Martin DBX707 is expected to arrive in the U.S. in the middle of 2022, with prices starting from $235,086.
Looks good! More details?2023 Aston Martin DBX707 Specifications BASE PRICE $235,086 LAYOUT front-engine, AWD, 4-door, 5-passenger, SUV ENGINE 4.0L/697-hp/664-lb-ft twin-turbo direct-injected DOHC 32-valve V-8 TRANSMISSION 9-speed automatic CURB WEIGHT 5,000 lb WHEELBASE 120.5 in L x W x H 198.4 x 78.7 x 66.1 in 0-60 MPH 3.4 sec (MT est) EPA FUEL ECON (CITY/HWY/COMB) 14/20/16 mpg (est) EPA RANGE (COMB) 360 miles (est) ON SALE Summer 2020 Show AllYou may also like
Since we've said from the very beginning that a Ford Maverick Tremor just makes sense, we're optimistically convinced that the undisguised special Maverick prototype we see here is indeed a future Maverick Tremor. (Cue the happy clap. We can't wait for special Mavericks to emerge.) Already applied to the F-150, F-250, F-350, and Ranger, the only Ford truck left out is the Maverick, making it the next logical candidate for the Tremor treatment. More than an Active Orange color package—although that's a big visual part for the F-150 especially—the Tremor includes elements like improved shocks, better skid plating, locking rear differential, and more aggressive tires.Tremor'ing a Maverick is low-hanging fruit—specifically, orange fruit. The copious use of orange accents on the grille's crossbar, tow hooks, and wheels has us thinking Tremor all the way—although there's no overt Tremor badge, yet. Why not Timberline? Timberline has been reserved for Ford's SUVs, so it wouldn't really make sense to cross over at this point, especially considering the popularity of the Tremor name across Ford's mid-size, full-size, and HD truck lineup. Plus, the Timberline accents are more of a reddish-orange while these resemble the vibrant orange found on the F-150 Tremor.An orange Lariat badge on the side vent indicates that the Tremor package will be an add-on for at least the Maverick's Lariat trim. It's not impossible for the XLT to get the Tremor option too, making it the same as the Ranger Tremor's availability. (Lariat, King Ranch, and Platinum Super Duty trims can get the Tremor Off-Road Package treatment.) As for the F-150 Tremor, it's a little different, acting as a stand-alone trim (rather than an add-on package) that can be optioned with standard, mid, and high equipment groups.The engine option for the Maverick Tremor would have to be the 2.0-liter EcoBoost, as the 2.5-liter Hybrid is front-wheel drive only, an unlikely candidate for the Tremor.It's hard to tell what the paint color is exactly, but it might not be any of the 10 colors offered for 2022. Could this be Avalanche, snagged from the 2022 Ranger (and 2023 F-150)? Notice also that the head lights and tail lights have a smoked tint appearance; could this be coming to the Maverick and specifically the Maverick Tremor? We dig it.As for the suspension, it's hard to tell exactly what's going on, but we expect more ground clearance (doesn't it look taller?) and more performance. We see no reason why Ford couldn't suspend the Maverick Tremor with some Bronco Sport Badlands HOSS (High-Performance Off-Road Stability Suspension) system bits, considering they share a platform. If we're lucky, the Maverick Tremor might even adopt the upgraded all-wheel-drive system from said Badlands, complete with its torque-vectoring rear differential. A new off-road high-clearance front bumper should improve the approach angle. The tires on the Maverick prototype are Falken Wildpeak A/Ts.Don't hold back, Ford. Don't hold back.
ram 1500-trx Full OverviewWe beat up our long-term RAM 1500 TRX good. I mean real good. How, you ask? Well, you might remember that little Rivian R1T on the Trans-America Trail story we did? You know, the one that took over 40 days because we covered 7,700 miles off-road? Well, our support vehicle for the trip was our 2021 Ram 1500 TRX. Did we beat it like a rented mule? Yes. But for various reasons now lost to the winds of time (or is that an archived Slack channel?) we decided that a not-so-quick, totally hardcore cross-country off-road journey was the proper way to welcome the mighty TRX—our 2021 Truck of the Year—into MotorTrend's long-term fleet. Little did we know that due to the supply chain crisis, fixing our TRX meant it was out of commission for about four months. Please read on.The first ouchie that occurred was a flat tire on the first wave of the Trans-America Trail, somewhere in Virginia. Hey, those things happen. We'd brought several spares along, so that wasn't too much of an issue. In a separate incident, now in North Carolina, the driver's side running board got dented just behind the front wheel. Expected when you travel off-road.The second wave, running from Georgia to Oklahoma was the only wave where the TRX didn't suffer any tire drama (nice driving, Renz), but the Ram did sustain a few injuries. We wound up putting a nice dent in the passenger side rear fender while trying our damndest to maneuver through some dense trees. Eventually we had to break out the chain saw. We also obliterated the windshield.We had a list of numerous pieces of content we wanted to produce based on the various adventures we got up to on the trip. And on that sheet was a bullet point that said, "Rivian R1T vs. TRX Drag Race. " One thing we really liked about the Ram when we named it our Truck of the Year was how it put its massive power down, hitting 60 mph in 4.0 seconds flat, making it the quickest truck MotorTrend had ever tested up until that point. At that point in time, we had yet to test the Rivian R1T, our eventual 2022 Truck of the Year, with a 0-60-mph time of 3.1 seconds. But again, we didn't know. A drag between the two super trucks seemed like a natural, brilliant idea.Full disclosure time: The white R1T we drove on the TAT was a pre-production truck that had some software in it that was never intended for production. We were shown an Engineering Mode that featured something called "Max Power mode". What did Max Power do exactly? Dunno, other than it played a 30-second Simpsons clip where Homer changes his name to Max Power, and it makes the Rivian even quicker. Did the driver of the Rivian surreptitiously sneak it into Max Power mode? Who's to say (hi, Mom!)? The trucks were lined up on a gravel road (this whole thing really wasn't well thought out), someone yelled "go" over a walkie-talkie, and the Rivian humiliated the poor Ram in a straight line, literally leaving it in a cloud of dust and cracking its windshield in three places. Should probably wait a while before telling the folks back in the office what happened, yeah?Wave 3 took possession of the TRX in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, (eat at Murphy Burger!), and tech editor Frank Markus (weirdly) decided to wash the truck to photograph it next to a Frank Lloyd Wright skyscraper. Why was that weird? Well, if you spend five minutes on the TAT, you're well aware of the Sisyphean nature of trying to keep a vehicle clean. It's just not going to happen. Wave 3 admitted to one flat tire but actually got two flats; poor Wave 4, which snaked through Utah, had to change a flat as soon as they saw the Ram parked in an airport parking lot. Then, once underway, a wheel nearly fell off the TRX. I'll let Scott Evans explain."We changed the left rear tire at the airport on arrival as it was flat. There were bad vibrations while driving, which we chalked up to the bucketloads of mud caked in all the wheels. Roughly an hour later, at 80 mph, I noticed the left rear wheel wobbling like crazy in my door mirror. I pulled off the road quickly and safely before it came off. Three of the wheel studs had sheared off, and the other three's lug nuts were very loose. It was moments away from breaking off the truck entirely. We had it towed into town, where a local shop recommended by Nina Barlow replaced all six wheel studs and lug nuts that night and got us back on the road. We junked the rim as the lug holes were no longer round. Other than that, two more flat tires. But no further damage."You've seen Rashômon, right? Because that was Scott's version of the Wave 4 damage report. William Walker's is quite different, "Lots of rock strikes on Leg 4. By the end, the windshield was more cracked than not, and you could feel the cracks on the inside of the windshield. I also "squared off" the exhaust pipes in Moab." This poor truck. William continues, "By Wave 5 [from Utah to Oregon], the brake rotors were warped badly and the vibration under braking was disturbing. There was a leak into the passenger compartment, and it tends to be damp underneath the rubber floormats. And we noticed the sunroof got damaged because of mud and dust." Man, that's pretty bad.We almost forgot there was a third driver on Wave 4, Alexander Stoklosa, who had his own damage report, "By Leg 4, with the fan speed set to 'high' or max, the airflow through the interior vents was akin to me opening my mouth and talking (no hot air jokes, please). Wouldn't blow cold air, just lukewarm air. Air velocity was similar with the heat on. My guess is that the system had either lost some refrigerant, suffered debilitating blockage, possibly damage to the blower, or all three. I believe someone had shaken out the cabin filters around that time, and it made no difference."No one owned up to it, and the damage no doubt occurred while rock crawling in Moab, but the front bumper had to be replaced. It was that repair, more than any others, that really held up the truck. A few months after the truck came back, Walker noticed that at low speeds he could hear a noise coming from the rear driver's side wheel if he had the window down. We investigated, and it was a failed bearing that was attached to the rear axle shaft, and the entire thing was replaced as a unit. We think this repair is related to the busted lugs way back on Wave 4, but we have no way to prove it. Moral of this story? Sometimes it's more than consumables you need to worry about if you plan on overlanding across a continent.Looks good! More details?For more on our long-term Ram 1500 TRX:The Ram 1500 TRX joins the MT GarageWhich is quicker—a Charger SRT 392 Scat Pack or the TRX that towed it to the track?…And what about a Ram 1500 TRX or a Rivian R1T?The TRX isn't a great forest service truckBut it is a good mudderHuge power saves this ship
Once upon a time, from 1995-1999, there was a two-door Chevrolet Tahoe. It was square 'n boxy with its stacked headlights and 1990s Chevy truck demeanor, riding on a GMT400-based platform shared with GM trucks of the era. The Tahoe name came about for the 1995 model year, essentially a rename and relaunch of the simultaneously discontinued full-size Blazer. As in, the death of the big Blazer resulted in the Tahoe. (On the GMC side, the Yukon replaced the full-size Jimmy a little earlier, for 1992.) The Blazer name lived on, of course, but not as a full-size.Interestingly, the debut of the Tahoe for 1995 brought with it the introduction of a four-door version (late availability, though, which is why the four-door Tahoe was eligible to win—which it did—Motor Trend's 1996 Truck of the Year award). That means the Tahoe technically debuted as a two-door 4x4 SUV, which, ironically, only lasted through the 1999 model year. (Yukon lost its two-door in 1997.) The four-door was 11 inches longer and had a wheelbase 6 inches longer than the two-door.In addition to the standard 250 hp 5.7-liter "Vortec 5700" V-8 engine, there was a diesel 6.5-liter "L56" V-8 option. According to our Of The Year writeup, the "torquey 6.5-liter/180-horse turbodiesel V-8 [was] optional in two-door, four-wheel-drive models." Yes, the rare two-door had an ever-rarer diesel option.Fast-forward nearly 30 years, and the Tahoe name persists in the form of a vibrant, technologically-advanced SUV that's as popular now as it ever was. It's pretty easy to spend $75,000 on a new one. That's crazy, but wanna know what's even crazier? It's possible to spend more than half that on one that dates back to the previous century. A pristine two-door 4x4 1999 Chevy Tahoe (with the 5.7-liter, not even the super-rare 6.5-liter) just sold for $42,900 at a Mecum auction in Harrisburg.What could it have been worth new? According to our article: "The two-door, 4x2 Tahoe starts at $22,886, the 4x4 version at $25,136, moving up to the four-door models at $28,264 for the 4x2 and $30,460 for the 4x4. That prices even a heavily optioned Tahoe a few thousand dollars less than a comparable Suburban, and about on par with fully equipped (yet lighter-duty) smaller sport/utes like the Explorer and Grand Cherokee." Our Mecum example, with 86,770 miles on the odometer, sold for much more than new—even if pricing changed a tiny bit for a 1999 versus this 1996 data.Was this $42,900 two-door 1999 Chevy Tahoe Mecum specimen an anomaly, or are two-door Tahoe prices becoming outrageous? Our quick research leads us to think that this is probably the most expensive two-door Tahoe ever sold at Mecum. The handful of four-door Tahoes that have sold for more were much, much newer variants that have special reasons for demanding mega-money. Interestingly, the next-most-expensive two-door Tahoe was a custom slammed red one featured in Truckin Magazine that sold for $38,000 way back in 2014. (Two-door Tahoes, like this Classy Hoe, have been ever-popular in the custom truck world. ) After that, a lifted blue two-door went for $35,000, followed by a pair for $29,700, then a pair at $28,600. We could go on and on, but do we need to? All of these examples outpace what they were new.To be fair, not all two-door Tahoes are worth top dollar; don't go buy one as a sure-fire investment. A bulk of Mecum examples fall into the $10,000 range, with some two-doors even falling under $5,000. A rare diesel variant, which you'd think would demand top dollar no matter what, only went for $11,000.So has the two-door Tahoe turned classic, or did this buyer just throw down a modern man's salary on it for some reason known only to them? Perhaps it's a sentimental vehicle. There's no clear-cut answer. With each year that clicks by, old square-body GM trucks and SUVs become less available and more sought after. Arguably classic, arguably rare (1995-1999), the two-door Tahoe market seems to be taking on a life of its own.
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