It’s been fifty years since the Concorde made its maiden flight, and while it’s a shame that supersonic air travel is a thing of the past, it’s still a cause for celebration. As such, Aston Martin has taken the opportunity to pull the covers off the DBS Superleggera Concorde Edition, which comes just in time as today also marks 16 years since registration number G-BOAF made the airliner’s last ever flight.
Commissioned by Aston Martin Bristol, which sits just across the runway from Aerospace Bristol where that plane now sits (and where British Concordes were built), this special edition is limited to just 10 units. The brutish grand tourer has been bedecked with a whole host of commemorative paraphernalia, starting with the livery of one of Concorde’s operators, British Airways – which coincidently is also celebrating its centenary.
The car, customised by the Q by Aston Martin division, is painted in white, with the flag carrier’s blue and red colours appearing on the front splitter, roof strakes, rear spoiler and diffuser. The front fender vents also carry bespoke fillets featuring the Concorde’s iconic delta wing silhouette, milled from solid aluminium. This graphic can also be seen atop the carbon fibre roof.
Other identifying features include Union Jack colours on the enamel wing badges, British Airways emblems and the Concorde’s registration codes painted aft of the doors. More tributes can be found inside, where you’ll find the Concorde logo embossed on the front seats, a graphic showing the plane’s maximum speed and altitude on the driver’s side sun visor and a “sonic boom” graphic on the Alcantara headliner.
Elsewhere, the car gets paddle shifters made out of a Concorde’s titanium compressor blades, a floor mat pattern from renown designer Terence Conran, unique side sill plates and seat belt buckle-style badges, again milled from solid aluminium. Each Concorde Edition also receives bespoke inspection plaques signed by Aston Martin Lagonda president and CEO Andy Palmer and British Airways chairman Álex Cruz.
Apart from all that, the DBS Superleggera remains unchanged, powered by a 5.2 litre twin-turbocharged V12. It pushes out 725 PS and 900 Nm of torque which, with the ZF eight-speed automatic transmission, will get the car from zero to 100 km/h in just 3.4 seconds and to 100 mph (161 km/h) in 6.4 seconds.
The 10 units of the Concorde Edition are available to purchase through Aston Martin Bristol, with part of the proceeds going to the Air League Trust – a non-profit organisation that not only teaches underprivileged children how to fly, but also offers them support for them to work in engineering.
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Concorde is a record breaker. This car is not it.
We are in the new millennium yet public supersonic air travel is gone. So what is there to celebrate?
I m not Aston hardcore, so can’t appreciate the special edition. Nontheless, this is truely a beautiful piece of automobile, in pefect proportion
Gimick of marketing. Just an Edition to sell more cars for Aston.
BTW, Concorde planes were axed from service due to high noise level, high consumption (uneconomical) of jet fuel, and air pollution, relative low passengers no. in flight, expensive tickets, etc.
On the same note, can we have Lancaster Bomber Edition? Spitfire Edition too?
Did you say Spitfire Edition? https://paultan.org/2016/07/15/aston-martin-vantage-s-spitfire-80-an-eight-unit-limited-edition-paying-homage-to-the-ww2-fighter/