2006 Aston Martin DB9

Sports cars are meant to be beautiful, and no maker of sporting cars has a better reputation for understated elegance and graceful styling than Aston Martin. Their beauty comes from harmonious proportions, a ground-hugging stance, taut surfacing, and thorough attention to detail. They are subtle, not attention-seeking. DB9 appears as if milled from a solid piece of aluminium. Its side profile is typically Aston Martin: very clean, with a single sweep roofline. The uncluttered lines flow through to a distinctive tail, and the haunches on the rear wings are wide and curvaceous. Key Aston Martin design characteristics include the distinctive grille, metal side strakes and signature rear window shape. 'Aston Martins are not edgy. They don't have sharp surfaces or pronounced power domes. The bodywork is gently curved, like an athlete with great muscle tone,' explains Director of Design Henrik Fisker. Great design, however, is not just about form; it is also about function. An Aston Martin is by definition very fast, so it needs to be aerodynamically efficient. It must be superbly stable at high speed - even the exhaust silencer is aerodynamically shaped to help achieve this. The result is that DB9 drives arrow-straight at high speed yet, like all great Aston Martins, it does so with supreme elegance and grace.