Aston Martin DBS Superleggera Concorde Edition, a limited edition to celebrate the maiden flight of the charismatic aircraft

Those of you nearing your thirties will probably remember the Concorde. The younger ones may not even have heard the name, but you should know that many people were able to fly from one city to another while others dreamed of doing the same one day on the Concorde, the first commercially used supersonic airliner, which ended its service in 2003, when factors such as lack of profitability and an accident in 2000 led to its disappearance from the skies.

After 27 years of service, the Concorde made its final flight on 26 November 2003 and landed in Bristol, where the last Concorde now rests at Aerospace Bristol. But the Concorde’s first flight took place a few years earlier, exactly 50 years ago this year, and from Aston Martin Bristol, which sits just metres from where the Concorde rests, they wanted to pay tribute to that milestone with a limited edition of the DBS Superleggera created by the personalisation division of the brand, Q by Aston Martin. This limited edition will also bring the Aston Martin Wings series to an end. Inspired by aviation, that series gave rise to the Vanquish S Red Arrows, the Vantage Blades Edition and the V12 Vantage S Spitfire 80.

The Concorde was operated by Air France and British Airways, so, as a proud British company, Aston Martin has included the British Airways livery on the DBS Superleggera Concorde Edition’s front splitter, roof, rear spoiler and diffuser. In addition, the gills feature a silhouette of the Concorde machined from solid aluminium and, a little lower down next to the front fin, the Speedmarque British Airways logo appears alongside the Q by Aston Martin logo. On the rear fin, each unit carries authentic aircraft registration numbers painted in Jet Black.

Inside the Aston Martin DBS Superleggera Concorde Edition, references to the supersonic aircraft continue everywhere. As soon as you open the door, you see the sill plates engraved with the exterior identification number and the corresponding unit number. Inside the cabin you find touches such as the Concorde logo embossed on the front seats, a Match Meter graphic embroidered on the driver’s sun visor, an Alcantara roof featuring a “sonic boom” graphic and the Concorde silhouette in red, engraved titanium gear levers from the Concorde, and floor mats inspired by the design of Terence Conran, who at the time was responsible for the Concorde’s interior design. Finally, the seatbelt buckles carry an engraved Concorde silhouette.

Mechanically there is nothing new. The Aston Martin DBS Superleggera Concorde Edition still houses as its heart the 5,200 cc twin-turbo V12, which produces 725 CV of power and 900 Nm of torque, enough to take this model to 100 km/h in 3.4 seconds and on to a top speed of 340 km/h.

Aston Martin has not revealed the price of the only 10 units to be built of the DBS Superleggera Concorde Edition, which, by the way, is already available to order. They have said, however, that part of the proceeds will go to Air League Trust, a non-profit organisation that teaches disadvantaged children to fly and offers them support to pursue careers in engineering.