Aston Martin design chief on why the DBS Superleggera is still a proper GT

Prior to the Aston Martin DBS Superleggera's reveal, we caught up with exterior design chief Miles Nurnberger to find out where the car's design comes from, and where it fits amid Aston Martin's growing range of cars.

Where does this car sit in Aston Martin’s line-up? 

“It’s a much more focused place in that GT-but-still-comfortable territory.”

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What are you doing to differentiate each new Aston Martin?

“A lot of it comes from the grille and the lights, the eyes of the car. We looked back a bit to cars like the DB3 and DB4: we never want to be retro, but we want to capture that spirit.”

What’s the focus of the DBS Superleggera?

“I describe my job as taking words and defining 3D shapes out of them. We define cars as characters, and they have to fit in the Aston Martin ‘story’. This is the ‘brute in suit’: if you look at the form and muscle on the bonnet, there’s that Incredible Hulk stretch going on under the skin.”

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Did you take any design cues from the original 1960s DBS Superleggera?

“It’s more the spirit than the style. The name looks fantastic on the hood of our cars, and the meaning was there. We want to be romantic but never retro.”

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