2008 Aston Martin DBS

An adrenalin fueled Full Throttle tour of Europe earlier this year saw the CarAdvice team road test some of the world’s premier supercars in their home environment, a feat well worth the bragging rights. It was therefore completely epic to receive one the most anticipated vehicles of all time on home soil, a truly unique experience.When Aston Martin’s representative for this region said he wanted to do something very special with the first drive of the DBS in Australia, we knew the Great Ocean Road wasn’t going to make the cut. So we put in a call to trusted colleague and 4WD guru, Ian Glover, a man who has driven through every road, town, track and waterhole in Australia, several times over, and who was certain to offer up some gold.

Ian’s first question was “What colour is the DBS?” to which we replied, “Lightning Silver”. “Deep red dirt would make for a beautiful contrast,” Ian offered “so you can either go up to the Northern Territory, or to the Cawnpore Hills, on the edge of the Simpson Desert.”

As we’d never heard of the Cawnpore Hills, we were intrigued and so began the many months of planning required for such an adventure, but as we would soon find out as with most good ideas, there’s always a catch.These particular hills are no ordinary garden variety mounds of soil, they are in fact called Mesa, Spanish for table (due to their flat-topped appearance), and are found in only two places on earth. In Australia they’re conveniently located quite literally in the middle of nowhere, smack bang in the middle of the incredibly large 62,000 square kilometre Boulia Shire, 560km south of Mt Isa, which suddenly made the tyranny of distance, and the logistical challenge therein, seem almost overwhelming.

Boulia township, population 300, was to be our home base for several days and sits at the start of the infamously lonely one lane road known as the Min Min Way. This glorified goat track plays host to a strange phenomenon known as the Min Min light, which since the time of Burke and Wills has been documented for giving plenty of travelers the creeps whilst traversing the dark flat expanse at night. It is said that the unusual lights follow you for very long distances and to this day they have not been properly explained by science - at least we could outrun them in the DBS!Our astonishing test candidate, Aston Martin’s stunning and highly sought after new DBS, drew a lot of attention on arrival in Mt Isa and as supercars go, they don’t get much newer than this one. Being thrown the keys to build number one (47 test vehicles precede) had ensured us absolute exclusivity and despite having a vast collective experience in driving such exclusive cars, we were all humbled at the offer to be first in the country to put wheel to road.