Employing a similar fundamental design to the DB9, the Aston Martin Rapide aims to take a swipe at the market share currently consumed by the Porsche Panamera and the Maserati Quattroporte. A four door luxury sports car, it uses a 5.9 litre 12 cylinder engine and six speed auto transmission that are borrowed from its senior stablemate but, costing the better part of $400,000, it is about as far from entry level sports car any I have driven.

One early fault to nit-pick early – the rear seats. It shouldn’t have them, and indeed for a long middle period during my time behind the wheel I forgot it did, remembering only when I turned to reverse when parking. Had I invited friends along, I doubt I would have had any opportunity to forget their presence – their constant groans prompted by joint pain or the rapid onset of deep vein thrombosis would have put paid to that. No sprawling on long country trips in this. About the best thing that can be said about them is that the high rear console, in concert with the front seats closing in like the walls in that bit in Star Wars, means that even the wildest driver would struggle to shift any rear passenger from their bucket seat. So no whiplash today, then, but a reasonable chance of arthritis tomorrow perhaps.

Friends, though – forget them! Because left to its own devices, this baby goes like a dream. I did nearly 2,000 kms over the long weekend across which I took it out, and while the rigorously tight design does trim away at the louche edges of laid-back wide open roading, and it’s no more a saloon than is Starbucks; yet still, reader, I loved it. I’ve gone long rounds with both the DB9 and the DBS in times past, but never have I enjoyed myself quite as much as now. The best Aston Martin that I’ve driven, I am tempted to say, with an eye on the masculine mystique of the as yet incognito V12 Vantage.

The Rapide drives like a thoroughbred, all balance and kinetic power and organic thrust, with a true and sensitive nose that points a weighted, if slightly weighty, rim with a compass-like inevitability that renders the steering an instinctive, visceral extension of cognition. The rippling body is particularly responsive to the whippet moves of rapid transition, flashing left and then flashing right, as though the flying tarmac were a frozen river over which to kick and twist and weave with the insouciant ease of a moonlit skater tracing mathematic figures in a oracular expression of the magnetic thread joining animal and earth. The damping is a particular highlight.

The V12, alive from 3000rpm, provides a stirring soundtrack; heavy gravelly, glorious – a great companion for the fluent handling and ride combination. The styling? That’s more of a sticking point. It’s rather long in the flank thanks to the extra 250mm added to the wheelbase and imply doesn’t have the visual balance of Aston’s coupes.

A couple of mild cautions: despite Aston’s claim that this isn’t a stretched DB9, and that only the front doors and bonnet are carried over, it still feels much like an Aston Coupe. The switchgear is largely carried over and you sit low enjoying a great driving position. If you want a genuine four-seater we’d point you in another direction, but as a driving tool the Rapide will take some beating.