The Aston Martin Vanquish is another brand-new, V12-powered, front-engined exotic super-GT - coming just weeks after the Ferrari 12Cilindri.

It swims against a swelling current of pressure to downsize, electrify and generally cut out the old-school combusting of hydrocarbons in one of motordom’s very grandest engine configurations.

The new Vanquish is very fast, and very, very powerful. With 824bhp, it's even more powerful than the Ferrari. It has a 0-62mph time of 3.3sec, a top speed of 214mph and costs a whopping £330,000.

But while power, performance and price are important, what of engagement, involvement and driving pleasure? Join Autocar's road test editor Matt Saunders as he gets under the skin of Aston's latest super-GT car.