Aston Martin did not need to tell me that its new Rapide saloon is a show-stopper, it simply showed me. On my first night at the car's launch in Valencia, my hosts took me to dinner in a fleet of Rapides and our convoy literally brought traffic to a halt as it made its way through the city streets.
People gawked, camera phones were whipped out and other drivers scurried out of the way to watch us pass.
Aston had proven its point, emphatically.
The Rapide certainly drips with presence, spectacularly marrying luxury-limo length (at just over 5m, it is almost as long as a Mercedes-Benz S-class) with the low, lithe proportions of a sports car.
It looks too much like its DB9 sibling, though.
The front and rear ends are dead ringers for the coupe's, as are the roofline and fastback tail.
The Rapide resembles an elongated DB9 with two extra doors because that is what it is. It sits on a longer version of the coupe's alloy chassis and shares its drivetrain.
Aston touts the Rapide as the world's first four-door sports car, ignoring (deliberately or otherwise) the Porsche Panamera, which was launched almost a year ago.
But the Rapide comes across as a more driver-focused machine.
The rear cabin is snug.
Getting in gracefully via the small and oddly shaped rear-door aperture is a challenge.
Once inside, you are seated low in individual bucket seats (the car is strictly a four-seater) with your knees propped high.
It is comfortable in a cosy sort of way for anyone who is up to 1.8m tall.
The cabin oozes handmade exclusivity: The seats, dashboard and doors are beautifully sculpted and clad in the most virginal leather.
There are fillets of wood here and chrome there, and all control knobs are finished in brushed aluminium.
The sound system is a 15-speaker, 1,000-watt Bang & Olufsen set-up (with a couple of cool tweeters that rise from the dashtop).
It is as special to drive as it looks.
The car's 6-litre V12's 470bhp output is not a headline-grabbing figure by today's steroidal standards but the engine is effortlessly torquey and linear.
Paired with a brilliantly responsive six-speed paddle-shift autobox, it hurtles the almost 2-tonne Rapide to 100kmh in 5.2 seconds.
It is also deliciously musical, starting up with a thrilling bark, then keeping its voice low until 3,500rpm, when an exhilarating exhaust blare keeps you grinning all the way to the 6,800rpm limiter.
In tunnels, you will want to lower your window just to hear it.
The steering is light but quick-geared, sharp and very communicative, allowing you to push confidently right up to the limits of grip as you storm through bends.
In this regard, it is better than the DB9 and even the more overtly sporting DBS.
The car's turn-in is super-keen and the chassis is wonderfully sorted.
Not only are body roll and wallow comprehensively quelled by the adaptive dampers but the ride is impressively controlled, even over the worst urban surfaces.
This is one of those rare cars that can hurtle confidently down a mountain pass one minute and waft over a rutted urban road the next.
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