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I liked the steering too. There's the same weight you get in a DB9, but more feedback and feel. Is it as good as the steering you'll get in a 911? I'm not sure. I don't think so. But it's close.

What I do know is that the SL55 which tore away from you on the straight is going to be hauled right back in when you find yourself in the twisty stuff.

Its air suspension will be all over the place, whereas the proper set-up in the Aston, allied to the dry sump which gives a lower centre of gravity, means you flow from bend to bend. I never saw the traction control light flicker on once, but then I was trying to be sub-sonic for the sake of my neck.

I didn't try hard enough, though, because after 15 minutes, it really was starting to hurt and this made me angry because the V8 Vantage is very good to drive. My fears about the ride were unfounded. And my concerns about the lack of oomph were lost in a blizzard of cornering forces and noise.

Afterwards, my wife took it for a drive and, to put you in the picture, she thinks there are only three really good cars on the market at present. The Cosworth-powered Caterham, the Mitsubishi Evo FQ320, and the Ferrari F430.

She thinks her Lotus Elise 111S with its sports exhaust is 'soft' and 'a bit boring'. But guess what? She loved the Vantage too. Weirdly, she even said it was fast enough.

So what would it be like to live with such a thing? Well, it's a hatchback, which sounds great, but since there's no back seat to fold down, just a bulkhead, it's hard to see precisely why this should be an attraction. Just as it was hard to see the point of a lifting tailgate in the old Alfa Romeo GTV6.

That said, the boot is generous, principally because you don't get a spare tyre, just a can of gunge and an AA hotline number. What's more, the cabin's spacious too.

You might expect a small car like this with such a low roof to feel cramped and hemmed in, but because they haven't tried to shoehorn in some token back seats, you sit way back, like you do in a BMW Z4.

This helps create a feeling of space, principally because you don't have eyes in the back of your head so you can't see that you're sitting on the tail lights.

So what about quality and the old adage that you should never buy an Aston until it's been in production for at least two years? This was true of the DB7, for sure; it was true of the Vanquish and its stupid gearbox; and it was true of the DB9 too. In fact, they still haven't sorted out the low-speed power-steering judder in that one.