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The art of fourplay
But back to the Rapide. Compared with a DB9, five metres means there's another 250mm in the wheelbase and another 50mm in the rear overhang.
It existed as a long-wheelbase car with extra space but no extra doors until more didacticism from Bez: "If there's space, then you should also offer accessibility, otherwise you are not being honest."
So the Rapide you see here, and that the North American public will see at their 'Auto Show' in Detroit in mid-January, now has four of the traditional Aston Martin 'swan doors', the fronts chopped down from those on the DB9, the rears all new, but all swinging elegantly up and away from the kerb.
It also has a hatchback, like a Vantage, which accesses a huge load area. It is, suggests Dr Bez, the boy's ultimate weekend car.
"It would be great for Le Mans," he suggests. "You could even sleep in the back." And you probably could, with the rear seat backs folded there's room for one - or indeed two - six footers to stretch out.
And it is, of course, undeniably beautiful. More sensitive to the right heights and angles than a DB9 certainly, but somehow managing to be both more butch and more elegant - the nexus of Aston Martin's 'power, beauty, soul' mantra.
'The DB9's six-litre V12 is upgraded from 450 to 480bhp, so this is still a quick car'
But don't go thinking that this is some Aston Martin 'tourer', a big softie that (whisper it...) should really wear the Lagonda badge.
Partially in lieu of the car's extra weight, the DB9's six-litre V12 is upgraded from 450 to 480bhp, so this is still a quick car, sticking its nose in the sub-five-secs 0-60mph bracket and buzzing 180mph plus.
And to bring that extra 140kg, plus the weight of any two grown adults (six-footers included) quickly to a standstill, the brakes are now carbon ceramic.
The ability to drive like stink without looking like you give a damn is key to the certain rakishness that haunts Aston Martin.
It's unavoidable, some might say, when your defining customer drinks dry Martinis, slays women and kills bad guys for a living. And it certainly supports Bez's boast that this is the ultimate boy's weekend car, but Bez is more canny than that.
A matter of weeks before I learnt of the Rapide, I got an email from an old colleague. Let's call him John:
'M. Just trading in the 575. Glorious, but I need (a) some kind of seat in the back for the children, and (b) something slightly more suitable for the slog up and back to the country. Budget £150k max.'
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