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Better still, in the Aeromax, Morgan has produced a seriously good car. An unofficial gatecrasher at the Villa d'Este, the Max is so eye-catching that it almost upstages what amounts to a collection of the best cars on the planet. This is no mean feat, especially for a company best known for producing - very slowly indeed - vintage cars for people with vintage facial hair. In fact, with a Bugatti Type 57 Atlantic on display just round the corner, the Aeromax's resemblance to a car that many regard as possibly the finest ever made is surely no coincidence.

"We wanted to create a 21st-century coach-built car," says Humphries. “Imagine what it was like seeing a Delahaye or Delage driving down Sunset Boulevard in the Thirties or Forties. You’d think, 'It’s beautiful but what is it?"'

This is a good question. Where to start? Once the crowd of highly emotional onlookers dissipates (Italian politics may be many things, but you just know that this country will never produce a car-denier like Ken Livingstone), it turns out that the front is as good a place as any. History may well record the original Aero 8 as an acquired taste, mainly because few automotive beauty parades will ever include a car that was genuinely boss-eyed. Happily, the Aeromax's Mini headlights help rectify the older car's apparently wonky vision.

Then there are those trademark flowing front wings and running boards. Personally I don’t get ersatz 'vintage' cars - they were particularly popular in the late Seventies and early Eighties; older readers might remember the Panther Kallista among others - with all their implied 'it-were-better-in-my-day-motoring' nostalgia. Somehow, though, the sheer barminess of the Aeromax lifts it onto a whole new level. It's baroque, but restrained baroque.

The fact that those same flowing wings are aluminium and formed via a time-consuming hi-tech process that heats the aluminium alloy to a semi-molten state adds to the impression that there's more to this car than meets the eye.

Especially when you get to the back, the most modern bit of bodywork any Morgan has had since the time Noah thought a boat might be a good idea for riding out the heavy rain that had been forecast. What a shape. Simultaneously retro and futuristic, there's something cinematic about the Aeromax's curvy butt: Blade Runner meets Metropolis, with a definite nod to the Gothic modernism of the original Tim Burton Batman movie.

Film fans will appreciate that these aren't just idle references; they were the work of the most gifted visual stylists in cinema.The striking rear LEDs are borrowed from the Lancia Thesis. The split rear glass is all Morgan’s own work.

This prototype has rear-exit exhausts, though side-pipes are an option, and apparently sound fruitier. The car also has a flat underbelly, and something similar to, but not quite, a rear venturi. Sturdza nevertheless claims to have seen an indicated 190mph on the autobahn, and says the car generates impressive high-speed downforce.

Charles Morgan, meanwhile, reckons the Aeromax has more grip than an Audi R8. The company’s racing exploits certainly seem to have boosted their confidence. Sturdza and Morgan are both tall blokes, so it's a bit surprising to discover that the driving position is cramped if you happen to be over six foot. The doors themselves are pretty tiny too, and there are fat sills to clamber over, so getting in and out is inelegant (knickerless LA airheads should stick to their Merc SLs).

There’s ample headroom though, so if you happen to have a huge head but short arms and legs, look no further. Morgan has spent a small fortune homologating its cars and meeting all sorts of annoying legislation.