Video: is the £315k DBS 770 Ultimate Aston Martin's final V12?

Welcome to the last of the old guard. You’ve now seen the new Aston Martin DB12, with its delectable-looking interior and strictly eight cylinders under the bonnet. That’s where Aston Martin is going. The £315,000 DBS 770 Ultimate is where it’s been.

On the face of it, a DBS with more power, Valkyrie-esque wheels and a big nostril in the carbon clamshell bonnet isn’t big news. But when you delve deep into the Ultimate, you discover the tweaks Aston has made to the steering and handling have turned this big, bad old warhorse into the finest V12 GT the company has produced. Ever.

Top Gear magazine’s Ollie Kew has selflessly impaled himself on the Ultimate’s brutal carbon fibre seat bolsters to explain why. If this is the V12’s swansong, what a way to go…