Yes, well there is something very childish about noisy cars. But like Jeremy Clarkson in a sweet shop, you can’t miss an opportunity to blip the throttle on a V12 engine.

The Rapide isn’t the fastest Aston Martin but it is, without doubt, the cooooolest model to currently grace our roads.

This is partly because other motorists don;t have a clue what the four-door is. It’s so rare that the Vantage looks positively common by comparison. Imagine that.

So it was today that I drive up and down the Hanger Lane tunnel on the A40 into London, just to hear that glorious exhaust note time and time again.

It’s not as throaty as the Maserati Quattroporte GTS, not as grumbly as the Bentley Speed 8.

But mix in the gorgeous looks and simply mind-boggling interior and you have a car worth more than the sum of its parts.