‘Walk past a Ferrari, and there’s always a little corner of your mind that mutters “Wanker”’ the entirely delectable Rowan Pelling admitted to me a few years ago. ‘The great thing about an Aston, though’ she added as we drank in Ian Callum’s wonderfully muscular Aston Martin Vanquish, ‘is that it carries no baggage; it …

A scant handful of automotive marques are readily identifiable by one, possibly two, styling signatures that have, over time, become embedded in their design DNA. Aston Martin, for instance, has both the famous David Brown front grille shape (though recent efforts have somewhat eroded the elegance of the original form) and the straked engine bay …