Until recently, the Vantage was powered by a 380 BHP 4.3-litre naturally aspirated V8, based on the 4.2 supercharged powerplant in the Jaguar XKR and it was brilliant. This made baby of the Aston stable very quick but not as quick as a Porsche 911 Turbo or a Ferrari F430.

Aston decided to improve things under the bonnet by upping the displacement to 4.7, in turn increasing the output to 420 BHP and engorging the torque around 15% to 347 lb/ft.

On paper this looks astounding. Irrefutably the prettiest of the supercars, the mechanical changes now ensure that the Vantage‘s performance is now in line with its competitors.

The supplied car was an Aston Martin Racing Green example, complete with a full black leather interior. There’s an uprated clutch to cope with the increased power in the manual car but I deliberately picked the paddle-shift Sportshift option when offered by the press office. This choice also comes with two throttle mappings, manually selected using a Sport/Comfort setting. The car is thoughtfully set up to default to ‘Sport’ – the ‘Comfort’ setting is noticeably more sedate – perfect for tootling about in traffic but feels a bit woolly compared to the full-fat option.

My car also came complete with all of the additional extras including heated seats, Bluetooth etc and a very welcome ‘Sports Pack’ option which includes nice beefy but unsprung-weight reducing alloys, uprated springs and dampers.

It truly is fantastic to drive.

The new Vantage is as intuitive and responsive as ever but much, much sharper. Although you need to work at it a bit to follow the road camber (the fat wheels have a tendency to tram-line), the car feels as planted as it could be. The straight-line acceleration and lift is breath-taking (noticeably more so than the previous car at 4.7 seconds 0-60) – accompanied by the music of the exhaust note; it never failed to raise the hairs on the back of my neck. The traction control is refreshingly non-intrusive.

I hated to see this car go – I‘d been looking forward to getting my hands on it for months. During the time I had it, it‘s no exaggeration that I became deeply attached to it and when the friendly man came to take it away in his lorry, that‘s when I knew I wanted one.