To the driver of the Aston Martin DBR9 Le Mans car, it must have been a bewildering not to mention somewhat frustrating experience. As he swept through the fast left flick that led onto the race track’s massive straight, the sight of the Aston road car at its exit barely registered. With his slick tyres and huge wings he was cornering at a speed quite beyond that of the little Vantage coupé and simply swept past, 600bhp V12 race engine howling with approval. But at some stage during the next 1.8 flat-out kilometres he would have looked in his mirrors and seen a sight he did not expect. Instead of the road car being a mere pin prick in the distance, it was right behind him. And if he looked closer still, a fathomable thought might enter his mind: could it be that it was gaining on him?

This tale is not that of a modern Mitty but a real event that took place on the famed Mistrale straight of the Paul Ricard circuit. I know this, because it was me who happened to be in the road car. I’d like now to say that, in turn, I duly shot past the DBR9, broke the lap record, got the girl and rode off into the sunset, but sadly that would bear little relation to the truth. Nevertheless the very fact that an Aston road car could cling even briefly to the shirt-tails of a GT1 class-winning Aston race car suggests that there is rather more to this Vantage than is immediately apparent.

And so it proves. This is the Aston Martin V12 Vantage RS and though it will go into production next summer, for now this is the only one in the world. The louvred bonnet is not difficult to see but I wonder if you also spotted the carbon-fibre splitter at the front, or the slightly more dramatic kick to the lip spoiler on its tail. You certainly won’t have been able to ascertain that the bonnet, bootlid and door inners are carbon fibre, nor that, unlike any normal Vantage, behind those 19in wheels lie massive carbon-ceramic brakes.