When the producers walked through the door of the Aston Martin factory to discuss James Bond's steed for Casino Royale, design director Marek Reichman ushered them into the studio and unveiled a clay model of the monster that would eventually become this car - the Aston Martin DBS.
Of course the association between James Bond and Aston Martin stretches back decades, and even this car will be hard-pressed to top the DB5 with Sean Connery at the wheel. There have been brief romances with other manufacturers, including Lotus and even BMW, but Aston Martin and James Bond are an enduring partnership and they came back together in 2002 for Die Another Day. Those cars were loaded with gadgets, from ejector seats right through to machine guns. Not this one.
As Casino Royale promises to be a rawer, harder Bond film, so the car will reflect the mood with a back-to-basics approach. What they have produced, however, is automotive artwork - the missing link between the suave DB9 and the hard-as-nails DB9R race car. It's as extreme a road car as we're ever likely to see and you have to wonder about its talent for blending in with a crowd. The DBS is fearsomely quick, though, and nothing would be likely to escape its clutches.
The monstrous 6-litre V12 engine has been tuned to produce in excess of 530bhp, and the DBS comes with a whole host of other performance upgrades. This car sits lower than the standard car, and combined with ceramic brakes this will give a track-tuned handling package. With a kerb weight that might not be much more than 1500kg if the carbon-fibre panels are carried over to the production model, this could be a masterpiece on the right road or track. Expect this car to hit 100km/h in a whisker over 3.5s and keep going all the way to 200mph and beyond when it bursts on to the open market.
Aerodynamically the DB9 has come in for major work, with gaping bonnet scoops, low-slung side sills and a pronounced rear lip. Even that can't keep Bond on the ground, of course, and there are the usual high-flying antics in the film that involved quite major damage.
Inside it is decked out with piano black varnish on the centre console with a chunky gear-lever that completes the look that took the team months of sleepless nights to perfect. The rear seats are gone, replaced with two carbon-fibre seats for race helmets held in place with the full harness. Those helmets are painted Aston green and are labelled with the names of Craig and co-star Eva Green - so they won't form part of the action in Casino Royale. Every detail that would be on screen came under the microscope to ensure it was suitable for the suavest secret agent on the planet and the touches such as side indicator repeaters contained within the side vent detailing will probably follow through into the production model. The plush handstitched Alcantara trim, completes a dark, basic and moody looking car that will serve Bond well.
As will the wheels, that are smoother cut than the standard deep-dish alloys and give a more purposeful look to a car that was hardly lacking in that department in any case.
It will hit the production line in approximately 18 months and should have current customers on the phone every few weeks. If this is a hint at how the production car will function, as a stripped out answer to the Ferrari Stradales and Porsche GT3 RSs, it's a bold new world we can't wait to see.