The question is apposite. It sits there. Immovable. Requiring only one thing. An answer. A resolution. “You look at it”, says Spinal Tap’s Nigel Tufnell on examining the new featureless monotone artwork for their Smell The Glove album, “and you ask yourself – how much more black can this be?”.

“And the answer is ‘none’. None more black.”

And whilst Aston Martin may not need a dancing dwarf to make their product line look even more impressive, the new Vanquish Carbon certainly does make a statement.

Featuring many body and interior components fashioned from the molecularly-pure material – in a finish they call ‘graphitic’, this is the nearest an Aston is ever likely to come to emulating a Stealth bomber. Whilst still featuring a traditional metallic body, the light-weight touches should wrench a few more bhp’s out of the standard 6 litre V12. And just to mess with the purity of the all black concept, it also comes in white. And Volante variations.

The Vanquish Carbon Black and Carbon White are priced on application at one of Aston’s 147 UK dealerships. You’ll be looking at over the £199,995 charged for the standard model. That’s if you can see anything at all…

www.astonmartin.com.