Aston Martin Rapide

If Barnes’ team discovers there are software improvements that can be made, this revised data is sent back before the next day’s driving so the Rapide’s refinement process can continue unabated. The likes of you and I might never be able to pick up on these subtle tweaks but they’re still made and are part and parcel of what makes Aston Martins so special: attention to detail.

‘I think we’ll go back into Kuwait City now,’ Barnes says, evidently fed up with being in no man’s land, ‘have lunch and leave the car to soak for an hour or so.’ Again my naivety comes to the fore and I ask if that’s to see the effect of cooling on the Rapide’s body panels. He laughs and explains that ‘soaking’ isn’t turning a hosepipe on the car but rather leaving it in direct sunshine to soak up all that heat in order to monitor how quickly the climate control recovers and brings the cabin down to the desired temperature.

I ride once again in the Rapide’s supremely comfortable rear quarters, enjoying the novelty of being in an Aston Martin rear seat with plenty of room to move about. This being a pre-production development car, the DVD screens set into the front seat headrests are inoperative but the Rapide’s dual-zone climate control is thankfully working very well indeed and the centre console’s raised air vents make for a pleasant desert experience.

As we head into the madness of the city traffic, with its nose-to-tail gridlock, other road users point, stare and take photographs with their mobile phones. Within hours we’ll be stars on YouTube and it’s wonderful to see that the appreciation of the Rapide’s undisputable beauty knows no national boundaries. In fact the Rapide is one of those rare cars that makes me want to be in two places at once: inside, enjoying the gorgeous cabin and outside, enjoying the gorgeous looks and sounds of the world’s most beautiful four-door, four-seater sports car.

After lunch, the Rapide has indeed been soaking in the sunshine for over an hour. Opening my door and getting inside, the heat is at first stifling and yet, thanks to the fastidious efforts of those obsessive engineers, the cabin is chilled within seconds. It’s good to know that, in an increasingly virtual world, there’s still no substitute for a real experience when it comes to developing an Aston Martin. The Rapide is indeed desert-proof. Which means it will go the distance wherever in the world you happen to drive – and believe me, you’ll want to go a fair distance.