That’s thanks to a raked, understated B-pillar that blends into the interior from many angles. Then there’s the clean lines, side vents, wheels that appear to be spoked, the sexy, slanted eyes with LED lashes and the toothy, vaguely menacing smile.

Inside the 2011 Aston Martin Rapide it’s just as beautiful as it is comfortable – blue haze and cream truffle leather with contrasting stitching. Wood accents and seats that cradle you snugly as you anticipate launching this V12 rocketship.

A funny thing about industrial or technological ages is they usually begin well before we notice. It was on January 29, 1886 when Carl Benz filed for a patent on his three-wheeled combustion engine motorcar. At the same time Gottlieb Daimler was creating the first four-wheeled automobile fueled with petrol.

Today we recognize those efforts as the dawn of the Age of the Combustion Engine Auto, but actually at that time electric motorcars were somewhat more common.

Electric cars had been around since the 1830’s and remarkably ran initially on non-rechargeable electric cells.